Asmita Aasaavari immersed herself in ethnographic research and slowly built relationships for her dissertation, which this year received support from a fellowship through the UConn Humanities Institute.

If only getting the names of those who Asmita Aasaavari needed to talk to were as easy as ordering a No. 5 off the drive-thru menu.

For three years, the Ph.D. candidate met with area senior center directors, social-service agency leaders, and boots-on-the-ground workers to try to make progress compiling a list of older adults in Tolland and Windham counties who’d be willing to talk to her.

Many extolled the virtues of her project to document what aging is like in northeastern Connecticut, but each time cited privacy restrictions that kept them from sharing contact information for their clients. Could they instead give people her flyer, they’d ask. If they were interested, they’d contact her.

Of course. But three years of experience hardened her to what would happen.