Faculty Spotlight: 2023–2024

On September 13, 2023

Marketing Communication associate professor Naa Amoponsah Dodoo co-authored a research article published in March 2024 in the Journal of Advertising. Her research paper “Disclosing AI’s Involvement in Advertising to Consumers: A Task-Dependent Perspective” examines how the disclosure of AI affects consumers’ word-of-mouth (WOM) intent in relation to ads through experimental studies.

Associate professor and director of the Emerson Prison Initiative Mneesha Gellman has a new book “Misrepresentation and Silence in United States History Textbooks: The Politics of Historical Oblivion,” published Open Access by Palgrave Macmillan. The free publication was made possible by the Leibnitz Institute for Educational Media at the Georg Eckert Institute in Germany, where Gellman was awarded a fellowship in 2022. Read more in Emerson Today.

Communication Studies associate professor and Chair J. Gregory Payne co-authored a book chapter “Studying FC Barcelona as a Corporate Body” published in the 2024 Routledge book FC Barcelona: History, Politics and Identity. The chapter analyzes the Barcelona Football Club as a global corporate entity and proposes brand territories in which the football (soccer) club can achieve a competitive advantage over its rivals.

Affiliated faculty in Writing, Literature & Publishing and Visual & Media Arts, Jocelyn Marshall was awarded a Yellow Door Fellowship from the Prospect Street Writers House, which will support her hybrid memoir project. She has also been invited to the Editorial Board of Art Journal, a service which aligns with her commitment to ensuring marginalized histories are widely published and discussed, especially in regard to research related to women, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC artists.

Professor of civic media and journalism Paul Mihailidis co-authored a research article “Researching Social Media and Activism With Children and Youth: A Scoping Review,” published in the International Journal of Communication. The article explores current research on social media and activism involving children and youth and concludes that current research has limited inclusion of diverse participants and future research should prioritize inclusivity.

Associate professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Rhiannon Luyster, co-authored a research paper “Do focused interests support word learning? A study with autistic and nonautistic children,” published in March 2024 in Autism Research, the official journal of The International Society for Autism Research. The article examines if autistic and non-autistic children who have focused interests have advantages in word learning.

Marketing Communications professor Thomas Vogel co-authored an article “How does generative artificial intelligence impact student creativity?” published in the April, 2024 issue of the Journal of Creativity, the official journal of the Academy of Creativity. The article explores the role of AI on student creative thinking.

Marketing Communication associate professor Roxana Maiorescu-Murphy has a new research article published in Business and Professional Communication Quarterly. “An Analysis of Online Perceptions in Response to Microsoft’s and Google’s Sexual Harassment Scandals” explores corporate diversity and crisis management through the analyzation of Google’s and Microsoft’s sexual harassment scandals. The findings provide implications for the practice of communication management with respect to scandals.

Associate professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders Robin Danzak co-authored an article, “Family is About Who Loves You: Exploring the Adoption Journey With Photos and Stories” published in the January, 2024 issue of the The International Journal of Reminiscence and Life Review. Her research takes a novel approach in using images, photovoice and focus group methods to research the adoption phenomenon experienced by both adoptees and their families.

Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies professor Tulasi Srinivas will be speaking at Boston University this spring on her latest research on the climate crisis and water in Bangalore, India that she developed with support from Emerson’s Office of Research and Creative Scholarship as well as Harvard Divinity School and the Henry Luce Foundation.

Performing Arts professor Magda Romanska has a research article, “The Bionic Body: Disability, Technology and Posthumanism” published in the 2024 issue of the Journal of Body, Space & Technology, a journal of contemporary artistic practice and research published by the Open Library of Humanities (OLH). Her article explores the new field of critical posthuman disability studies and its engagement with modern technologies.

Visual and Media Arts professor John Gianvito received a 2023 Ford Foundation JustFilms grant through the non-profit Documentary Educational Resources for the production of “Her Socialist Smile,” a documentary film which explores Helen Keller’s advocacy for social justice.

Marketing Communication professor Seounmi Han (Katie) Youn co-authored an article, “Social Presence and Imagery Processing as Predictors of Chatbot Continuance Intention in Human-AI-Interaction,” which was published in a 2023 Special issue on AI in Human-Computer Interaction in the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. The article explores what factors drive consumers to use artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots.

Communication Sciences & Disorders Scholar-In-Residence Maryam Salehomoum co-authored “Assessment in Farsi–English Emerging Bilingual Children: A Tutorial” published in the December, 2023 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Special Interest Group publication on Cultural and Linguistic Diversity. The tutorial highlights the need for culturally sensitive assessments of bilingual children with regard to their language learning histories.

Journalism professor Paul Mihailidis co-authored a research article “Designing equitable media literacy interventions for critical youth agency” published in January, 2024 in the peer-reviewed SAGE Journal Global Studies of Childhood. The article detailed findings from a national study of impactful media literacy that Professor Mihaildis co-conducted with collaborators at the University of Iowa and Syracuse University among others, and shares the process for creating a Field Guide for Equitable Media Literacy Practices.

Affiliated faculty in Writing, Literature & Publishing and Visual & Media Arts, Jocelyn Marshall received a professional development grant from the Modern Language Association. She also received Honorable Mention for the College Art Association’s Professional Development Fellowship in Art History. The exhibition catalog she co-edited for a 2023 Mellon Foundation-funded exhibition she co-curated in partnership with SUNY University at Buffalo has been released digitally with support from SUNY Press.

