2009-2010 Faculty Professional Development Grant Awards
Three 2009-10 Faculty Professional Development Grants have been approved for funding.
Aristotle Georgiades, Art; To obtain training in computer-aided design programs in order to enhance my classroom abilities in teaching Sculpture and Public Art.
Robert Howard, Communication Arts; To study the new forms of literacy emerging from digital media, develop a syllabus, and create a course Web site that would serve as the basis for a pilot of a new undergraduate Communication A course focusing on digital media.
William Jones, History; To permit a comprehensive revision of classes on labor history and to develop a cross-disciplinary and comparative perspective for my research on race and service in the post-industrial United States.
2008-2009 Faculty Professional Development Grant Awards
Six 2008-09 Faculty Professional Development Grants have been approved for funding.
Susan Friedman, English and Women’s Studies; To develop expertise in and develop a course for English and Women’s Studies on feminist theory about women and Islam and on women’s writing among women of Muslim migrant and exile backgrounds.
Stephen Hilyard, Art; To support the development of software skills that are specifically important to my teaching and to the development of a cohesive Digital Media program in the Art Department.
Lea Jacobs, Communication Arts; I will prepare an undergraduate survey course on animation that will cover the development of technology and techniques of animation, its evolution as an art form, and the historical and industrial conditions of its production.
Lynn Keller, English; To retain in environmental literacy criticism, I will I read widely in ecocritical theory; to identify works of literature to teach to undergraduate and graduate students in conjunction with that theory, and to select the books of poetry for focus in the scholarly study. I intend to write on experimental ecopoetics.
Caroline Levine, English; To build expertise in the rapidly emerging field of transatlantic studies in order to develop two new courses, foster a rethinking of the English Department’s curriculum, and contribute to scholarly and collegial exchange.
Yongming Zhou, Anthropology; To obtain a systematic training in environmental studies to help complete a cross-disciplinary book on “History of Road Construction in Chinese East Himalayas,” and to enable me to serve as a competent leader of the cross-campus and multi-disciplinary research circle “Biocultural Diversity and Socio-Ecological Resilience.”
2007-08 Faculty Professional Development Grant Awards
Five 2007-08 Faculty Professional Development Grants have been approved for funding.
Ivan Ermakoff, Sociology; To train in simulation techniques that will help me complete my cross-disciplinary book-length project on processes of mass-scale persecution, and develop a new course focused on explaining persecution.
Steve Feren, Art; To pursue research through three areas of investigation: workshops and symposia; visiting studios of designers and artists who are involved in this type of work; and researching the current methodology and technology used.
Rick Jenison, Psychology; To retrain in the field of neuroeconomics. I will spend the fall semester at the California Institute of Technology immersing myself in the study of behavior economics and decision theory, and applying this knowledge to the study of neural coding of decision-making in the human cerebral cortex.
Steffen Lempp, Mathematics; To develop course materials for a new algebra course Math 135 (Algebra for Middle School Teachers).
Jane Zuengler, English; The “Global Spread of English” course will be developed into a “global” experience for the students. Plans involve linking it with a course at a university in Morocco. Via videoconferencing, webcams, and web resources, students at both sites will share readings and discussion.
2006-07 Faculty Professional Development Grant Awards
Three 2006-07 Faculty Professional Development Grants have been approved for funding.
Janet Hyde, Psychology and Women's Studies; To retrain in contemporary human genetics, with the goal of enhancing my research capability for my work on gender differences in depression. I propose to take four courses in genetics and medical genetics during 2006-07 and to read new articles on genetic factors in depression as they appear.
Victoria Nourse, Law School; To develop a general course and course materials on law's understanding of science.
Michael Plesha, Engineering Physics; The objective of this project is to make rapid progress to help complete a new book on "Engineering Mechanics-Statics." The book should have a major impact on education for freshman and sophomore engineering students in the course EMA 201 - Statics, which is taken by approximately two-thirds of all engineering students.
2005-06 Faculty Professional Development Grant Awards
Six 2005-2006 Faculty Professional Development Grants have been approved for funding.
Hans Adler, German; To develop a script for a 4-credit lecture course for undergraduate students (open to freshmen) in English. The use of media will be crucial for this course because I want to have the student experience the topics with all their senses rather than approach it only through listening.
Florence Bernault, History; I will devise a new course entitled "Popular Cultures in Africa, 19th and 20th centuries," and will complement the current courses offered in African History, largely designed around chronological and/or geographical focus.
Katherine Bowie, Anthropology; To supplement existing course offerings in Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, Religious Studies and Women's Studies. I propose to expand my existing expertise and develop two new courses on Buddhism.
Gelsomina DeStasio, Physics; To expand, revise and complete the textbook "Physics in the Arts" that Willy Haeberli and I have drafted, and are currently using as text for the Physics 109 course. This is an extremely successful course: one of the oversubscribed courses which there is no textbook.
Francine Hirsch, History; To gain a solid foundation in the history of international law and human rights. This will enable me to embark on a new project about the Soviets at Nuremberg and to develop an undergraduate course on the “The History of Human Rights.”
Mark Seidenberg, Psychology; To extend my research program by gaining expertise in neuroimaging, which has become the method of choice for studying higher cognition.