Eight research projects involving 16 faculty members are the winners of the inaugural Dean’s Research Challenge Grants. Proposals submitted this year were required to focus on one of two themes: “Equity” or “Environment.”
Established in 2023 to encourage innovative scholarly work, the College of Arts and Sciences committed $47,000 to this initiative.
“Supporting faculty research is a top priority,” said Dr. Heather Dillaway, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “In the College of Arts and Sciences, we view the University’s motto of ‘Gladly we learn and teach,’ as being directly intertwined with research excellence. The purpose of universities, in the purest sense, is to create knowledge and share knowledge. That means we must invest in both research and teaching.”
2023-2024 winning proposals
Awards: Equity
- Michael Hendricks (POL) along with co-PIs Noha Shawki (POL), Joan Brehm (SOA), and Eric Peterson (GEO) – Cleaning up the river without clearing out the neighborhood: Floating gardens in the Chicago River
- Dan Ispas (PSY) along with co-PI Alexandra Ilie (PSY) – Exploring equity in personnel selection: Investigating differential prediction and applicant reactions to personality tests
- Maura Toro-Morn (SOA-LALS) along with co-PI Jim Pancrazio (LAN) – project aims to assess and capture the experiences of COBAS program participants
- Susan Chen (ECO) – gender and race disparities in the impact of COVID-19 on job market outcomes
Awards: Environment
- Ben Wodika (BIO) along with co-PIs Vickie Borowicz, Matt Dugas, and Sydney Metternich – Sugar Creek Urban Ecology Area Committee Application: Do species matter? A test of the Functional Equivalence Hypothesis using Ground Beetles
- Christopher Mulligan (CHE) – Next Generation analytical methods for on-site and on-demand environmental pollutant monitoring
- Sudipa Topdar (HIS) – Lifeless Feathers, Masculinity, and Ecological Imperialism in the Late Colonial Himalayas (1800-1947)
- Maochao Xu (MAT) – Cyberbullying Dynamics: A Predictive modeling exploration in college communities
Award recipients will deliver presentations about their research projects at a College of Arts and Sciences Research Symposium on Friday, October 11. Additional details about this event will be forthcoming.