Part-time faculty and cultural strategist and co-founder of HowlRound Vijay Mathew will be leading a subject matter expert webinar for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) in May, 2024. His presentation will be the first time faculty/staff from Emerson is represented at IAAP as an expert contributing to the body of knowledge and practice in the accessibility space.

Comedic Arts assistant professor Ken Feil contributed to a new book, Rolling: Blackness and Mediated Comedy which will be released in April, 2024 by Indiana University Press. This edited volume covers a range of cases representing African American humor across film, television, digital media, and stand-up comedy.

Communication Sciences and Disorders assistant professor Lindsay Griffin recently co-authored a research article, Lingual Pressure Generation Measures Using Two Devices, in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. The research was conducted at Emerson in 2021–2022 and at Samford University, Case Western Reserve University, James Madison University and Texas Christian University.

Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies professor Tulasi Srinivas was featured on a January 2024 New Books Network podcast in which she discussed her 2023 book Wonder in South Asia, published by SUNY Press.

Communication Studies assistant professor Lauren C. Anderson has a new research article published in December, 2023 in the academic journal Communication & Sport. Revisiting the Relationship Between Sports Fandom and the Black Criminal Stereotype examines whether sports fans’ perceptions of “the Black criminal stereotype” in athletes have changed over the past several years, especially in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Writing, Literature & Publishing assistant professor John Rodzvilla has a book review published in the December, 2023 issue of The Journal of Web Librarianship. His piece, Open Access Literature in Libraries (book review) reviews the authors’ assertion that Open Access has evolved into the most complex challenge of the scholarly publishing, and best practices are needed for librarians to confidently engage with Open Access.

Marketing Communication assistant professor Eric Hogue has a new research article published in December, 2023 in the academic journal Applied Economics. “The complementary relationship between live performances and post-concert streaming for top-performing artists” examines the complementary effects of live concerts on incremental post-concert music streams in 29 US cities, with the aim to gain insight into the influence of live performance on post-concert streaming of artists’ recorded music.

Marlboro Institute associate professor Adam Franklin-Lyons has a book review published in the Fall 2023 issue of The Catholic Historical Review. His piece, The Keys to Bread and Wine: Faith, Nature, and Infrastructure in Late Medieval Valencia by Abigail Agresta (review) reviews the author’s assertion of the coexistence of both religious and technological responses to environmental crises in medieval Spain.

Journalism Assistant Professor Zhao Peng has a new research article published in the academic journal Information, Communication & Society. “A privacy calculus model perspective that explains why parents sharent” investigates what factors explain parents’ sharenting behaviors. Sharenting refers to the practice of parents, caregivers or relatives sharing information about their children online.

Marlboro Institute Assistant Professor Ian McManus recently published an article “Workforce automation risks across race and gender in the United States” in the American Journal of Economics and Society. The article examines different effects of workforce automation across race and gender in the US.

Marlboro Institute Associate Professor Lindsay Beck co-authored a paper “Increases in Intellectual Humility from Guided Conversations are Greater When People Perceive Affiliation with Conversation Partners” published on the education platform The Constructive Dialogue Institute. The paper examines factors that support long-term changes in intellectual humility, including affiliative interactions with new conversation partners.

Professor and Director of the Engagement Lab, Eric Gordon, co-authored a recent article, “Applied visual art for codesign: three case studies of emergent practices,” published in CoDesign: International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts. Codesign is a set of practices that facilitate collaboration in the design process, leading to shared investment in outcomes. The article reviews three case studies and concludes that applied visual art has great potential to support codesign.

Associate professor and director of the Emerson Prison Initiative Mneesha Gellman was featured on the New Books Network podcast, discussing the book Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison. Gellman edited the book, which examines different aspects of teaching in prison. Read more in Emerson Today.

Journalism Assistant Professor Gino Canella‘s research article “Cinematic journalism: the political economy and ‘emotional truth’ of documentary film” was recently published in the academic journal Studies in Documentary Film. Professor Canella’s research examines documentary’s surging popularity among news outlets and its effects on journalistic norms.

Journalism Associate Professor of American Studies, Roger House, wrote an opinion piece for The Messenger about how President Joe Biden can stop his slipping support from Black male voters. Read more in Emerson Today.

Journalism Associate Professor Azeta Hatef wrote an article for the Los Angeles Review of Books about Hulu’s new reality television show Secrets & Sisterhood: The Sozahdahs. The show provides a complicated perspective about growing up Afghan in the United States. Read more in Emerson Today.

Marlboro Institute Associate Professor Mneesha Gellman was interviewed by Bill Ayers on his Under the Tree Podcast on Indigenous Peoples’ Day about her research on the benefits of indigenous languages in the public school classroom and the opposition it faces. Professor Gellman is the author of Indigenous Language Politics in the Schoolroom: Cultural Survival in Mexico and the United States. Read more in Emerson Today.

Communication Sciences and Disorders Assistant Professor Lindsay Griffin co-authored a research article, “Dysphonia Outperforms Voice Change as a Clinical Predictor of Dysphagia,” in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. The study investigated if voice change or disorders of the voice after swallowing are valid predictors of dysphagia (swallowing difficulties).

