Fellowship Recipients

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2022-2023:

DENISE BEN-PORATH, Psychology
Dr. Ben-Porath will conduct research on cross generational changes in attitudes regarding stigma and mental health treatment and the role social media play in moderating stigma and willingness to seek mental health treatment. (SP23)

CHRYSTAL BRUCE, Chemistry
Dr. Bruce will carry out three projects:  1) will describe the properties of a class of therapeutic drug targets at the molecular level to aid in designing better medications; 2) will use mathematical models to predict student performance on standardized exams in chemistry; and 3) will evaluate the use of peer mentoring networks to support mid-career women STEM faculty in their professional advancement. (FA22/SP23)

REBECCA FANG, Mathematics
Dr. Fang will focus on the research on multivariate phenotypes for rare variants.  A phenotype is used in genetics for the composite observable characteristics or traits of an organism.  Multivariate phenotypes contain more information than univariate phenotypes in genetic association studies.  By joint analysis of multiple related phenotypes, we not only gain more statistical power to detect causal variants, but we can also better understand the genetic architecture of the disease of interest.  Dr. Fang intends to develop a framework to jointly analyze different types of phenotypes and efficiently detect causal rare variants.  In addition, she will incorporate her research in undergraduate education. (FA22-Deferred to FA23)

JISOK KANG, Economics and Finance
Dr. Kang will carry out two research projects related to corporate reactions to climate challenges, as firms have not only caused but may also play a significant role in helping to solve many of our environmental and social issues.  The projects are as follows:  1) investigate whether a firm's local conditions affect its commitment to environmental issues; and 2) test whether financial markets value or discredit a firm's commitment to environmental issues. (SP23)

JAMES LISSEMORE, Biology
Dr. Lissemore will identify additional proteins that assist Hsp90 in the normal function of reproductive stem cells and normal embryo development in C. elegans. (Hsp90, a protein important for folding other proteins into their correct three dimensional shapes, is required for proper stem cells in the reproductive system of the well-studied roundworm C. elegans.  It is also necessary for proper development of embryos.) (SP23)

DANIEL REYNOLDS, Education
Dr. Reynolds will support weak decoders in high school (that is, readers who read printed test aloud automatically) by assessing their needs, building an intervention that extends research from younger grades, and evaluating its effect on reading outcomes.  While most students master decoding in upper elementary grades, some adolescents have not yet mastered it, and interventions for them do not specifically target decoding needs. (FA22)

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2021-2022:

CARL ANTHONY, Biology
Dr. Anthony will write four papers for submission to peer-reviewed academic journals.  Three papers stem from prior work on how behavioral traits of animals affect both ecological and evolutionary processes; the fourth paper will explore how Eastern Red-backed Salamanders contribute to carbon retention in temperate forests, an important factor in mitigating human-caused climate change.

DENIZ DURMUS, Philosophy
Dr. Durmus will analyze the sexism present in doctor-patient encounters where women's symptoms are dismissed as being "all in their heads."  The study will focus on stories of women who have been mistreated by the medical system and also look at long-term implications of treatment being delayed due to misdiagnosis or non-diagnosis.

NATHAN GEHLERT, Counseling
Dr. Gehlert will focus on the development of mental healthcare services in Vietnam, which are severely lacking.  To address the need for research, evidence-based training, and expansion of services, this project centers on three goals: to (a) validate Western psychological assessment in Vietnam, (b) contribute to curriculum offerings in Vietnam, and (c) expand an exchange program with faculty and students at JCU.

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2020-2021:

RICHARD CLARK, Sociology and Criminology (Deferred)
Dr. Clark will complete a manuscript on death row long-term inmate Pen Pals, based on an analysis of letters written by 24 inmates to a 95-year-old woman.

JEFFREY DYCK, Physics (Deferred)
Dr. Dyck will focus on performing specialized electrical and thermal transport property measurements as a function of light illumination on a prospective solar cell material. The approach taken is aimed at elucidating the reasons that the solar power conversion efficiency in this material degrades over time due to material instability.  The results will aid in assessing the material's promise for high efficiency solar cell device applications.  

JULIA KAROLLE-BERG, Classical, Modern Languages, and Culture
Dr. Karolle-Berg will conduct research as part of writing a literary history of the German-language crime and detective literature (Kriminalliteratur) from the 1980s to the mid-1930s.  This history would be the writing of a first chapter and two case studies, which would comprise the first part of the proposed monograph.

