Humanities and Social-Sciences Research Funding Announced

The Office of the Provost has awarded funding for 17 humanities and social-sciences research projects through two initiatives:

• The Integrative Social-Science Research Initiative, which seeks to expand Pitt social scientists’ involvement in research that uses integrative approaches from multiple disciplines. Funding is awarded for new collaborations, up to $50,000 per project. 

• The Special Initiative to Promote Scholarly Activities in the Humanities supports proposals for new scholarly projects or to advance existing efforts. The maximum funding amount is $20,000, with most projects funded at $5,000 or less. The initiative is open to individuals or groups of tenure and tenure-stream faculty in the humanities.

The awardees and projects for the Integrative Social-Science Research Initiative are:

Evaluating Legal Institutional Reforms in Countries with Weak Rule of Law

Principal Investigator: Steven Finkel, Department Chair and Daniel H. Wallace Professor of Political Science

Co-Investigators: Ronald Brand, Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg University Professor and Distinguished Faculty Scholar, School of Law; Louis Picard, director of the Ford Institute for Human Security, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs; and Chris Belasco, research and analysis coordinator, the Ford Institute

Developing Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Gender and Violence Research

Principal Investigator: Sara Goodkind, associate professor, School of Social Work, Department of Sociology, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program

Co-Investigators: Kathleen Blee, Distinguished Professor of Sociology; Lisa Brush, professor of sociology; Muge Finkel, assistant professor, Graduate School of Public and International  Affairs; Rachel Fusco, chair, direct practice concentration, and associate professor, School of Social Work and Clinical and Translational Science Institute; and Elizabeth Miller, associate professor of pediatrics, School of Medicine, and chief of adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

Pitt History Digital Initiative

Principal Investigator: Holger Hoock, J. Carroll Amundson Professor of British History

Co-Investigators: Alison Langmead, joint faculty appointment in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the School of Information Sciences; Aaron Brenner, coordinator of digital scholarship, University Library System

A Novel Interdisciplinary Initiative to Promote the Innovative Uses of Social Media and Mobile Technologies for Health at the University of Pittsburgh

Principal Investigator: Andrew Stephen, assistant professor of business administration and Katz Fellow in Marketing, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business

Co-Investigators: Bruce Rollman, professor of medicine, psychiatry, biomedical informatics, and clinical and translational science; Lora Burke, professor of health and community systems, School of Nursing; Michael Spring, associate professor, School of Information Sciences

The Special Initiative to Promote Scholarly Activities in Humanities awardees are:

Making Monty

Robert Clift, assistant professor of film studies, Department of English

Decomposing Bodies

Josh Ellenbogen, associate professor in history of photography and modern art, Department of History of Art and Architecture, and Alison Langmead, joint faculty appointment in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the School of Information Sciences

Translation of Adriana Helbig’s Book, Hip Hop Ukraine: Music, Race, and African Migration

Adriana Helbig, associate professor, Department of Music

Snow Fence Project

Delanie Jenkins, associate professor and chair, Department of Studio Arts 

Sonic Cultures in the Transition to Sound in Indian Cinema

Neepa Majumdar, associate professor of English and film studies, Department of English

Documenting Russell Atkins: The Complete Poems and Other Writings

Dawn Lundy Martin, associate professor, Department of English’s Writing Program 

A Rhetoric of Science Analysis of Alleged Research Misconduct in National Missile Defense Testing

Gordon Mitchell, associate professor, Department of Communication, and assistant dean, University Honors College

Gamaliel Churata’s Avant-Garde Journalism

Elizabeth Monasterios, associate professor of Latin American literature, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures

Caribbean Military Encounters

Shalini Puri, associate professor and director, Department of English’s Literature Program, and Lara Putnam, professor and chair, Department of History

Transgender France

Todd Reeser, director, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program; professor of French, Department of French and Italian Languages and Literatures

Advance Work on a Digital Humanities Project from Pilot Stage: Footprints-Tracking Early Modern Jewish Books Through Time and Space

Adam Shear, associate professor, Department of Religious Studies 

Historical Novel Centering on the Last Year in the Life of Ulysses S. Grant

Peter Trachtenberg, assistant professor, Department of English’s Writing Program

Cineshape: A Music and Video Collaboration of Amy Williams and Aaron Henderson

Amy Williams, associate professor, Department of Music