Marlboro Institute Assistant Professor Ioana Jucan recently released a new book, Malicious Deceivers: Thinking Machines and Performative Objects published in August, 2023 by Stanford University Press. The book unpacks the notion of fakeness through the related logics of dissimulation (deception) and simulation (performativity) as seen with software/AI, television, plastics, and the internet. Read more in Emerson Today.

Communication Sciences and Disorders Professor Ruth Grossman is one of five investigators receiving a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the project “Ready to CONNECT: Conversation and Language in Autistic Teens,” funded by the NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders. Read more in Emerson Today. Read more in Emerson Today.

Communication Studies Professor Richard West has been named the winner of the National Communication Association’s (NCA) 2023 Samuel L. Becker Distinguished Service Award in recognition of a lifetime of contributions to the field of communication. Read more in Emerson Today.

Visual & Media Arts Assistant Professor Ougie Pak was selected to participate in the 2023 TIFF Filmmaker Lab, a talent development program which provides directors with an exceptional professional development experience at the Toronto International Film Festival and an introduction to the global community of filmmaking.

Visual & Media Arts affiliated faculty Heather Cassano is the recipient of a 2023 LEF/CIFF Fellowship, the LEF Foundation’s partnership with Points North Institute to support five New England-based filmmaker teams to attend the Camden International Film Festival and connect with other filmmakers and industry leaders.

Writing, Literature & Publishing Associate Professor Benoit Denizet-Lewis received a Public Scholars award from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his upcoming book, We Don’t Know You Anymore: Identity Change in America. The NEH Public Scholars program offers grants to individual authors for research, writing, travel, and other activities leading to the publication of well-researched nonfiction books in the humanities.

Assistant professor Novuyo Tshuma‘s new novel ‘Digging Stars’ debuted on September 12, 2023, and was reviewed by the New York Times. Blending drama and satire while examining the complexities of colonialism, racism, and being American, ‘Digging Stars’ probes the universes of love, friendship, family and nationhood.

Associate Professor Vincent Raynauld and his co-author Mireille Lalance at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières won a 2023 Best Paper Award from The Northeastern Political Science Association. “The Hyper-Masculine Campaign: Party Leader Brand Image, Heteronormativity, and the 2021 Canadian Federal Election,” won in the Identity Issues Best Paper category.

2024-2025 Faculty Advancement Fund Recipients

By risa_michiwaki

On April 19, 2024

In Faculty News, Faculty Spotlight, Internal Grant Announcements, Scholarship and Research

The Office of Research and Creative Scholarship thanks the Faculty Development and Research Council for their contribution of time in service to review this year’s applications and develop their recommendations. Congratulations to the following recipients of this year’s Faculty Advancement Fund Grant:

Amy Beecher, Department of Visual and Media Arts: Lifestyle Pictures: An Interdisciplinary Gallery Exhibition Combining Performance and Image

Dana Edell, Department of Performing Arts: The ART (Anti-Racism Theater) Project – Performance & Research

Cara Moyer-Duncan, Marlboro Institute: Cinemas of Resistance: Documentary Filmmaking and Social Change in South Africa

Thato Mwosa, Department of Visual and Media Arts: Rewind Back: A Short Narrative Film that Explores Gender, Sexual and Cultural Identity in an African Immigrant Family

Sharifa Simon-Roberts, Department of Communication Studies: An Ethnographic Study on the Migration of Venezuelans in Trinidad and Tobago

Malic Amalya, Department of Visual and Media Arts: “New Earth:” a 16mm Experimental Documentary Film about the Mythos of Flight

Kyanna Sutton, Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing: Black Girls In Cyberspace: Conversations with Gen Z Women on Techno-Digital Life, Culture, and Identity

Hanadi Elyan, Department of Visual and Media Arts: Palestinian Refugees in Narrative Film: Research in refugee camps for the development of a screenplay

Sariva Goetz, Department of Performing Arts: A Historical Timeline of Female and Non-Binary Broadway Conductors

Yasser Munif, Marlboro Institute: Autonomous Politics in the Arab World since 2011

Tushar Mathew, Department of Performing Arts: A Good Neighbor: Developing an original storytelling experience for people’s homes that aims to strengthen bonds between neighbors

The Faculty Advancement Fund Grant (FAFG) supports the scholarly and creative activities of the full‐time tenured and tenure-track faculty members. The Fund was established to enable the professional work of Emerson’s faculty in its efforts to sustain academic excellence in teaching, research/creative activity, and service. The Faculty Advancement Fund Grant supports proposals deemed likely to substantially improve the quality of research, publication, creative activities, teaching, and service that advance the mission of the College and the careers of its faculty.

President’s Fund for Curricular Innovation (PFCI): Faculty Development Seminar in Ghana 2024– Now Accepting Applications

By Eric Asetta

On March 14, 2024

In Internal Grant Announcements

ORCS is pleased to share this new Presidential Fund for Curricular Innovation (PFCI) opportunity with you. Instructions on the application process can be found below. Questions about the program may be directed to Dr. Anthony Pinder, Vice Provost for Internationalization & Equity, or Dr. Tuesda Roberts, Director for Faculty Development and Diversity.

