MARCH 2021
The Grants Office is pleased to highlight the following in our new newsletter format! Any suggestions for future newsletters, questions or comments can be directed to grants@vassar.edu. Also, a reminder about the Wednesday, March 17 (3-4pm) Faculty Conversation regarding Information and Opportunities for Engagement with Vassar’s Institutional Grants, in which a panel of grant directors will share updates and information about their respective programs and exciting opportunities for faculty involvement.
|
|
|
Colin Echeverría Aitken, Assistant Professor of Biology, was awarded a major grant by the National Institutes of Health for his project, The Role of the mRNA-entry Channel Arm of eIF3 in mRNA Recruitment. Funded by NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences through the Academic Research Enhancement Awards for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (AREA) program, Colin’s research promises to shed new light on the translation of genetic information by a molecular machine called the ribosome and the role this process plays in the development and progression of human cancers.
|
|
Dustin Frye, Assistant Professor of Economics, and his co-investigator Dr. Christian Dippel of the University of California-Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, were awarded support from the National Science Foundation for the project, American Households During the Assimilation Era 1900-1940. Sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the project will involve a massive and innovative data collection effort regarding Native American families. The project involves digitizing several waves of reservation censuses, linking individuals and households across waves, and eventually making the data available freely to researchers. Once completed, the new data will enable researchers to answer a range of causally identified questions on the effects of Assimilation-era policies on Native American populations to cultivate a better understanding of Native American economics and social issues.
|
|
|
|
Gisella Kagy, Assistant Professor of Economics, is a principal investigator on "Global Foundational Analysis to Close the Gender Profitability Gap", a collaborative research project of the Ethiopian Economics Association and newly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation among its portfolio of investments in Women's Economic Empowerment. The project team will explore why women-owned enterprises frequently report lower profits than similar enterprises owned by men—what is known as the gender profit gap. The project seeks to identify drivers of the gender profitability gap across various types of enterprises and sectors, and to identify solutions that systematically eliminate this gap. The project is global in scope, but will have a special emphasis on Ethiopia. More details about the project can be found online here.
|
|
|
|
Joseph Nevins, Professor of Geography, is co-author of A People's Guide to Greater Boston, co-authored with Suren Moodliar and Eleni Macrakis, and recently published by University of California Press. This comprehensive guidebook reveals the ground-level forces shaping the city and leads readers to sites of oppression, resistance, organizing, and transformation in Boston and its outlying neighborhoods and municipalities. It highlights tales of the places and people involved in movements to abolish slavery; to end war and militarism; to achieve Native sovereignty, racial equity, gender justice, and sexual liberation; and to secure workers’ rights. As the Boston Globe observed, “It’s a timely, intelligent, and necessary guide, one that deepens our understanding of where we live now and reminds us of the power that regular citizens have to work against powers and systems that are, now as then, in urgent need of change.”
|
|
|
Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, Professor of Hispanic Studies, was awarded the inaugural Caribbean Art and Its Diasporas Fellowship by the Clark Art Institute. The Clark's fellowships support scholarship in art history, visual culture, and interdisciplinary inquiry that challenges how we think about writing history and addresses the complexity of our contemporary world, reimagining the borders and geographies of art history’s dominant narratives. Through Lisa’s fellowship and future awardees, the new Caribbean Art and Its Diasporas Fellowship will support today’s art historians, artists, critics, and writers who are engaging with the complexity of critical Caribbean scholarship, art, and visual practices. Her project, “Where the River Meets the Sea: Visualizing Climate Change in the Dominican Republic,” looks at contemporary Dominican artists’ responses to climate change in Santo Domingo and its port, where the Ozama River joins the Caribbean Sea. The work addresses the central role played by artists in chronicling and engaging the plight of the endangered communities living along the Ozama River as they face the impact of climate change.
|
|
|
Wayne Soon, Assistant Professor of History, is the author of Global Medicine in China: A Diasporic History, newly published by Stanford University Press, which tells the global health story of Overseas Chinese who transformed medicine in twentieth-century China and Taiwan through the practices of military medicine, blood banking, mobile medicine, and mass medical training. Wayne is grateful to Amanda Thornton and Lori Buckey in the College’s Grants Office for their assistance, and to Professor Katherine Hite, Faculty Director of Research Development, for the support of the Professional Editing Program, which helped to bring this new book to fruition.
|
|
|
|
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES & HIGHLIGHTS
|
|
|
|
"The Humanities in Action: The Future of the Humanities at Liberal Arts Colleges"
June 7-10, 2021
Grinnell College is hosting a FREE virtual summer institute for liberal arts college faculty on the theme “The Humanities in Action: The Future of the Humanities at Liberal Arts Colleges,” from June 7-10, 2021, which will feature four days of discussion about curricular and pedagogical change in the humanities, arts, and humanistic social sciences, with a particular focus on two themes:
The institute’s keynote speakers will be Eric Hayot, director of the Center for Humanities and Information at Penn State University, and Tania D. Mitchell, associate professor of higher education at the University of Minnesota. Participants will explore new ways to emphasize the power and appeal of the humanities, focusing on new curricular directions for liberal arts colleges; the event will include a variety of panels, workshops, lectures, and small-group discussions.