ELENA MANILICH, Mathematics & Computer Science (Deferred)
Dr. Manilich will develop a set of prognostic models for patients with colorectal cancer.  Machine learning algorithms and 3-D data visualization tools will be used to build prognostic models that explain complex interplay among clinical and histologic factors and predict survival of patients with colorectal cancer after a radical potentially curative resection. 

PHILIP METRES, English
Dr. Metres will construct, revise, and complete The Garden of Broken, his fifth book of poems, a meditation on home and love in an age of global climate change, conflict, and forced migration.  The book will continue to develop my concept of cosmopoetics--making visible our intimate connection to places like Syria and Mexico, at the borders of our country and in our own city of Cleveland.

DANIEL PALMER, Mathematics & Computer Science (Deferred)
Dr. Palmer will conduct a comprehensive review of the literature and develop a conceptual framework of neurodiversity in the workplace. The project will focus on identifying job entry barriers in recruitment and employees selection.  Practical solutions will be provided along with recommendations for future research. 

DEBBY ROSENTHAL, English (Deferred)
Dr. Rosenthal will write the fourth chapter of my current monograph, Contemporary American Environmental Literature and Class Politics, and to write a comprehensive introduction to a volume of essays she is editing entitled Cli-Fi and Class (University of Virginia Press).

ZEKI SARITOPRAK, Theology & Religious Studies (Deferred)
Dr. Saritoprak will complete the manuscript of a book of Islamic understandings of death, dying, and the hereafter.

MARK SHELDON, Accountancy (Deferred)
Dr. Sheldon will study business mangers' perceptions of the validity of transactions executed on a blockchain when the execution of these transactions depends on a separate agent to observe the outcome of real-world event and inform an automated procedure to (or not to) execute the associated transaction.

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2019-2020:

MEDORA BARNES, Sociology and Criminology
Dr. Barnes will research how both Catholic seminary students and male college students with differing vocational plans form their gender identity and engage in daily performative aspects of "doing gender".  The project builds on previous studies of both hegemonic and hybrid masculinities, and examines how these models may support or undermine current systems of gender inequality.

GEORGE BILGERE, English
Dr. Bilgere will continue to work on his eighth collection of poems. His last collection, Blood Pages, was published in February 2018.

GREG DiLISI, Education
Dr. DiLisi will work on several articles intended for publication in The Physics Teacher, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Association of Physics Teachers.  The lead article will describe a pedagogical approach for presenting case studies to undergraduate students enrolled in introductory-level physics courses.  Additional articles will showcase specific case studies as a means of teaching various topics in physics.

M. KATE DOUD, Chemistry
Ms. Doud will work on developing chemical probes that can be used to better understand biological systems.  This specific project focuses on inhibiting a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of a class of DNA bases as a way of controlling cell growth.

WILLIAM ELLIOTT, Economics and Finance
Dr. Elliott will explore and define a financing constraint that corporations face.  Specifically, the contraint is the maximum number of shares that a firm may issue (i.e., authorized shares). In the short run this maximum may be binding, which may limit management from engaging in some profitable projects.

RODNEY HESSINGER, History
Dr. Hessinger will examine sexual scandal in the religious marketplace in the early American republic.  Beyond sexual abuse, there was also religious innovation in sexual and gender practices within particular denomination and sects, opening new opportunities for women.  Whether gaining women by deception, innovation, of concession, churches had to react to women's expanded volition in religion.

BO LIU, Art History and Humanities
Dr. Liu will study tomb murals from China's Jin dynasty (1115-1234).  Using perspectives and methodologies of art history and archaeology, she will address the development of literati artistic expression in the Jin tomb murals, a field that has not been studied by scholars.  

SHEILA McGINN, Theology & Religious Studies
Dr. McGinn will develop the first chapter of a book project on the early Christian apocryphal "Acts of Thecla" (aka the Acts of Paul and Thecla). The overall book will entail a socio-rhetorical (SRI) commentary on this early Christian legend, that is, a close (line-by-line) examination of the text, against the backdrop of its socio-cultural context, giving particular attention to the persuasive aims, strategies, and techniques used to motivate the audience. 

PAUL NIETUPSKI, Theology and Religious Studies 
Dr. Nietupski will prepare an article for publication in a prominent Asian studies journal based on a chapter in the seventh century scholar Gunaprabha's Vinayasutra. The Vinayasutra is central to Indian and Tibetan Buddhist monastic institutions during the medieval era (seventh and eighth centuries C.E.) and succeeding centuries up to the present, but is not fully studied or translated. 