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President’s Fund for Curricular Innovation

2024 PFCI: Faculty Development Seminar in Ghana

Program Directors

Drs. Anthony Pinder and Tuesda Roberts

Location

Accra, Ghana

Key Dates

Application Period: March 8th through April 8th, 2024
Applicant Notification Date: April 15th, 2024
Pre-Departure Meetings: TBD
Passport Submission Date: May 15th, 2024
Travel Dates: July 18th through July 28th, 2024

Application Requirements

Eligible faculty members can access the Google application form. The application requirements are as follows:

A brief bio (200 words max), uploaded as a separate document
A short CV, uploaded as a separate document
A copy of the latest syllabus for the specific 2024-2025 course you would use as the basis of your pedagogical plan
Responses to four short essay prompts (approximately 250-500 words each)

Applications are due by April 8, 2024.

Purpose

The purpose of the President’s Fund for Curricular Innovation (PFCI): Faculty Development Seminar in Ghana is to provide an intensive short-term faculty development experience that builds on Emerson’s capacity for international education and the internationalization of the curriculum. The Ghana seminar offers five (5) Emerson faculty the opportunity to enhance their cross-cultural perspective, and open doors to collaboration with Ghanaian culture, artistic traditions, professional and creative enterprises, faculty also enhance their pedagogical frameworks. PFCI was designed an internal faculty grant program purposed to enhance professional development experiences of the faculty, departmental curricula and to increase curricular alignment with the institutional priority of internationalization and equity.

Program Objectives

Four primary objectives will guide this faculty development program in Ghana:

Creating (and sustaining) a culture of teaching excellence;
Advancing new initiatives in teaching and learning;
Supporting the individual faculty member’s goals for professional development; and
Supporting the expansion of faculty members’ understanding of diverse cultures, systems of knowledge, and business.

Eligibility & Selection Process

Five (5) full-time Emerson faculty members will be selected to participate in the 2024 PFCI: Faculty Development Seminar in Ghana.

Full-time Emerson faculty with scheduled courses to be taught during the 2024-25 academic year will be eligible to apply. Faculty from all academic departments and the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies are invited to apply.

Faculty who have a demonstrated pedagogical, creative, or scholarly focus on African/Africana, African American or Black Diaspora studies are encouraged to apply. In addition, faculty with limited or no global education experience are also encouraged to apply. Applications will be reviewed by the PFCI Selection Committee.

Faculty must have a passport that will be valid until January 28, 2025.

Program Overview

Faculty participants will develop a curriculum project and a plan to share their broadened knowledge and pedagogical adaptivity related to African or Africana creative and communication-based studies. Based on participants’ areas of specialty, each faculty member will be paired with their Ghanaian academic or industry peer. Participants will also engage with the faculty and administration at University of Media, Arts, and Communication (UNIMAC). Additional research and pedagogical planning will be required of the faculty outside of the seminar. Results of that research and planning should be evident in the implementation of their curriculum plan and the information they disseminate.

The PFCI: Faculty Development Seminar in Ghana will be composed of a pre-arranged itinerary that includes immersive group activities exposing faculty to Ghanaian heritage, history, and culture, and opportunities for the faculty to engage with Ghanaian scholars, creatives, and professionals, facilitated workshops as well as opportunities to engage in structured reflections with PFCI directors. The itinerary will be developed for the purpose of providing faculty information and experiences that are related to their curriculum projects and teaching responsibilities.

Due to the cohort nature of the seminar and the expectation that participants attend all scheduled activities; there will not be time for faculty participants to engage in extensive individual research during the 10-day Ghana seminar.

Financial Support and Responsibilities

Selected participants will be awarded a stipend of $1,000 (subject to applicable state and federal payroll taxes). Participants are encouraged to utilize stipend funds towards items listed in the “Expenses Not Covered” section, particularly the cost of obtaining the required yellow fever vaccine, which is typically not subsidized by standard medical insurance.

Expenses Covered

Round-trip airfare between Boston, Massachusetts and Accra, Ghana on the program start and end dates (approx. $3,000)
Lodging during the ten days of travel
Single-entry, expedited visitor visa for Ghana (approx. $100)
Some provided, group meals
Included activities and excursions as part of the program itinerary
Emergency travel/medical insurance through Zurich

Expenses Not Covered

Required vaccination(s) for entry to Ghana, including yellow fever (cost varies)
Medications as recommended by the CDC (malaria, etc.)
Fees associated with obtaining or renewing a passport
Independent meals
Personal travel/medical insurance

Participation Requirements

Faculty selected to participate in this program will be required to do the following:

Obtain required vaccination(s) for purposes of entry to Ghana.
Submit physical passport and corresponding documents to Internationalization & Equity for purposes of obtaining a visa for entry to Ghana.
Participate in pre-departure meetings.
Travel together on the pre-established group travel dates/flights.
Engage in dialog, prior to departure, with PFCI directors and global partners to draft on-site professional development activities with Ghanaian academic/professional counterparts.
Formulate a plan that accounts for (1) the pedagogical and learning outcomes that would be enhanced by virtue of their participation, (2) how on-site experiences would substantively enhance a course that will be taught during the 2024-2025 academic year (3) submit a report about the professional skills and knowledge gained, impact on student outcomes, and implications of participating in the bilateral exchange experience. Each participant will be expected to submit this report prior to the end of the semester that follows the teaching of the focal course.
Jointly develop a panel, with other program participants, that will be made available to the Emerson community during the 2024 International Education Week (November).
Meet twice with PFCI directors during the 2024-2025 academic year to discuss progress implementing their pedagogical plan.

