MAY 2021
The Grants Office is pleased to highlight the following accomplishments and updates in our May newsletter! Any suggestions for future newsletters, questions or comments can be directed to grants@vassar.edu.
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Hadley Bergstrom, Assistant Professor of Psychological Science, was awarded a major grant from the National Institutes of Health for his project entitled “Identification of neuronal ensembles mediating fear generalization in the infralimbic cortex.” Funded by NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health through the Academic Research Enhancement Awards for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (AREA) program, Hadley’s grant will support his research on fear overgeneralization, a key abnormality in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which currently afflicts 8% of the US population. His project seeks to identify neurons in the infralimbic cortex that mediate generalization over time and inform future treatment strategies for PTSD.
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Leslie C. Dunn, Professor of English, was appointed Officier in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Ministry of Education for services rendered to French culture, in recognition of her many years serving as Inspectrice Deléguée for the American Option of the French International Baccalauréat (OIB). Professor Dunn is also editor of Performing Disability in Early Modern English Drama, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020. This collection investigates early modern disability in performance, exploring methodologies for finding and interpreting it in unexpected contexts, and features essays on disabled actors whose performances are shaping the meaning of disability in Shakespeare for today's audiences.
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Maria Hantzopoulos, Associate Professor and Chair of Education and Coordinator of Secondary Teacher Education, is co-author of Educating for Peace and Human Rights: An Introduction, newly published by Bloomsbury. Co-written with Monisha Bajaj, Educating for Peace and Human Rights provides a comprehensive introduction to the challenges and possibilities of implementing peace and human rights education in diverse global settings. “As rising authoritarianism, pandemics, and climate crises continue to (re)shape conflict and injustice around the world, Hantzopoulos and Bajaj’s compelling roadmap of and singular vision for the foundations, complexities, situated engagements, and generative intersections of peace education and human rights education are exactly the interventions that we need,” noted Kevin Kumashiro, former Dean of the School of Education, University of San Francisco. Professor Hantzopoulos and her co-author were recently featured on the FreshEd Podcast in an exploration of their new book’s subjects of peace and human rights education.
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Vinay Swamy, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, has been awarded a Fulbright Research Scholar grant to France. Beginning this fall, he will be hosted by the Université de Lorraine, with Professor Luca Greco’s Praxitexte group at the Centre de Recherche sur les Médiations (CREM). His project, entitled “Devenir non-binaire: Beyond the Gender Binary in the French Republic,” analyzes the cultural ramifications of new gender-inclusive linguistic structures in French, which conventionally privileges a masculine-centered bi-gendered syntax. Little scholarship exists on non-binary expression in French and its effects on the politics of queer discourse. Prof. Swamy’s project examines the extent to which linguistic reform could be fundamental to legitimizing an inclusive, if queer, political space in France.
The Fulbright Commission—under the aegis of The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and the Institute of International Education’s Council for International Exchange of Scholars (IIE/CIES)—supports “participants from around the world who have been chosen, not only for their academic and professional excellence, but also for their leadership potential to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.”
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Justin Touchon, Assistant Professor of Biology on the Mary Clark Rockefeller Chair of Environmental Studies, is author of Applied Statistics with R: A Practical Guide for the Life Sciences, forthcoming from Oxford University Press (June 2021). This book provides guidance for data analysis in the life-sciences at all levels with statistical language R, the choice of ecologists worldwide and a tool increasingly relied upon throughout the life-sciences. Applied Statistics with R is suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate students, professional researchers, and practitioners throughout the life-sciences, whether in the fields of ecology, evolution, environmental studies, or computational biology.
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Kirsten Wesselhoeft, Assistant Professor of Religion, was awarded a Summer Research Grant from the Center for the Study of Religion and the City, based at Morgan State University, to support her book-length study of contemporary Muslim intellectual and activist culture across metropolitan Paris. Her book, entitled Fraternal Critique: Muslim Social Ethics and the Inheritances of Immigration in France, tells the story of the lively ethical debates that define the contemporary French Muslim scene. Fraternal Critique is grounded in years of ethnographic research combined with contextual readings of French Muslim writers and media producers. It highlights the new analyses of race, class, and gender that emerge out of current conversations in Muslim Paris, and locates these arguments in long Islamic and Republican traditions of critical thought.
