🐏
Update:

All CHS websites are under review after the issuance of the "Dear Colleague" letter from the U.S. Department of Education and the Notice of Civil Rights Term and Condition of Award from the National Institutes of Health.

College of Humanities and Sciences

Faculty and Staff Resources

Main image

Past Recipients

Seed Grants

Seed Grants supported faculty-driven research, scholarship and creative work. The grant was designed to help faculty initiate a new direction within their scholarly work, broaden the scope of their scholarly endeavors, advance scholarship within their field through innovative projects, or bring current projects to completion. Examples:

  • Travel to archives or field sites
  • Collection of pilot data for an external funding proposal
  • Preparation of a book or manuscripts for publication

Seed Grant Recipients

  • Mariam Alkazemi, Ph.D. (Robertson)
  • Susan Bodnar-Deren, Ph.D. (Sociology)
  • Christopher A. Brooks, Ph.D. (World Studies)
  • Joshua Eckhardt, Ph.D. (English)
  • Adam Ewing, Ph.D. (African American Studies)
  • Laura Fix, Ph.D. (Math)
  • Grace Gipson, Ph.D. (African American Studies)
  • Daeha Joung, Ph.D. (Physics)
  • Rohan Kalyan, Ph.D. (World Studies)
  • Ka Un Lao, Ph.D. (Chemistry)
  • Shannon McCallister, Ph.D. (Biology)
  • Brooke Newman, Ph.D. (History)
  • H. Reed Ogrosky, Ph.D. (Math)
  • Joshua Sieber, Ph.D. (Chemistry)
  • Indira Sultanic, Ph.D. (World Studies)
  • Sarah Williams, Ph.D. (Forensic Science)

Dace Svikis, Psychology
Advancing precision medicine in alcohol use disorder treatment: Integration of neurofunctional phenotyping into a preliminary investigation of stand-alone web-based cognitive behavioral therapy

Vivian Dzokoto, Psychology
Library and Archives Visit for Research on Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion

Brent Cody, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
The mathematics and music of maximally even sets

Kamilia Rahmouni, World Studies
Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Tutors: An Exploration of the Effectiveness of ChatGPT in Teaching Arabic 

Soma Dhakal, Chemistry
Two-way dynamics of DNA Holliday junctions: Watching one molecule at a time

Stephanie Walcott, Forensic Science
The Creation of a Gun Shot Residue (GSR) Databank for the Reliable Identification of Ammunition in Shooting Cases

Kristina Hood, Psychology
S.O.S! (Snapshot of Support): A mixed methods photovoice study of the lived experiences of Black women experiencing infertility 

Ka Un Lao, Chemistry
First-Principles Quantum-Crystallographic X-Ray Structure Refinement

Jessica Trisko Darden, Political Science
Unequal Justice: Women’s Accountability for Nazi-Era War Crimes

Julian Glover, Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies
Black Boundlessness: Performance, Aesthetics and Ethics Under Duress

Marilyn Bishop, Physics
A New Structure for Sickle-Cell Hemoglobin

Christopher A. Brooks, World Studies
“We thought the Coronavirus wasn’t as bad:” Considering HIV positivity in the era of the Coronavirus in a Kenyan Community

Victor Chen, Sociology, and Katrina Hamilton, Virginia Community College System
The Structural and Cultural Context of Deaths of Despair: A Qualitative Study of Urban and Rural Joblessness and Precarity

Jeanine Guidry, Media and Culture, and Shillpa Navaal, School of Dentistry (with co-investigators)
Where Religion and Health Collide: Examining HPV Vaccine Uptake Among Children of Evangelicals

Daniel Morales, History
Latino Virginia Project

Michael Paarlberg, Political Science
Diaspora Democracy: Migrant Communities and Transnational Elections in Latin America

Matteo Pangallo, English
Strange Company: Foreign Performers in Medieval and Early Modern England

Cristina Stanciu, English
Indigenous Education and the Literature of the Boarding Schools in the U.S. and Canada

Nicola Tarasca, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
Quantum Algebra and Geometry of Curves

B. Ethan M. Coston, Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
In Pursuit of Pleasure: Is “Sexual Health” More Than an Absence of Disease?

Sean Cox, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
How Robustly Can You Predict the Future?