RALPH SAPORITO, Biology
Dr. Saporito will analyze a form a parental care in tropical poison frogs, wherein mothers provide chemical protection to their developing tadpoles.  In particular, he will examine how chemical defense levels in a mother relate to what she provides her offspring. 

MICHAEL SETTER, Chemistry
Dr. Setter will develop an electrochemical technique to determine the composition of metal oxide powders at various depths into the powder.  Such technique will provide a more complete surface analysis of powders than is capable with existing techniques.   

ELIZABETH STILES, Political Science
Dr. Stiles will focus on the phenomenon of shocks in politics.  In political primaries, for example, shocks could include a scandal, a particularly robust or lackluster fundraising report, or a speaking gaffe. The challenge is to model the shocks, some of which are unanticipated, in a way that will provide predictive power and make the shift to empirical work in social networks. 

JAMES WATLING, Biology
Dr. Watling will use satellite imagery to generate new estimates of matrix quality (the vegetation cove in which habitat patches are embedded in the landscape) in landscapes where biological responses to fragmentation are known, and test for an association between matrix quality and the strength of habitat fragmentation effects, which involves the breaking apart of continuous habitat areas into multiple, smaller patches. 

YINGLU (ELLE) WU, Management, Marketing, and Supply Chain
Dr. Wu will examine online employee word-of-mouth through the employee reviews posted on job sites such as Glassdoor.com.  The research project will further investigate how employee word-of-mouth can affect a company's financial performance. 

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2018-2019:

LESLIE CURTIS, Art History and Humanities
Dr. Curtis will focus on a group of drawings, pastels, and oil paintings dealing with the theme of Orpheus in the work of the French artist Odilon Redon (1840-1916).

ALISON DACHNER, Management, Marketing, & Supply Chain
Dr. Dachner will identify characteristics unique to the engaging emerging adults.  Using an abundance of research and theory relevant to employee engagement and retention; however, the life-stage of the individual is often ignore. Will integrate distinct areas of research to provide a general understanding for managing and/or educating emerging adults. By integrating these distinct lines of research, I will start the conversation in the literature, ultimately advancing both management theory and practice.

MARCUS GALLO, History
Dr. Gallo will coauthor a biography of George Croghan with Dr. William Campbell, University of Memphis, Croghan was an influential long distance trader, land speculator, diplomat, and agent of the British empire who operated in the Ohio Country in the late colonial period and ultimately joined the American Revolution.

JEFFREY JOHANSEN, Biology
Dr. Johansen will be describing four new species of cyanobacteria in three genera (two of which are new to science).

ERIN JOHNSON, Biology
Dr. Johnson will research developing new strategies for treating viruses, using small molecules to enhance the host’s natural immune responses to infection.  The ability to target the immune system holds promise for avoiding the development of drug resistance.

MARIA MARSILLI, History
Dr. Marsilli will complete a book proposal and an article for submission to a peer-review journal on the writings of Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna, the founding father of Chilean historiography and creator of crucial foundation myths of national identity.

MALIA McANDREW, History
Dr. McAndrew will research and begin to write a biography of Lt. Ethel Weed, Cleveland native who became on of America’s first female military officers.  Using Weeds biography as a way to explore larger themes in recent American women’s history.

KRISTEN TOBEY, Theology & Religious Studies
Dr. Tobey will address a gap in the sociology of religious literature, which deals extensively with joining and leaving religious groups. Will be specifically studying the disaffected Mormons who wish to stay in the church.

PAMELA VANDERZALM, Biology
Will carefully test a possible set of signaling partners for Tao, and the most likely mechanism for Tao’s effect on nervous system development (based on a review of the literature and my preliminary data).  Tao is a protein that is required for making connections between neurons during nervous system development, but we do not yet understand the mechanism by which it does so.  Learning the identity of its partners in this process would shed significant light on the question of how neurons and their target cells make the appropriate strength connections so that signaling will be properly interpreted by the receiving cell.

FENG ZHAN, Economics & Finance
Will use research to try to understand the factors that affects the book-tax differences by examining the inter-connected relationship among firm’s earning management behavior, tax planning activities and the mandatory adoption of IFRS.

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2017-2018:

JEAN FEERICK (English) will research and write both the introduction to and a new chapter for her second book project, called "elemental Shakespeare." The chapter she plans to work on will explicate the links between theories of human economy and patterns of elemental "sharing" that underpin Renaissance conceptions of the natural world as expressed in Timon of Athnes, a play collaboratively written by William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton.

