Graduate student Sarah Messbauer has been awarded the coveted President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship for academic year 2017–18. In addition to a stipend, Messbauer has been invited to attend the prestigious Annual Meeting of President’s Predoctoral Fellows and Dissertation Year Fellows sponsored by the UC Office of the President. 

Messbauer is a doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology working under the supervision of Professor Henry Spiller. Her research relates to the intersections of popular music, migration, and public policy to focus on community building through the arts in Canada; her dissertation focuses specifically on Haitian pop music festivals in Ottawa and Montreal. Since beginning her studies at Davis, Messbauer has received numerous accolades including a Margrit Mondavi fellowship for summer research, a Bilinski Foundation fellowship for fieldwork research, an Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, and a Professors for the Future fellowship. Messbauer will begin her term as a President’s fellow after the conclusion of her tenure as the 2016–17 Graduate Student Assistant to the Dean and Chancellor at UC Davis, where she serves as the advocate and liaison for graduate and professional students at the campus- and system-wide levels.