Christine Cynn, Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
AIDS Archives: "A Witness of My Time"

Brian Daugherity, History
The Green Light: School Integration in the United States

Soma Dhakal, Chemistry
Single Molecule Analysis of Peptide Modified DNA Holliday Junctions for Therapeutic Applications

Ronald Evans, Kinesiology and Health Sciences
Reconceptualizing Behavioral Weight Loss to Improve Weight Loss Maintenance: A Proof-of-Concept Trial

Nao Hagiwara, Psychology
Racial Disparities in Cancer Genetic Counseling Encounters

Michael Hall, English
Freedom Beyond Confinement: Travel and Imagination in African-American Cultural History and Letters

Mary Caton Lingold, English
Sound Legacy: Music and Slavery in an African Atlantic World

Karen McIntyre, Robertson
Journalistic Role Performance Project: A Systematic Analysis of Professional Roles Among Journalists in Rwanda and 46 Other Countries

Amy Rector, World Studies
Isotopic Records of Climate and Seasonality in the Luangwa River Valley, Zambia

Samaneh Oladi Ghadikolaei, World Studies
In Search of Divine Justice: Iranian Women’s Sacred Activism

Joann Richardson, Kinesiology and Health Sciences
Sole2Soul: Cultural Line Dancing as a Novel Approach to Physical Activity for Healthy Aging in Older African Americans

Sarah Seashols-Williams, Forensic Science
Use of MicroRNA Expression to Predict Body Mass Index in Forensic Samples

Faedah Totah, World Studies
Palestinians in the Old City of Damascus

Wenheng Zhang, Biology
Genetic Basis for Increased Floral Organ Number and Fruit Size in Tomato

Impact Grants

Impact Grants supported the development of scalable strategies, inclusive pedagogies, and/or best practices in the classroom and laboratory that engaged students across all disciplines and modalities and responded to new and existing challenges in higher education. Examples:

  • New instructional models, interventions and innovations
  • Strategic use of technology
  • Experiential learning
  • Peer-learning models or course redesigns 
  • Strategies for reducing DFW rates in high-risk courses

Impact Grant Recipients

  • Caddie Alford, Ph.D. (English)
  • Mariam Alkazemi, Ph.D. (Robertson)
  • Volkan Aytar, Ph.D. (Sociology)
  • Leigh Ann Craig, Ph.D. (History)
  • Andrew Crislip, Ph.D. (History)
  • Christine Cynn, Ph.D. (GSWS)
  • Heather Nunnally, Ph.D. (Math)
  • Sachi Shimomura, Ph.D. (English)
  • Joshua Sieber, Ph.D. (Chemistry)
  • Faedah Totah, Ph.D. (World Studies)
  • Amanda Wintersieck, Ph.D., and Alexandra Reckendorf, Ph.D. (Political Science)
  • Rebecca Gibson, Ph.D. (Anthropology)
  • Sierra Beecher, Ph.D. (Biology)
  • Jaclyn Vick, Ph.D. (Biology)
  • Cara Cario, Ph.D., and Jennifer Olson, Ph.D. (Biology)
  • Gastón I. Jofre Rodríguez, Ph.D. (Biology)
  • Jody Cox, Mason Hester and Aimee Ellington, Ph.D. (Math)
  • Oyita Udiani, Ph.D., Rani Satyam, Ph.D., and David Chan, Ph.D. (Math)
  • Caddie Alford, Ph.D. (English)
  • Daniel Morales, Ph.D. (History)
  • Danielle Kirkman, Ph.D., and Matthew Scott (Kinesiology and Health Sciences)
  • Nicholas Wong, Ph.D. (Math)
  • Jessica Trisko Darden, Ph.D. (Political Science)
  • Amanda Wintersieck, Ph.D., and Allie Reckendorf, Ph.D. (Political Science)
  • Chris Burdett, Ph.D., and Bill Newmann, Ph.D. (Political Science)
  • Ellen Carpenter, Ph.D. (Psychology)
  • Judith W. Crenshaw (Robertson)
  • Tim Bajkiewicz, Ph.D. (Robertson)
  • Mariam Alkazemi, Ph.D. (Robertson), and Julie Zinnert, Ph.D. (Biology)
  • Frankie Mastrangelo, Ph.D. (Sociology)