DAN KILBRIDE (History) will complete the research for and write a chapter of a book about what Americans in the middle of the 19th century knew (or thought they knew) about sub-Saharan Africa, how they found out about it, and what they did with that information and misinformation.  The chapter will focus on the tension between missionary and colonization representations of Africa. 

PETER KVIDERA (English) will complete book, which examines literary texts representative of various immigrant groups arriving in the U.S. and, by focusing on theories of space and place, demonstrates how the unique settlement experiences in different regions of the U.S. influence the types of Americanization--and concepts of American identity--that emerge from the stories told.

SOKCHEA LIM (Economics & Finance) will write a theoretical research paper on optimal fiscal policy in a small open economy.  Fiscal policy includes taxes on consumption, labor income, capital income, and remittances.  A model economy is set up and then parameters are input for simulation.  The analysis is conducted to answer the question how the government should respond to economic shocks in the home country and abroad.

JAMES LISSEMORE (Biology) will identify additional proteins that assist Hsp90 in the normal function of reproductive stem cells in C. elegans.  (Hsp90), a protein important for folding other proteins into their correct three-dimensional shapes, is required for proper function of stem cells in the reproductive system of the well-studied roundworm C. elegans. 

CHRISTOPHER SHEIL (Biology) will examine patters of skeletal development in snakes that give birth to live young.  Combine this data with other data from reptiles that have been collected in my lab and have been published by other researchers.  Map this data onto an existing evolutionary tree to study how patterns of development have evolved in reptiles.

DIANNA TAYLOR (Philosophy) will analyze ethical self-transformation among persons in Northern Ireland who lived through the conflict known as the Troubles by drawing on Michel Foucault's philosophy.

WENDY WIEDEHOFT-MURPHY (Sociology & Criminology) will study the consumption practices of poor and low-income consumers, demonstrating that they are active participants in consumer society even though they have limited discretionary income.

JOHN RAUSCH (Education & School Psychology) will pursue a new area of research, and to update current research and teaching areas:  specifically, conduct an exhaustive literature review in the newer field of "emerging adulthood," and then design a study to investigate this topic.

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2016-2017:

CARL ANTHONY (Biology) will write three papers addressing questions about how polymorphism relates to species formation, specifically, the red-back salamander; also, to collect preliminary data on this topic, and to edit and revise a co-authored book on red salamander research.

CHRYSTAL BRUCE (Chemistry) will examine how to shape and other properties of small molecules affect their ability to recognize specific DNA sequences or certain proteins.  (The ability of one molecule to recognize another is important in many biochemical processes necessary for normal function as well as for treating disease.

GWEN COMPTON-ENGLE (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will research, write, and submit an article about the role of the foundling--a child exposed at birth and later discovered--in Greek drama. My particular focus will be on tracing the development of this theme in the period between Greek tragedy (late fifth century) and New Comedy (late fourth century).

NATHAN GEHLERT (Counseling) will analyze data collected from a study investigation the psychometric qualities of ASPIRES (the Assessment of Spiritual and Religious Sentiments) in a sample of Vietnamese nationals, and then to write a publishable article based on those data. 

GERALD GUEST (Art History) will focus on Suger (d. 1151 C.E.), abbot of the French monastery of Saint-Denis, and the ways in which his writings reveal a complex set of attitudes toward religious art objects in the central Middle Ages, thus gauging the sophisticated agency and complex presence attributed to liturgical art objects at this time. 

EDWARD HAHNENBERG (Theology & Religious Studies) will write an original scholarly monograph exploring the often unruly ways people engage and appropriate the culture around them and asking how these social dynamics might illuminate theological reflection on the ways in which ordinary believers navigated highly structured and hierarchical cultures like the Catholic Church.

PAUL LAURITZEN (Theology & Religious Studies) will develop ethical guidelines for psychologists working in national security contexts, an increasingly common phenomenon.

JOHN McBRATNEY (English) will finish a book about the tension between two rival ideological impulses--the provincial and the cosmopolitan--in Victorian literature during one of the most expansive phrases of the British Empire. 

MARIANA ORTEGA (Philosophy) will write an article that will try to explain the manner in which the phenomenological notions of "lived body"and "lived experience" are key to interpretations of photographic representations of marginalized identities and experience and to elaborate on the connection between the aesthetics and the ethico-political realm by illustrating how specific works of art are produced by and produce a "call to conscience" (an attunement to questions of justice in the context of oppression and marginalization)

ANDREAS SOBISCH (Political Science) will re-develop, re-focus, and re-calibrate teaching portfolio after serving ten years as director of the Center for Global Education.

