Nick Muller (Economics) has received funding from the Environmental Protection Agency for two different collaborative research projects. With colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, he is working on a project titled Air, Climate and Energy (ACE) Center: Science Supporting Solutions. The goal of this research is to explore the interface between air pollution, climate change and energy use. With colleagues at the University of California-Davis, he is working on a project titled Optimal Energy Portfolios to Sustain Economic Advantage, Achieve GHG Targets, and Minimize PM2. This research explores air pollution, climate change, and economic activity in California. These grants provide salary funding for his 17-18 academic leave and summers for the next three years.

Ioana Uricaru (Film and Media Culture) has been awarded one of this year’s Berlin Prizes by the American Academy in Berlin in support of Paperclip, a screenplay  and film project that she will be working on during her academic leave in 2016-2017. This residential fellowship provides a stipend and housing during Fall 2016 when she will be doing research in German museums, libraries, and archives related to the screenplay, which is set in German at the end of World War II.

Lorraine Besser (Philosophy) has received support from a Templeton Foundation-funded initiative called the Happiness and Well-Being Project, based at St. Louis University. She and a collaborator at the University of Virginia received a two year grant to work on an interdisciplinary project titled What is the Good Life? The Happy Life, the Perfectionist Life, or the Psychologically Rich Life? This project investigates the possibility that a psychologically rich life is a candidate for the good life. They will conduct a series of studies to determine whether or not people consider a psychologically rich life to be a good life and to determine whether such people structure their lives differently from people who consider happiness or perfection to be the good life.

Are you working on writing a grant proposal for research or academic programming? Here is a resource that may be helpful.

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) is offering a Proposal Writing Institute (PWI) on August 4-8, 2016 at the Kellogg West Conference Center & Hotel, Pomona CA.

Deadline: June 17, 2016. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis; institute may reach capacity prior to application deadline.

Summary: The four-day institute assists novice to experienced proposal writers in drafting complete proposals for submission. Cost of attendance is $1500 plus travel costs. Most meals and housing are included. Partial support for faculty members who want to attend may be available; contact OGSP for more information about support.

Please note: If you have NOT identified a funding source and begun writing a draft proposal, you should NOT participate in this Institute, as it is geared for writing and revising draft proposals.

Details:

The PWI brings together faculty and administrators interested in preparing proposals for submission to external funding agencies. The four-day institute will consist of one-on-one work with a mentor, writing, small group discussions, and critiquing of proposals. The institute has been developed to assist novice to experienced proposal writers in drafting complete proposals for submission. Prior to the institute participants will be able to access information that will help them begin to draft their proposal.

Applicants must apply online and submit a one to two paragraph outline of their proposal and the name of the intended funding agency and/or program in the on-line application. Time at the Institute will consist of periods of proposal preparation interspersed with one-on-one mentoring by experienced and successful proposal writers, members of grants review panels, former program officers, and/or Directors of Sponsored Programs Offices. Small group discussions and group critiquing sessions round out the Institute. Participants who come well prepared and who work hard should be able to leave the Institute with a completed (or nearly completed) proposal to the granting agency of their choice.

The week before the Institute, accepted participants will be expected to submit a draft of their proposal, and a link to the specific program announcement/RFP. Participants are encouraged to have as much as possible completed in advance, which will increase the likelihood of departing the Institute with a nearly finished proposal.

A $50.00 application fee is due at the time of application. Should you be accepted to attend the Institute, your application fee will be applied to your tuition fee. In the event that CUR does not accept your application, the $50.00 application fee will be refunded. The tuition fee for the Institute includes most meals and housing (double occupancy; requests for a single room are available at an additional cost).

Ata Anzali (Religion) has been awarded a fellowship from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation for a project titled A Comparative Exploration of Sufi Sacred Spaces: The Cases of North India and the Balkans. The grant will fund travel to the Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia, and Kosovo and to northern India to enable Ata to learn, first-hand, about the lived experience of Muslim devotees in Sufi sacred spaces. The goal of this project is to help Ata complement his text-based understanding of the rich tradition of Sufism and thus enhance his ability to teach about it.

Cynthia Packert (History of Art and Architecture) has been awarded a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation as well as a semester-long Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar Award in support of her academic leave in 2016-2017. The Guggenheim project, titled ‘Brand BAPS’: Swaminarayan Hinduism, Visual Culture, and Sectarian Identity, represents the culmination of 5 years of prior research in the US and India on this transnational Gujarati sect of devotional Hinduism, focusing in particular on its elaborate neo-traditional temples and other multi-media visual productions. The related Fulbright project, titled From Gujarat to the Globe: The Art, Architecture and Visual Culture of Swaminarayan Hinduism, involves four months of research in India and includes travel to unpublished and little-known historical sites that are important to the development of Swaminarayan art and architecture in Gujarat and beyond.

Stephen Abbott (Mathematics) has been awarded a one-month research fellowship from the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in support of the book project, titled Mathematics as Art in Contemporary Theater, that he will be pursing during his academic leave in 2016-17. The fellowship will enable him to conduct research on the Center’s collection of Tom Stoppard materials, as well as other 20th century  theater materials.