In January 2025, the UW Center for Cooperatives, the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, and the UW School for Human Ecology awarded scholarships to four University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students pursuing research, outreach, and training related to the cooperative business model.
Danielle Burke is a PhD candidate in the Department of Design Studies in the School of Human Ecology. Her dissertation explores the largely forgotten Handicraft Movement (c.1930-1950) through a crowdsourced directory assembled by the Department of Agriculture. The directory documents networks of craft practitioners, supporters, and promoters across the contiguous U.S. and Puerto Rico and provides evidence that cooperative principles were at the core of the Handicraft Movement. Through a theorization of “aesthetic ecologies,” her dissertation emphasizes the world-building potential of the postal service, locates unarchived objects and neglected social histories, and examines the role of materiality in placemaking. By contributing to scholarship on art and democracy, this project asserts that making can promote civic participation because it enlivens the senses in everyday life.
Emily Schkeryantz is a third year PhD student in Civil Society and Community Research at the School of Human Ecology. Her research examines how contemporary U.S. textile and fiber cooperatives navigate the opportunities and challenges of developing and sustaining alternative textile economies, with particular attention to how cooperative values shape organizational responses to environmental and labor challenges.
May Pannchi is a Ph.D. student in the Environment and Resources Program at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. She is committed to environmental research and education that promote sustainable action and empower communities, with more than 10 years of experience in Myanmar and along the Thailand-Myanmar border. Her research focuses on immigrant farmers from Myanmar, especially Chin and Karen communities, and examines how cooperative values such as shared labor, mutual support, and collective decision-making influence farming and food systems in the U.S. Through community-based and ethnographic research, she emphasizes informal cooperative practices in land use, seed sharing, and collective marketing to inform more inclusive and culturally responsive cooperative and agricultural support programs.
Taesoo Choi is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. His research examines how milk quality and quality standards within dairy cooperatives shape both the prices cooperatives receive from processors and the prices transmitted to farmers in the Ugandan dairy sector. Through this work, he aims to better understand how cooperative organization and quality-based incentives can improve market access and outcomes for smallholder farmers.
The Graduate Student Scholarships for Research, Outreach, and Training on Cooperatives honors Dr. Ann Hoyt and Barbara and Thomas Lyon. Dr. Hoyt is internationally recognized for her innovative research and contributions to co-op governance and education. Thomas Lyon was an agriculturalist, a cooperator, and a former University of Wisconsin Board of Regents president. The Lyons established the Barbara and Thomas Lyon Scholarship Fund in 2013 to support graduate students with an expressed interest in cooperative business.