The recipient of the 2018 James Harvey Scholar award is Informatics Ph.D. candidate Oliver Haimson. The award recognizes graduate students who have excelled academically, have a financial need and are studying homosexuality, including but not limited to sociological, medical, political, historical or legal ramifications. Funds for the award were donated to the University of California in 1991 from Mr. Harvey’s estate. The award will cover Haimson’s resident fees for Spring 2018 and provide him with a $6,000 stipend paid over three months.

“I was very excited to receive this award, and I’m honored to work toward James Harvey’s mission of supporting impactful research on LGBTQ topics,” says Haimson. His research examines how people manage transgender identity disclosures on social media sites. It also looks at the relationship between self-disclosure of a major life transition and emotional well-being and social support. In particular, his dissertation explores how “social technologies can be designed to better enable sensitive self-disclosures during times of life transition, both for transgender and LGBTQ people and the broader population.”

— Shani Murray