Lift Grants

Lift Grants supported the professional development of non-tenure eligible faculty to enhance their valued contributions to CHS’s teaching and service missions and to help them achieve career milestones as delineated by the CHS promotion and tenure guidelines. Examples:

  • Certification programs, training, conference fees and travel
  • Curricular development
  • Creation of course content
  • Research and scholarship on teaching, learning and other relevant fields
  • Salary support or the purchase of software licenses or equipment for use in the classroom

Lift Grant Recipients

July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025

  • Sierra Beecher, Department of Biology
  • Ellen Carpenter, Department of Psychology
  • Rachel Gevlin, Department of English
  • Colleen Higgins, Department of Biology
  • Maxwell Holle, Department of Chemistry
  • Robert Milazzo, Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture
  • Yelena Prok, Department of Physics
  • Alexandra Reckendorf, Department of Political Science

Spring Term 2024

  • John Brinegar, Department of English, Revising ENGL 215 To Emphasize English-Related Career Skills In Health Fields
  • Alix Bryan-Campos, Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture, Newsroom Development
  • James Fritz, Department of Philosophy, The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent: Connections Between Emotional Neutrality and Value
  • Rebecca Gibson, School of World Studies, Expanding Opportunities Through Accessibility: Examining Mobility Options for Future Study Abroad Trip
  • Maxwell Holle, Department of Chemistry, Development and Implementation of Specifications Grading Policies for an Analytical Chemistry Lab
  • Michael Keller, Department of English, The Blackbird Founders Archive Educational Initiative
  • Frankie Mastrangelo, Department of Sociology, Social Transformation Incubator for Living Learning Labs
  • Maureen Mathews, Department of Psychology, Increasing EDI in a History of Psychology Course: Using Archival Data and Artifacts to Enhance Student Learning
  • Anita Nadal, School of World Studies, Engagement in Community: Pedagogy, Identity, and Recognizing Impact
  • Derek O'Leary, Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture, Enriching MASC 383: User Experience - Unveiling a Toolkit for Enhanced Experiential Learning
  • Tricia Smith, Department of Biology, Identifying Factors Affecting Diverse Student Mental Health and Academic Success Using Artificial Intelligence and Network Analysis
  • Christine Booker, Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences - Pursuing an Online Certificate Program
  • Gretchen Comba, Professor, Department of English - Tidal Basin: Linked Stories
  • Catherine Connon, Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Science - STRmix: Untangling DNA mixtures
  • Eli Coston, Assistant Professor, Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies - Social Justice Case Studies: A Pedagogical Intervention in GSWS Introductory Courses   
  • Judith Crenshaw, Instructor, Robertson School of Media and Culture - Tools and Resources for Inclusive Learning: An EID Toolkit for Teaching
  • Bernard Means, Assistant Professor, School of World Studies - Revisiting Peale’s Mastodon and America’s First Scientific Expedition
  • Kamilia Rahmouni, Assistant Professor, School of World Studies - ‘Giving Voice’ to Students: Arabic Heritage Learner’s Attitudes Towards Second Dialect Learning
  • Maria Carolina Yaber, Associate Professor, Department of Biology - General Education Assessment Program at VCU (ConnectED); Leadership and Execution of the Program

Catalyst Award Recipients

Kevin Brosnan, Philosophy; Susan Bodnar-Deren, Sociology; and Kenda Sutton-EL, Birth in Color community partner
Health Science in the Time of Uncertainty: Public Health and the Politicization of Science

Maryanne Collinson, Chemistry, and Dexian Ye, Physics
Electrosynthetic approaches to making high surface area, nanoporous reduced graphene oxide composite electrodes

Craig Larson, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics; David Edwards, Statistical Science and Operations Research; and J. Paul Brooks, School of Business
New Methods for Computational Discovery of Patterns in Data

Joann Richardson, Kinesiology and Health Sciences, and Faika Zanjani, Department of Gerontology (with co-investigators)
Sole2Soul: Cultural line dancing as a novel approach to improving physical activity for healthy aging in older African Americans

Julio Alvarez, Biology, and Derek Prosser, Psychology
Single Microbe Electrochemistry