Call for Proposals: Norman & Irma Mann Stearns Distinguished Faculty Award — Pre-Approval due March 18; Applications due April 8

By Eric Asetta

On March 7, 2024

In Internal Grant Announcements

Description

Several years ago, the late Dr. Norman Stearns and Irma Mann Stearns established a distinguished faculty award in their name to honor a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member in recognition of outstanding scholarly or creative achievement. A $3,000 award is presented annually to at least one applicant. This funding may be used to enhance an ongoing project or for the development of a new scholarly or creative endeavor. In accordance with the family’s wishes, travel is strongly encouraged to be a part of the project activity.

Key Due Dates

Pre-Application Notification Due: March 18,2024
Selection of Nominees by Provost, Deans, and Chairs: March 22, 2024
Application form sent to applicants: by March 25, 2024
Final Applications due to ORCS: April 8, 2024
FDRC Review of Applications: April 8 – April 17, 2024
Final Selections made by Provost: by May 10, 2024
Applicants Notified of Funding Decision: by May 17, 2027

Awardees must utilize their funds between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025.

Eligibility

Full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty members are eligible to apply for the Mann Stearns Distinguished Faculty Award.

Criteria

In evaluating proposals, the Faculty Development and Research Council (FDRC) will consider:

The applicant’s scholarly or creative achievement(s);
The quality, merits, feasibility, of the project for which the award funds will be used;
The inclusion of travel as a necessary component of the project; and
Publications, audio/video samples, or other supporting material.

Pre-Application Notification

If you intend to apply for a Mann Stearns Award, you must first submit a Pre-Application Notification email to ORCS by March 18, 2024. The body of the email should include a summary (1-2 paragraphs) of your proposed project, and a brief description of how you would use the $3,000 award. After you have submitted your notification, you will be sent the link for the Mann Stearns application form (see “Application Instructions” below).

Review Process

All applications will be reviewed by the Faculty Development and Research Council (FDRC), and with input from department Chairs, school Deans, and Academic Affairs. The FDRC will make the final recommendations to the Provost for funding. The Provost’s selections are final.

Application Instructions

This year, we have migrated the application packet to Google Forms. The advantages to this format include:

Email recognition: The form will recognize your Emerson email and open a blank application that will be automatically saved in your name.
Elimination of portable document errors: Reviewers will log directly into Google forms to read applications, removing the need to send electronic documents back and forth and reducing the chance for error.
Auto-save: The form saves your work automatically as you proceed.
Document uploads: Budget requests are now uploaded as a separate file, and you can also upload supplementary documents to bolster your proposal.
Ability to make revisions until the deadline: Applicants can make changes to their form up until the due date (April 8).

After you have submitted your pre-approval, you will be sent the link for the Mann Stearns application form. After you submit your proposal, you will receive a copy of your responses via email, and will have until April 8, 2024, to make any changes.

Applicants may include supplemental materials (publications, PDFs, media) that support their proposals with their submissions.

In addition to the application form and supplemental materials, a two-page curriculum vita should be included with each submission.

Final Report Requirement

A final written report is not required, but the successful applicant is expected to meet with members of the Mann Stearns family and other members of Emerson College to discuss the final outcome and deliverables.

Affiliated Faculty Professional Development Fund (AFDF): Now Accepting Applications For AY24-25 Support (Due March 15, 2024)

By Eric Asetta

On January 16, 2024

In Internal Grant Announcements, Scholarship and Research

The Affiliated Faculty Professional Development Fund (AFDF) is now accepting applications for support in Academic Year 2024-25.

The AFDF supports the scholarly and creative activities of the affiliated faculty members of Emerson College. The Office of Research and Creative Scholarship administers the fund.

The application deadline for AFDF funding in Academic Year (AY) 2024-2025 will be on March 15, 2024. Grants awarded for AY24-25 must be conducted between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025.

Eligibility

To be eligible for these funds, the applicant:

Must be a member of the Affiliated Faculty of Emerson College (AFEC-AAUP);
Must have taught at least one course during each of the prior three consecutive years, including the current academic year (2023-2024); and-
Must be slated to teach at least one Emerson course in the Academic Year for which the AFDF award will be granted (2024-2025).

Funding

The AFDF Grant will provide support for approved projects up to $1,500 each. The Provost makes the final decision for funding and determination of awards, based on the recommendations of the AFDF Committee.

Types of Activities Funded

Travel and expenses leading to scholarly, peer-reviewed publications
Travel and expenses leading to the production of creative and artistic works such as media productions, creative writing, performances, screenplays, exhibitions, audio and music productions, etc.
Travel and expenses related to refereed conference presentations of scholarly or creative activities
Travel and expenses related to presentations to industry-related conferences and conventions
Expenses for attending seminars and conferences related to new course development
Expenses for attending faculty development seminars and conferences to improve teaching skills

Types of Activities Not Funded

Activities that are already defined as part of affiliated faculty members’ expected duties and responsibilities.
Activities for which the affiliated faculty member is already receiving compensation, course release, or some other form of College support.
Additional salary or compensation for Emerson faculty and staff.
Retroactive expenses and activities

Criteria and Considerations

Applications must be complete, clearly written, compelling, well defined and easily understood by all of the reviewers.
Applications that are incomplete and do not follow directions may be disqualified.
While applicants may apply for consecutive year awards, the committee will evaluate proposals that are a continuation of any previously funded projects to determine if funding is appropriate.
Support for travel from the AFDF should be for activities that directly advance proposal activities.
Applicants are required to submit a report of their project after completion.
Applicants must be slated to teach at least one Emerson course in the academic year for which the AFDF award will be granted (2024–2025).