EARL SPURGIN (Philosophy) will produce an article-length manuscript--suitable for submission to a referred journal in philosophy, the scop of which is ethics or applied issues--arguing that, despite it being understandable that many nongovernmental institutions (such as professional sports leagues) levy punishments against individuals for wrongs committed outside the activities of those institutions, such punishment in such justified ethically.

COLIN SWEARINGEN (Political Science) to understand the impact of public attention on presidential primary elections by exploring how public attention influences how much money a candidate raises and seeking to understand how public attention affects a candidate's standing in the polls in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses.

GERALD WEINSTEIN (Accountancy) to undertake a comprehensive review and revision of the undergraduate accounting comprehensive exam taken by AC majors.  This will involve reviewing all questions and changing the exam to test higher-level (Bloom taxonomy) skills, computerizing the administration of the exam, and providing a mechanism to revise it more easily going forward.  

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2015-2016:

MATT BERG (History) will examine the reconstitution of the Vienna Municipal School District during the post WWII years; focusing on the denazification of teachers, the pupils’ physical and psychological condition, and the introduction of new civics and history curricula.

CECILE BRENNAN (Counseling) will investigate the literature about the intersection of religion, spirituality, and mental health, with particular attention to how various religious and spiritual traditions understand the role of emotions, cognition, and transcendent states in healthy human development.

KRISTEN EHRHARDT (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will examine the extant evidence of later, repeated performances of archaic Greek lyric poetry to understand how the poetry retained relevance in later eras.

ADDUL IMAM (Psychological Science) will undertake Board Certified Behavior Analyst training and develop a curricular proposal for a master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis.

TRACY MASTERSON (Psychological Science) will undertake Board Certified Behavior Analyst training and develop a curricular proposal for a master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis.

SIMON FITZPATRICK (Philosophy) will research and write an article about a fast-growing field in contemporary philosophy, which is concerned with the question of whether some non-human animals possess a capacity for moral reasoning.

JULIA KAROLLE-BERG (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will complete research and write an article-length analysis of how the early German-language crime and detective novel (Kriminalroman) was being defined in contemporary literary criticism.

JOSEPH KELLY (Theology & Religious Studies) will write a history of the religious Christmas in the United States.

LINDA KOCH (Art History and Humanities) will unearth the entwined political and religious significance of a Renaissance mural painting representing the Mystic Lamb, located in the Medici palace in Florence.

LUIGI FERRI (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will complete two articles on C. E. Gadda, arguably the most important Italian writer of the 20th century.  A study of his novels will consider his controversial relationship with Italian fascism, as well as Italy’s current socio-political situations.

BRIAN MACASKILL (English) will continue an ongoing project concerning J. M. Coetzee’s later fiction, writing an essay incorporating recent graphical performances of celebrated artist William Kentridge.

PHILIP METRES (English) will revise and complete “Shrapnel Maps,” book-length contrapuntal poetic exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that will investigate and dramatize the personal and historical wounds at the core of that conflict from multiple points of view and offer a vision of a just peace.

DAVID SHUTKIN (Education & School Psychology) will research implications of integration technology into education of the theory of the extended mind, concerned with the location of human cognition between the brain, the body and the material world.

JAYME STAYER, S.J. (English) will trace T. S. Eliot’s artistic and rhetorical development as he composed the poems in his first notebook and, at the same time, track parallel transitions in his personal maturation.

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2014-2015:

GEORGE BILGERE (English) will begin work on his seventh collection of poetry.

EMILY BUTLER (English) will complete her book manuscript tentatively titled “The Echoing Text: Language and Community in Early England,” in which she will argue perceptions of linguistic distance or difference, perhaps paradoxically, and encourage textual interactions.

ANGIE CANDA (Psychology will investigate and write an article about the source of the orthographic texture effect. Orthographic texture refers to the idea that when letters in a word are activated for spelling, they have differing levels of strength.  As the result of these differences, some letters are spelled more accurately in a word than others.

REBECCA DRENOVSKY (Biology) will study how internannual variation of nutrient resorption might be linked to the nutrient conservation processes and how it is driven by environmental factors. The overall objective of the proposed work is to understand the interaction among plant nutrient conservation traits and environmental variation.

KAREN GYGLI (Communication & Theatre Arts) will expand her article about the use of film noir motifs in Asian-Candian plays into a book proposal and will add a chapter about how the use of film noir motifs is a means to confront assumptions about gender and ethnicity, as well as Canadian nationalism.