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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES & HIGHLIGHTS
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The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation “support[s] original research and education related to science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics.” They have a number of fellowships and grants, including the following:
The Sloan Research Fellowships “seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.
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Candidates must be tenure-track, though untenured, as of September 15 of the nomination year” and “hold a Ph.D. or equivalent degree in chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, physics, or a related field.”
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Deadlines – Anticipated: Nominations for the 2021 Sloan Research Fellowships will open July 15, 2021. All nomination materials, including nomination letters and all letters of support, must be submitted through the Foundation’s online application system no later than September 15, 2021.
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The Fellowship amount is $75,000.
Research grants are also available: “In each of our science grantmaking programs, the Foundation seeks proposals for original projects led by outstanding individuals or teams, which exhibit a high degree of methodological rigor, which have a high expected return to society, and for which funding from the private sector, government, or other foundations is not yet widely available.”
Economic Institutions, Behavior, & Performance Grants “support rigorous and objective research projects on U.S. economic structure, behavior, and performance whose findings inform and strengthen decision-making by regulators, policymakers, and the public.” Deadline: Rolling.
Energy and Environment Grants seek to “inform the societal transition toward low-carbon energy systems in the United States by investigating economic, environmental, technological, and distributional issues…. Interested scholars should send a letter of inquiry of no more than two pages to energy@sloan.org.”
The Public Understanding of Science, Technology & Economics Program aims to “give people a keener appreciation for the increasingly scientific and technological world in which we live and to convey some of the challenges and rewards of the scientific and technological enterprise.” Deadline: Rolling.
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Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar Application Deadline
“The foundation's Visiting Scholar program is a unique opportunity for junior and senior scholars to spend a year (or a semester) in residence at RSF in New York City pursuing research examining essential questions on social, economic, and political life in the United States. The program fosters the exchange of ideas in a vibrant interdisciplinary environment and promotes multi-disciplinary collaborations. Our current and incoming scholars represent a wide range of disciplines, including economics, psychology, political science, sociology, public policy/public affairs, law, behavioral science, demography, history, anthropology, etc.
Applications are reviewed by outside experts; final selections are made by RSF trustees. Applications for the 2022-2023 academic year will be accepted until June 24, 2021.
Social, Political, Economic, and Psychological Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic | RSF
In addition to the priority areas described here, RSF is especially interested in research on the social, political, economic, and psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis that generated an economic crisis, with job losses within several months that exceeded the job gains of the previous decade and negative effects on www.russellsage.org.
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FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES & DEADLINES
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Take a look at some of the fellowship opportunities below
with upcoming deadlines this summer and fall!
 July 1- October 7 National Humanities Center Residential Fellowships
The National Humanities Center will offer up to 40 residential fellowships for advanced study in the humanities. In addition to scholars from all fields of the humanities, the Center accepts individuals from the natural and social sciences, the arts, the professions, and public life who are engaged in humanistic projects.During their time in residence, Fellows are given the freedom to work on their projects while benefiting from the exceptional services of the Center.The stunning Archie K. Davis building offers private studies, light-filled common areas, and verdant grounds.
The Center also provides scholars with exceptional library services, breakfasts, and lunches in the dining area, and administrative support in organizing seminars and study groups.
Early August The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University
The Society of Fellows in the Humanities brings together exceptional early career scholars to be part of a cross-disciplinary community. In addition to teaching opportunities in affiliated departments and time for research, Fellows support each others’ intellectual and professional development through lecture series, workshops, and other opportunities. An integral part of the life of the SOF/Heyman, Fellows are frequently invited to participate in events with faculty from around the university.
September 27 American Academy in Berlin Prize
Each year, the American Academy in Berlin welcomes around twenty fellows, who support our mission to enrich transatlantic dialogue in the arts, humanities, and public policy through the development and communication of projects of the highest scholarly merit. Past recipients have included anthropologists, art historians, literary scholars, philosophers, historians, musicologists, journalists, writers, filmmakers, sociologists, legal scholars, diplomats, economists, and public policy experts, among others.