Application Instructions

Eligible applicants may begin their AFDF application by clicking on this link. After you submit your proposal, you will receive a copy of your responses via email, and will have until March 15, 2024 to make any changes.

AFDF Calendar

DATE	EVENT
January 16, 2024	AFDF is announced
March 15, 2024	AFDF applications are due via Google Forms
After March 15, 2024	Committee evaluation of all proposals and recommendations to the Provost regarding proposal support and level of funding
By April 26, 2024	The Provost, in consideration of the recommendations provided by the AFDF Committee, will make final selections and award determinations. The Provost will notify the committee in writing, electronically, about the final awards.
By May 10, 2024	AFDF recipients are notified that they are receiving the award.
July 2024 through June 2025	Approved projects conducted
June 15, 2025	Last day to request reimbursement for eligible expenses in Workday.
November 1, 2025	Final report due for projects conducted during FY2025.

The AFDF Committee

Applications will be reviewed by Affiliated Faculty Professional Development Fund (AFDF) Committee (“the Committee”) consisting of five (5) adjuncts, three of whom will be elected by the affiliated faculty, and two of whom will be appointed by the Provost. Members serving on the committee are not eligible to apply for awards from the Fund in the year(s) on which they are reviewing applications.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Eric Asetta at eric_asetta@emerson.edu

Limited Funding Opportunity: Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) Program, Round 2 (Applications Due February 2, 2024)

By Eric Asetta

On January 16, 2024

In Internal Grant Announcements, Scholarship and Research

In partnership with the Graduate Student Association and the Office of Graduate Studies, the Office of Research and Creative Scholarship (ORCS) is soliciting proposals to support Graduate Research Assistants to work with and be mentored by a faculty member for the Spring 2024 semester. In the event the full GRA funding pool is not awarded following the conclusion of the Fall application cycle, a second, smaller application cycle is held at the beginning of the Spring semester. Applicants for the second cycle cannot be Fall GRA recipients.

The intent is to extend the student’s classroom learning, expose them to current challenges in their discipline, build analytical skills, and provide a meaningful work experience that will also benefit faculty in the development of their research and scholarship agenda. Through this program, we also hope to encourage faculty to submit external grant applications that include graduate research assistants.

Funds are available to support a very limited number of GRA positions for the spring semester. If you are interested in mentoring a GRA, please submit a completed proposal, using the Round 2 GRA Application Form, by February 2, 2024.

Note: Proposals that do not use the required Google Form application will not be reviewed.

Deadlines
The application deadline for the Spring 2024 GRA grant will be on February 2, 2024.

Upcoming Grant Period
Grants awarded in Spring 2024 must be conducted between February 12, 2024 and June 15, 2024.

GRA Funding
The maximum award will be $2,000 per student, though amounts awarded are dependent on the number of applications received and availability of funding. The funds can be used to hire a graduate student assistant at a recommended hourly rate of $15.25. Additionally, a portion of the amount requested (inclusive of the $2,000 maximum) may be allocated to the costs associated with a mentored GRA attending a relevant academic or professional conference.

Proposals need to include a clear and concise description of the project, the expected outcomes, and how the work will be evaluated and/or disseminated. Applicants should outline how this work benefits their discipline, their professional research/scholarship agenda, and the student. Applicants should include a short job description for the Graduate Research Assistant position, including responsibilities, required skills, and any other pertinent aspects that will be used when the open position gets posted on the Student Employment website. If the application includes funds for conference travel, the applicant must identify the conference, its location and dates, and explain how it will enhance the student’s learning and academic growth.

Eligibility
FOR FACULTY: Full-time term and tenured/tenure-track faculty are eligible to apply. Current GRA recipients from the Fall application cycle are not eligible.

FOR STUDENTS: Students must be enrolled in Emerson graduate courses during the academic year, and not be employed by the College as a teacher or affiliated faculty member.

Eligible Projects
Examples of Eligible Projects:

Support for a student to assist in research, literature review for a book or other project
Support for a student to assist in development or curating of curricular or scholarly materials
Support for a student to assist in data collection, cataloging, and analysis
Support for a student as a film or production assistant
Support for the student to attend an academic or scholarly conference related to their field of study (alongside student wages)

Ineligible Projects Examples of Ineligible Projects:

Support for a student to provide general clerical and administrative assistance for regular academic and teaching duties
Projects that do not clearly demonstrate a meaningful work and learning experience for students
Compensation or support for regular curricular, credit-bearing activities, such as coursework, theses, or directed studies
Requests for travel/conference funds that do not also include student wages

Criteria & Considerations Proposals must include:

A clear and concise description of the project
The expected outcomes of the project or research
How the work will be evaluated
Outline how this work benefits your discipline, your professional research/scholarship agenda, and the student
Include a short job description for the Graduate Research Assistant position, including responsibilities, required skills, and any other pertinent aspects that will be used when the open position gets posted in Workday
If the application includes funds for conference travel, applicants must identify
1. The name of the conference
2. The dates and location of the conference
3. An explanation of how the conference will enhance the student’s learning and academic growth

The maximum award will be $2,000 per student at a recommended hourly rate of $15.25/hour.