JEANNE JENKINS (Education & School Psychology) will, in collaboration with a colleague at Cleveland State University, launch the second phase of a study that will employ mixed methodological approach to examine school psychology supervisors’ experiences, perceptions, and practices related to school psychology intern supervision.

MARC KIRSCHENBAUM (Mathematics & Computer Science) will use the Human Assisted Swarm Simulation Tool developed at John Carroll University to collect and analyze data to demonstrate the effectiveness of combining human, high-level deductive reasoning with random, low-level swarm behavior as a problem solving paradigm.  The analysis will help to understand the process of how a simple swarm agent translates a high-level human command into actions.

BO LIU (Art History & Humanities) will work on her book manuscript Political Expression in Song dynasty Fan Painting and an article entitled “From Horse to Ox: Self-Identification of Scholar Officials in the Song Dynasty.” These contextualized studies reposition fan paintings within their specific sociohistorical contexts and examine how traditional imagery was revived and imbued with new meaning by Song scholars to promote their sociopolitical agendas.

PAUL NIETUPSKI (Theology & Religious Studies), will study the inclusion of nontraditional ritual behavior and ethical theory in the inherited corpus of Buddhist monastic practices in seventh and eighth century India.  His project relies on little-studied texts of the day analyzing the evolution of Indian religious and intellectual history and it will include a discussion of its relevance to modern applied ethical theory.

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2013-2014:

SCOTT ALLEN (Management, Marketing, and Logistics) will accelerate
the development of an empirically testable model of leadership development, which is an emerging field of research and study.

MEDORA BARNES (Sociology and Criminology) will organize, transcribe, and analyze qualitative data from a study that uses in-depth interviews to explore the ways parents who conceived their children using an anonymous sperm donor construct a sense of family.

CARRIE BUCHANAN (Communication and Theatre Arts) will examine how three hyperlocal publications that serve Cleveland’s Heights communities build a sense of place and how they compare to one another in that regard.

SANTA CASCIANI (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will finish and proof two major articles, “The Darkness of Silence: Bonaventure and Dante,” and “The Tears of Love: Dante and the Franciscans.”

MICHAEL ENG (Philosophy) will complete the final chapter of a book-length manuscript “The Scene of the Voice: Language and the Aisthesis of Finitude.”

JEFF JOHANSEN (Biology) will study cyanobacterial strains isolated from tropical regions, with emphasis on collections from the Hawaiian Islands.

ERIN JOHNSON (Biology) will use small organic compounds to enhance the mammalian immune response to viral infections.

DAVID MASCOTTI (Chemistry) will explore further the molecular basis of how an enzyme that is known to protect all living things from free radical damage binds to, and perhaps, protects preferred regions of our DNA and RNA.

NAVEED PIRACHA (Physics) will study atoms and their characteristics using lasers.

CATHERINE ROSEMARY (Education and Allied Studies) will develop further two studies focusing on: (a) theoretical bases and components of instructional coaching programs; (b) inquiry processes used by coaches to scaffold teachers’ decision-making about effective instructional practices; and (c) contextual and individual factors that influence instructional coaching.

LINDA SEITER (Mathematics and Computer Science) will produce a framework for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking in grades K-8.

YI SHANG (Education and Allied Studies) will develop a study to counteract the measurement-error-induced bias of growth models and improve the validity of teacher and school evaluations.

PEIFANG TIAN (Physics) will theoretically model light propagation in a complex medium, such as the living cortex using Monte Carlo simulation, which allows more accurate interpretation of optical imaging studies.

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2012-2013:

DENISE BEN-PORATH (Psychology) will develop a program that adapts Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to assist parents who foster emotionally disturbed children.  The goal is to develop an 18 hour program for foster parents who would then participate in Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau Foster Care Program.

JEFFREY DYCK (Physics) will investigate the impact that reducing the crystal size (“Nano structuring”) has on the relationship between the structure, composition, and electrical and thermal transport properties for novel thermoelectric materials (solid crystalline compounds that are the basis of devices that convert heat energy into electrical energy and vice versa.)

JAMES LISSEMORE (Biology) will work to determine the molecular identity of (in other words, to clone) the ego-3 gene, mutations in which disrupt proper function of stem cells in the reproductive system of the well-studied soil roundworm C. elegans.

MALIA McANDREW (History) will research and write a new section on the subject of lesbian beauty culture that will expand on larger themes in her book project on beauty culture in the United States from 1945-1972.