You can find more information here, questions can be directed to Edward Cohn or Susan Sanning, and the deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 31 with notifications in mid-April.
The Commonwealth Fund’s Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
The Commonwealth Fund’s Health Equity Action Fund is a “major new initiative to advance equity in U.S. health care. Its goal is to contribute to efforts to dismantle systemic racism in health care policy and practice and counter inequity in treatment, patient experience, and health outcomes for Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.” Priorities include:
-
Dismantling Racism in Care Delivery;
-
Changing Culture, Beliefs, and Attitudes; and
-
Using Policy to Bring About Equitable Access.
If you’re interested in learning more about the initiative or talking about potential ways to get involved in the Fund’s related grants and fellowships, let Chris or Gary know!
|
|
|
|
March 9 NEH Institutes for Higher Education Faculty Grant Program
“NEH Institutes are professional development programs that convene higher education faculty from across the nation in order to deepen and enrich their understanding of significant topics in the humanities and enrich their capacity for effective scholarship and teaching.
Most fundamentally, institutes:
• Allow immersive study of topics of significance to the humanities
• Foster new fields of study and/or revitalize existing areas of inquiry
• Reinvigorate teaching and increase intellectual impact in the classroom
• Build lasting communities that foster participants’ intellectual and professional collaboration”
If you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity, including considering the timeline for a 2022 submission next spring, let us know!
|
|
|
OTHER IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS
|
|
|
|
|
From the National Institutes of Health
Enhancing Diversity at NIH-Funded Conferences
“At NIH, we have and continue to focus not just on gender equity but on ensuring greater diversity in all aspects of the biomedical workforce. This means, that along with women, members of racial and/or ethnic minority groups, people with disabilities, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds are also included. To help ensure that the nation remains a global leader in scientific discovery and innovation, NIH needs the richness and breadth of varied perspectives that comes from having a pool of highly talented scientists from diverse backgrounds. In that spirit, today we released a guide notice (NOT-OD-21-053) that updates guidance for NIH R13/U13 Conference Grant applicants and recipients.” Continue reading →
NIH’s New COVID-19 Research Website
NIH is “pleased to announce that the new NIH COVID-19 website launched earlier this week. The site provides a central location for trusted, up-to-date, accurate information about NIH research and [its] strategic role in COVID-19 research. The site complements information made available on [the] COVID-19: Information for NIH Applicants and Recipients of NIH Funding webpage.” Continue reading →
FY 2021 Fiscal Policies for Grant Awards: Funding Levels, Salary Limits, and Stipend Levels
“NIH issued guidance for NIH Fiscal Operations for FY 2021 including the following policies on FY 2021 funding levels, NRSA stipends, Next Generation Researchers Initiative, and salary limits.” Continue reading →
|
|
|
The Commonwealth Fund’s Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
The Commonwealth Fund’s Health Equity Action Fund is a “major new initiative to advance equity in U.S. health care. Its goal is to contribute to efforts to dismantle systemic racism in health care policy and practice and counter inequity in treatment, patient experience, and health outcomes for Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.” Priorities include:
-
Dismantling Racism in Care Delivery;
-
Changing Culture, Beliefs, and Attitudes; and
-
Using Policy to Bring About Equitable Access.
If you’re interested in learning more about the initiative or talking about potential ways to get involved in the Fund’s related grants and fellowships, let Chris or Gary know!
|
|
|
The Catwalk Institute (Catskill, New York) welcomes applications from artists, scholars and collaborative teams for residencies of 2-4 weeks at Catwalk and Catslair. This residential complex is situated on a magnificent historic site of 70 acres on the Hudson River across from Olana, the historic home of Frederic Edwin Church, America's first environmentalist, and just north of Thomas Cole’s Cedar Grove. Residencies are available to artists, writers, and creative practices of all types. Projects that are collaborative or that connect specifically to the region are especially encouraged. Residencies are grants of space/time with fully outfitted lodging. Note that stipends are not available and cars are recommended. (For 2021 health and safety information, click here.) Participation is exclusively for faculty from Vassar, Columbia University, New York University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The deadline for faculty applications is April 8 for 2021 residencies (available May 18-October 3, 2021). Applications are accepted by recommendation through each institution; if you are interested, please contact Gary Hohenberger (gahohenberger@vassar.edu) as soon as possible.
|
|
|
DON'T FORGET
- Join us at https://vassar.zoom.us/j/94029486312 to learn more about upcoming activities, including support for pedagogy and research, within the Mellon Foundation-funded Community-Engaged Intensives in the Humanities (CEIH), Engaged Pluralism Initiative (EPI), Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement and Education; HHMI-funded Grand Challenges initiative; and Luce Foundation-funded Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