GRA Application Form
Eligible faculty members can access the FY2024 GRA Application Form here. Applicants can fill out the application and make changes to the form until the deadline date of February 2, 2024.

Spring 2024 Calendar

January 16, 2024: GRA Application cycle opens
February 2, 2024: Applications are due via Google Forms
February 2 through February 10, 2024: Review and selection of applications
February 12, 2024: Applicants notified of funding decisions
February 12 through June 15, 2024: Approved projects conducted

Review and Selection of Applications
ORCS will review the applications and make recommendations for selection to the Office of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Student Association.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to direct them to eric_asetta@emerson.edu.

External Funding Opportunities: Spring 2024

By Diana Potter

On January 12, 2024

In External Funding Opportunities, Federal Funding

The Office of Research & Creative Scholarship would like to share several popular funding sources accepting applications this spring. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please reach out to the ORCS office.

Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
Applications due February 25, 2024
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The Graham realizes this vision through making project-based grants to individuals and organizations and producing exhibitions, events, and publications.

NEA Creative Writing Fellowships
Applications due March 13, 2024
The National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships program offers $25,000 grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Applications are reviewed for artistic excellence and artistic merit of the submitted manuscript. In 2024, the program is accepting applications for fellowships in poetry. Fellowships in prose will be accepted in March, 2025.

Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Program
Applications due early April, 2024
The Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Program is nurturing a new generation of serious and enterprising journalists. This year-long program allows writers early in their careers to pursue projects they otherwise would be unable to research and report. Applicants should have less than 10 years’ experience as professional journalists and must be U.S. citizens. There are three tiers to the program: Fellowships provide up to $35,000 in grant money and expense assistance. Full Fellowships, which require that recipients devote their full-time efforts to their project, provide up to $75,000. Alumni Fund Fellowships provide support for recipients to write one in-depth, major essay on their topic.

Creative Capital
Applications due April 4, 2024
The Creative Capital Foundation welcomes innovative and original new project proposals in visual arts, performing arts, film/moving image, technology, literature, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms for its 2024 grant cycle. Creative Capital is one of the only non-profit organizations to offer awards to individual artists through an open application process; therefore, it is very competitive, with less than 1% of applicants receiving awards. Creative Capital provides each funded project with up to $50,000 in direct funding, and career development services valued at $45,000. In recent years, more than 75% of awardees have been artists of color—including Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous artists—of all ages, abilities, and regions across the United States.

National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowships
Applications due April 10, 2024
NEH Fellowships support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources in the humanities. Award amount ranges from $30,000 to $60,000 for a 6-12 month project period. Faculty may not teach during the grant period.

Boston Athenaeum Fellowship
Applications due April 15, 2024
The Boston Athenaeum (next to campus at 10-1/2 Beacon St) offers short-term fellowships to support the use of Athenaeum collections for research, publication, curriculum and program development, or other creative projects. Each fellowship pays a stipend for a four-week residency and includes a year’s membership to the Boston Athenaeum. Scholars, graduate students, independent scholars, teaching faculty, and professionals in the humanities as well as teachers and librarians in secondary public, private, and parochial schools are eligible to apply.

NEH Humanities Initiative at Colleges and Universities
Applications due May 7, 2024
The NEH Humanities Initiative at Colleges & Universities strengthens the teaching and study of the humanities at institutions of higher education by developing new humanities programs, resources (including those in digital format), or courses, or by enhancing existing ones. Projects must be organized around a core topic or set of themes drawn from such areas of study in the humanities as history, philosophy, religion, literature, and composition and writing skills. The project period can be between 1-3 years and the total award is up to $150,000.

Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program
Applications due May 15, 2024
The Arts Writers grant supports writers who are writing about contemporary visual art. Ranging from $15,000 to $50,000 in three categories—articles, books, and short-form writing—these grants support projects addressing both general and specialized art audiences, from short reviews for magazines and newspapers to in-depth scholarly studies. The foundation also supports art writing that engages criticism through interdisciplinary methods or experiments with literary styles. As long as a writer meets the eligibility and publishing requirements, they can apply.

Institute for Humane Studies Grants for Course Buyouts
Rolling Deadline; due at least 6 months before the start of the requested semester.
The Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University provides funding to full-time faculty members from various disciplines at research and teaching institutions for course buyouts and salary support in order to work on their research projects and prepare them for publication.

Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
Rolling Deadline
The Delmas foundation intends to further the humanities along a broad front, supporting projects which address the concerns of the historical studia humanitatis: a humanistic education rooted in the great traditions of the past; the formation of human beings according to cultural, moral, and aesthetic ideals derived from that past; and the ongoing debate over how these ideals may best be conceived and realized. Programs in the following areas are eligible: history; archaeology; literature; languages, both classical and modern; philosophy; ethics; comparative religion; the history, criticism, and theory of the arts; and those aspects of the social sciences which share the content and methods of humanistic disciplines. The Foundation welcomes projects that cross the boundaries between humanistic disciplines and explore the connection between the humanities and other areas of scholarship.