DANIEL PALMER (Mathematics and Computer Science) will apply social networking techniques and swarm concepts to investigate whether these approaches can help teams of radiologists find consensus in their diagnosis of medical images. Collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic and immersion in the health care information technology environment will also serve to update professional software skills, and gain firsthand knowledge of an important area of application for computer science.

DEBBY ROSENTHAL (English) will write the last chapter, introduction, and conclusion to complete a book manuscript, currently titled “Performative Speech in the American Renaissance.”

CHRISTOPHER SHEIL (Biology) will expand his research to document and describe the relative timing and sequence of appearance of bones in the skeletons of frogs and turtles during early development.  These data are collected for a large number of species, and comparisons are then made among them to better understand the biological process of how a skeleton forms.

WENDY WIEDENHOFT-MURPHY (Sociology) will write an introductory textbook on consumer society and culture for an undergraduate audience.  This work will address conceptualizing consumption and consumers, contemporary application of specific consumer issues, including food and tourism, and the ethical dimensions of consumption, particularly boycotts and buycotts, moralizing consumption in affluent societies, and the emergence of mass consumption in developing countries.

Grauel Faculty Fellowship Recipients 2011-2012:

CARL ANTHONY (Biology) will write up to three articles on the results of data indicating how behavioral interactions among organisms can influence where we find different species, particularly the red-backed salamander.

GERRY GUEST (Art History) will consider ways in which medieval images of three Old Testament figures can or cannot be read as moral and aesthetic exemplars, especially with regard to figurations of masculinity and physical idealism.

PAUL LAURTIZEN (Theology and Religious Studies) will complete two chapters of a book tentatively titled “Professional Responsibility in an Age of Terror.”

TOM NEVIN (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will work on a book manuscript, tentatively titled “The Murder of God,” that examines doubt, denial, and betrayal among German Protestant thinkers.

MARIANA ORTEGA(Philosophy) will write a chapter titled “Multiplicitous Subjectivity: Interpretative Horizons and Self Craft,” for a monograph titled “Being-in-Worlds: Latina Feminist Phenomenology and the Self.”

Summer Research Fellowships 2022:

SOKCHEA LIM (Economics & Finance) will analyze the impact of labor migration on economic development by considering the effect of migrant workers on the investment flows of firms from the country where migrants work to the country from with they emigrated.

MARIA MARSILLI (History) will collect archival information on the family lineage of "La Quintrala," the iconic figure of the female criminal in colonial Chile. Focusing on her mixed race (mestiza) ancestry, since it has often been used to explain her depravity.  The research will contribute to the larger conversation about the attributes attached to mestizaje in Chilean national identity. (Deferred to SUM2023)

SARA PARRISH (Education) will reanalyze the data from a research project done a few years ago in order to write an article on the topic for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.  The project is on the use of nonfiction children's literature and the discussion strategies used to support understanding of the genre.

ANNA SIMONSON (Exercise Science & Sports Leadership) will investigate student dietary habits utilizing survey data on behaviors such as meal skipping, supplement use, weight management techniques, cooking at home, and ordering out.  The project also addresses the rationale as to why students are exhibiting these behaviors with the goal of implementing necessary change.

Summer Research Fellowships 2021:

RICHARD CLARK (Sociology & Criminology) & MALIA McANDREW (History) will develop and offer a JCU course at the Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Northeast Ohio Reintegration Center, a minimum security women's facility located on East 30th Street in Cleveland. This program would be based on the Inside-Outside Exchange Program located at Temple University.  The program offers college level instruction in prisons and is designed to bring together campus based college students and incarcerated individuals in a common classroom for a semester long college course. (see https://www.insideoutcenter. 

Summer Research Fellowships 2020:

STACY ASTROVE (Management, Marketing and Supply Chain) "You Can't Always Get What You Want:  Changes in Employee Perceptions of Job Characteristics Over Time", examines the differences in what emerging adults thought they wanted when the accepted a job versus their satisfaction with what they actually received when they became employees.  Will examine how these differences affect overall job satisfaction and turnover over time.

PAULA BRITTON (Counseling) using survey research, will assess the knowledge and attitudes of mental health professionals towards the use of medical marijuana for treatment of mental health diagnoses.  Gathering information on how knowledgeable providers are in the process of referring clients who meet the criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to a recommending psychiatrist as well as whether they think this is a good idea.  Knowledge about the efficacy of this form of treatment will also be assessed.