October 15 Senior Fellowship at National Gallery of Art
The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts announces its program for senior fellowships. Fellowships are for full-time research, and scholars are expected to reside in Washington and to participate in the activities of the Center throughout the fellowship period. Lectures, colloquia, and informal discussions complement the fellowship program. Each senior fellow is provided with a study. In addition, senior fellows who relocate to Washington are provided with housing in apartments near the Gallery, subject to availability. Senior fellows have access to the notable resources represented by the art collections, the library, and the image collections of the National Gallery of Art, as well as to the Library of Congress and other specialized research libraries and collections in the Washington area.
October 18 Max Weber Program
The Max Weber Programme is now the largest international postdoctoral programme in the Social Sciences and Humanities in Europe. The Programme provides bursaries of one or two years for around 50-55 Fellowships which are open to scholars from anywhere in the world who have received a doctorate in economics, law, history, social and political sciences, or a related field, within the past 5 years. The aim of the Max Weber Programme is to provide the Fellows with the experience of membership of a vibrant academic community, to which they make a central contribution. The Programme offers Fellows the unique opportunity to share their research experience with peers from different disciplines and nationalities on a daily basis, whilst enhancing professional academic skills and acquiring the MWP Teaching Certificate. The Programme not only supports their research but also helps them develop the skills they will need in their future academic careers.
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GRANTS NEWS AND HELPFUL HINTS
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FOR NIH APPLICANTS AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS - terrific information, resources and updates from “Open Mike” by NIH's Deputy Director for Extramural Research:
“… updated biosketch and other support format pages and instructions are available for use in applications, Just-in-Time (JIT) Reports, and Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs). Use of the new format pages is … required for … submissions on or after January 25, 2022.”
“… we look back on NIH’s investment in research. Similar to previous fiscal years (FYs), this post focuses on grant funding and success rates for research supported through our traditional annual appropriations.”
“… In the hustle to publish a paper, you accidently forgot to cite the underlying NIH support. Or, the opposite, you opt to include that other grant in the acknowledgements that did not have anything to do with the work. No problem, right? Well, it could be. ….”
“For due dates on or after January 25, 2022, NIH… [is implementing a] requirement that all … Senior/Key Person[nel] have an eRA Commons username … listed on grant applications.”
“Is your NIH grant coming to an end soon? Here’s a refresher on reporting deadlines, ….”
“Working on a study that might meet both the definition of basic research and the NIH definition of a clinical trial? Check out our new webpage on Basic Experimental Studies involving Humans (BESH).”
“Developing your application and wondering how reviewers will assess the vertebrate animal section (VAS)? If so, we encourage you to check out these two new resources.”
“As you begin your journey in search of NIH grant funding, it is important to understand the structure of NIH to find the best fit for your research.”
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In his March 1, 2021 letter, NIH Director Francis Collins apologized to “those individuals in the biomedical research enterprise who have endured disadvantages due to structural racism.” He announced a new initiative and new funding opportunities, stating: “Although addressing the COVID-19 pandemic has been front and center for NIH over the past year, we have not forgotten another significant challenge confronting the health of our nation — systemic and structural racism. The events of 2020 highlighted the reality of our nation’s racial injustices that have been allowed to endure over four centuries and that significantly disadvantage the lives of so many. The time for upholding our values and taking an active stance against racism, in all its insidious forms, is long overdue.”
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NSF and NCSES release 2021 Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering report
10 NSF-funded studies that show the challenges and complexities of climate change
Article of note from Insidehighered.com: The Changing Face of Science – “New data highlight minorities and women in science, along with one particularly understudied group: scientists with disabilities.
On Grant-Writing: Just What Are Your Project’s ‘Specific Aims’?
Check out this great article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, which provides you with tips to perfect your specific aims, “the most high-profile page of your research-grant application” and the “only document read by the key panelists who help determine whether your project gets grant money.”
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DON'T FORGET
- Check out the fellowship calendar to see a full list of upcoming opportunities and programs to apply for!
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