The Laura Bassi Scholarship for Editorial Assistance: Applications Due November 30

By Eric Asetta

On November 9, 2023

In Direct-to-Individual Awards, External Funding Opportunities, Scholarship and Research

The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established by Editing Press in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed, within their disciplines. The scholarships are open to every discipline and are awarded three times per year: December, April, and August. The value of the scholarship is remitted solely through editorial assistance as follows:

Master’s candidates: $750
Doctoral candidates: $2,500
Junior academics: $500

These figures reflect the upper bracket of costs of editorial assistance for master’s theses, doctoral dissertations, and academic journal articles, respectively. All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment. There are no institutional, departmental, or national restrictions.

Deadlines

Winter 2023

Deadline: 30 November 2023
Results: 11 December 2023

How to ApplyApplicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV using the portal prompted by the ‘Apply’ button below by the relevant deadline.

To help defray the Scholarship’s administrative costs, applicants are subject to a voluntary USD 10.00 fee. All applicants who are unable to pay the application fee are welcome to take advantage of the fee waiver option on the application portal. If you wish to pay the application fee in a non-USD currency, please consult the FAQ below for instructions.

Answers to common questions about the application process are provided in the FAQ section. In order to avoid delays, applicants are encouraged to read the FAQ carefully before writing to us with their questions.

Please do not submit your application material by email, as this would breach our impartiality rules and potentially invalidate your application. If you wish to update your application material, please upload your documents afresh using the same email address as your initial submission. Your dossier will then update automatically. Please also note that your application documents need to be uploaded together rather than separately.

Boston Athenæum Fellowship Opportunities

By Eric Asetta

On November 9, 2023

In External Funding Opportunities, Fellowship Opportunities, Scholarship and Research

The Boston Athenæum offers short-term fellowships to support the use of Athenæum collections for research, publication, curriculum and program development, or other creative projects. Each fellowship pays a stipend for a residency of twenty days (four weeks) and includes a year’s membership to the Boston Athenæum. Scholars, graduate students, independent scholars, teaching faculty, and professionals in the humanities as well as teachers and librarians in secondary public, private, and parochial schools are eligible.

Applications for most fellowships are due annually by April 15. Additionally, the Athenæum participates in the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, a collaboration of 31 major cultural agencies that will offer at least two dozen $5,000 awards for eight weeks of research between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025. Applications are submitted online via the Massachusetts Historical Society, and are due February 1, 2024.

Faculty Spotlight – November 2023

By Eric Asetta

On November 9, 2023

In Faculty News, Faculty Spotlight

Performing Arts Professor Magda Romanska’s celebrated 2013 play, Opheliamachine, will be published by Methuen Drama in February 2024. Bringing together eight different translations and two introductory essays, this new edition was supported in part by an award from the Faculty Advancement Fund Grant (FAFG).

CSD Associate Professor Rhiannon Luyster was awarded a new subaward from New York University for an NIH-funded project entitled, “Language processing and word learning in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder.” This is Dr. Luyster’s second NIH-supported collaboration with Professor Sudha Arunachalam of NYU’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders.

Three VMA faculty members were awarded Pre-Production and Early Development Grants by the LEF Moving Image Fund for feature-length documentary films they are currently working on. These are Marc Fields and Shaun Clarke for The Midway in Sunlight and Shadow; and Kathryn Ramey for SILVER & earth.

WLP Affiliated Faculty Member Michael Boezi, who is also a musician, released a single, “Fever“, on his website and on all streaming services. Supported in part by a grant from the Affiliated Faculty Professional Development Fund (AFDF), the song is about, in Michael’s words, “having empathy for the victims of disinformation, propaganda, and gaslighting. We have more in common than the media distortions of division, and we have to start talking to one another in order to solve the urgent issues of our time.”

VMA and WLP Affiliated faculty member Dr. Jocelyn E. Marshall published three scholarly articles in 2023: “Collaborative timeslips in Gabrielle Civil’s black feminist performance art and writing” in Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 32, no. 2 (2023): 1-27; “Calling Out and In: In Plain Sight and Queer Feminist Care at the Border(s)” in Public Art Dialogue 13, no. 1 (2023): 101-123; and “Sexual-Textual-Spiritual: Artistic Practice & Other Rituals as Queer Becoming and Beyond” in Rejoinder (journal of Rutgers University’s Institute for Research on Women), Issue 8, May 2023.

AY2023-24 Graduate Student Assistantship (GRA) Grant Recipients

By Eric Asetta

On November 3, 2023

In Faculty News

The Office of Research and Creative Scholarship, the Office of Graduate Studies, and the Graduate Student Association would like to congratulate the following faculty members, who were awarded funding from the Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) program this year:

Faculty Member	Current Rank	Department	Project Title
Raquel Pidal	Assistant Professor	Writing, Literature, and Publishing	Re-Visioning: A Guide to Developmental Editing for the Twenty-First Century
Marc Fields	Professor	Visual and Media Arts	THE MIDWAY IN SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW: IMMERSIVE COUNTER-NARRATIVES ABOUT THE 1893 WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION
Mili Mathew	Associate Professor	Communication Science Disorders	Aspects of Hand Gesture and Discourse Production in Persons with Fluent and Nonfluent Aphasia
Joshua Rashon Streeter	Assistant Professor	Performing Arts	Theatre for the Very Young: New Work Development Process

Formed from a partnership between the Graduate Student Association, the Office of Graduate Studies, and the Office of Research and Creative Scholarship, the GRA grant intends is to extend the student’s classroom learning, expose them to current challenges in their discipline, build analytical skills, and provide a meaningful work experience that will also benefit faculty in the development of their research and scholarship agenda.