Humanities and Social Sciences Projects Funding Awardees Announced

The Office of the Provost has awarded funding for 14 humanities and social sciences research projects through two initiatives:

The Integrative Social Science Research Initiative 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:

Clouded Judgement: Air Pollution and Decision Making in China

Principal Investigator: Iza (Yue) Ding, assistant professor, Department of Political Science

Co-Investigators: Andrea La Nauze, assistant professor, Department of Economics; Graham Beattie, postdoctoral assignment, Department of Economics 

We are strong! Leveraging Information Technology to Empower Marginalized Communities

Principal Investigator: Rosta Farzan, assistant professor, School of Information Sciences 

Co-Investigators: Jaime Booth, assistant professor, School of Social Work; Mary L. Ohmer, associate professor, School of Social Work 

Development of Interdisciplinary Geophysical and Geochemical Methods for the Analysis and Spatial Modeling of Prehistoric Landscapes in the Frank Church Wilderness, Idaho, and Southeastern Slovenia

Principal Investigator: Bryan Hanks, associate professor and chair, Department of Anthropology

Co-Investigator: Rosemary Capo, associate professor, Department of Geology and Environmental Science 

Chinese Nuclear Power: Growth Prospects, Challenges, Global Impact

Principal Investigator: Ravi Madhavan, professor of business administration, Alcoa Foundation International Faculty Fellow, and director of the International Business Center, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business 

Co-Investigators: Daniel G. Cole, associate professor and director of the Stephen R. Tritch Nuclear Engineering Program, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science; Thomas G. Rawski, professor of economics and history, Department of Economics, and UCIS Research Professor; Kaoru (Kay) Shimizu, research assistant professor, Department of Political Science

From Barely Making It To…? Effects of Raising Wages Among Low-Wage Workers

Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Shook, associate professor and doctoral program director, School of Social Work

Co-Investigators: Waverly Duck, assistant professor, Department of Sociology; Rafael Engel, associate professor, School of Social Work; Sara Goodkind, associate professor, School of Social Work, Department of Sociology, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program; Rachel Fusco, associate professor, School of Social Work, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and Direct Practice Concentration chair; Sera Linardi, assistant professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Economics

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

Earl Theisen, Film Historical Display, and the Film Frame Collection at the Los Angeles Museum in the 1930s

Mark Lynn Anderson, associate professor, Department of English

Digital Mitford Project Initiatives: Prosopography Research, Interface Design, and Data Visualization 

Elisa Beshero-Bondar, associate professor of English Literature, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg

Lombards Abroad: Aesthetics, Abstraction, and Identity across the twelfth-century Alps

Shirin Fozi, assistant professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture

Genealogies of the Transgender Child: Sex, Race, and Organic Form

Julian Gill-Peterson, assistant professor, Department of English

Advancing the Birkbeck/Pittsburgh Collaboration: Summer Workshop on Urban Change 

Randall Halle, Klaus W. Jonas Professor of German Film and Cultural Studies and chair, Department of German

Between Religious Aesthetics and State Discipline: The Islamic Artistic Scene in the UK 

Jeanette Jouili, assistant professor, Department of Religious Studies

Cave Canem Oral History Project

Dawn Lundy Martin, associate professor, Department of English

Déjà vu Blue

Michael Morrill, associate professor, Department of Studio Arts

Little Hands and Mouths: Children’s Literature, Commerce, and Relationality in the Early Atlantic World

Courtney Weikle-Mills, associate professor and director of the Children’s Literature Program, Department of English