Takatso Sibanda, an ecological-community psychology graduate student, was one of three doctoral students who were selected as a 2025-26 Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Collaboration, Learning, and Engagement (CIRCLE) Graduate Fellow by MSU’s Office of Research and Innovation.
This fellowship celebrates innovative and cross-disciplinary approaches to contemporary social challenges. Sibanda will be joined in her cohort by Ly Duong from the College of Education as well as Miguel Rodriguez Mejia from the College of Natural Science. Rafael Lembi from the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources has been named the CIRCLE Leadership Fellow.
For Sibanda, this opportunity feels like a perfect alignment of her academic journey and interests. With a background spanning psychology, development studies, and cultural anthropology, Sibanda embodies the essence of multidisciplinary thinking.
“My journey embodies multidiscipinarity,” said Sibanda. “This fellowship is a great opportunity to weave all my experiences together, collaborate with amazing people and grow in my academic, creative and community engaged work.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Sibanda arrived in the United States with her two children a few weeks before she began the doctoral program in the Department of Psychology alongside mentor Robin Lin Miller. Her current research weaves together program evaluation methodologies with community psychology principles, creating a more culturally responsive approach to understanding and supporting communities.
Fellows in this program will develop skills and knowledge related to the practice of interdisciplinary collaboration through professional development meetings. They will also meet regularly as a cohort and collaborate together on a year-long project.
“Our graduate fellowship is highly competitive, with nearly 30 applicants for only 3 spots in the cohort. Takatso’s application stood out based on her range of professional collaborative experiences and partners in Zimbabwe as well as the strength of her goals in arts-based approaches and storytelling to foster dialogue for collaborative community engagement and research,” said Ellie Louson, CIRCLE’s associate director of teaching & learning. “We are delighted that she accepted our invitation to the 2025-26 cohort and excited to see her contributions to the CIRCLE community.”
The fellowship includes training and mentorship for making contributions to one of the teams receiving a CIRCLE seed grant, allowing Sibanda to collaborate with other researchers from diverse backgrounds and develop innovative approaches to social research.
"This fellowship is about more than just academic work," said Sibanda. "It's about finding ways to contribute meaningfully and creatively to addressing real-world challenges in our communities. I’m really excited to get started."
The CIRCLE Graduate Fellowship is financially supported by the MSU Graduate School as one of its Cohort Fellowship Programs. Learn more about the CIRCLE Graduate Fellowship here.