Selected from a highly competitive national pool of applicants, two Mason students were awarded Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowships by the Social Science Research Council, allowing them to focus on and develop their dissertation proposals this summer. The students will receive up to $5,000 as a stipend for pre-dissertation research. Sandra Ruckstuhl, a PhD student in Mason's Conflict Analysis and Resolution Program, is using the grant money to develop a case study focused on conflict and cooperation in water management in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Specifically, she will be looking at political economies and political ecologies of institutions.