KENNETH CHAPLIN (Sociology & Criminology) during his Fulbright at the Institute for Gender and Development/IDGS, Dr. Chaplin's focus was on men and masculinities in sport and higher ed.  While in Trinidad, he explored the everyday lives and activities of young men who were involved with guns and gangs.  Many of these young men were involved in sports as a deterrent to gang life but were dealing with issues related to 'being men'  and masculinity.  Using the data he plans to code and categorize this data and write research articles based on the lives and experiences of these young men as they dealt with being young men and masculinities in sport and higher ed, all-the-while negotiating guns and gangs.

REBECCA DRENOVSKY (Biology) gypsum soils, which have a unique and harsh chemistry, are globally distributed and home to diverse plant communities.  However, relatively little research has  investigated why some plants are successful and well-adapted to these soils.  Dr. Drenovsky seeks to elucidate patterns in plant tissue chemistry that may help us understand why certain plant groups are so successful on these intriguing soils.

JEAN FEERICK (English) has been invited to contribute a chapter on "Science and the Environment" to The Arden Research Handbook to Shakespeare and his Contemporaries, which will co-edited by Michelle Dowd and Tom Rutter and published by Arden.

DANIELLE KARA (Physics) will investigate, understand, and quantify the physical properties of disease agents and magnetic nanoparticles that allow for disease detection using a table-top, magneto-optical device (MOD).

PAUL NIETUPSKI (Theology & Religious Studies) will finalize and introduce a translation of a section of medieval Indian Buddhist monastic document. Translation and introduction will be consolidated with three published articles and translations in peer-reviewed journals, and with four conference papers.  

YI SHANG (Education & School Psychology) study uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K-2011) to estimate the effect of authentic versus school-only texts on academic and reading-behavioral outcomes.

DIANNA TAYLOR (Philosophy) will write a book chapter which presents women's rage and defensive violence (especially that of victims/survivors) as justifiable and necessary responses to systemic sexual violence against women in the contemporary United States. The chapter will show that rage and defensive violence counter gender relations of power that give rise to and broadly legitimize sexual violence, as well as both sexual violence itself and the sexual humiliation it inflicts.

Summer Research Fellowships 2019:

CHRYSTAL BRUCE (Chemistry) will study how molecules with different shapes and distributions of charges interact with a protein responsible for cell growth and function.  The time-dependent and time-averaged behavior provide insight into important steps of biochemical processes and design of molecules to control biological function.

DENIZ DURMUS (Philosophy) project provides answers to two ethical questions: (i) Why should we care for those in need? (ii) How should we care for those in need?  Drawing on Simone de Beauvoir's existentialist ethics, I establish that human beings are interrelated and interconnected and caring for the other is an essential component of human existence. However, caring for others has the potential to be a paternalistic practice.  In order to avoid this possibility, I maintain that caring should first and foremost be defined as treating the other as a free subject. 

KRISTEN EHRHARDT (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will examine how the archaic Greek poet Alcaeus uses the vocabulary of kinship to both valorize his own origins and denigrate his political opponent, Pittacus.  Analyzing and contextualizing a number of poetic fragments, I show how Alcaeus effeminizes his foe through regular uses of paternal, maternal, and marital descriptions, even going as far as describing Pittacus in the same terms as the legendary unfaithful--and destructive--woman, Helen of Troy.

EDWARD HAHNENBERG (Theology and Religious Studies) project is a short monograph that offers a theological biography of Fr. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., the long-time president of the University of Notre Dame.  

SHARON KAYE (Philosophy) will complete a philosophical novel for high-school students along with an instructor manual for teaching. This will be the next installment in the K-12 philosophy curriculum contracted to write for Royal Fireworks Press.  

DANIEL KILBRIDE (History) will conduct research and write an article on the meaning of Africa for enslaved and free African American in the first sixty years of the nineteenth century.

KATHLEEN KNOLL-FREY (Sociology and Criminology) will look at the effects of evictions on crime.  Literature thus far has focused on evictions in terms of various consequences such as poverty and health, but has ignored the community effects on crime.  Evictions are very common in certain neighborhoods, specifically those deemed socially disorganized.  The evictions likely have a direct effect on crime by reducing collective efficacy in neighborhoods and enhancing community levels of strain that could result in criminal copying.  The project will look at cities and towns in Ohio to determine if there is an effect of evictions on crime.

PETER KVIDERA (English) will write an introduction to my current book project, Unsettling America: U.S. Immigrant Writing and Regional Transformation.  Will explain the political, legal, and social context of immigration at the turn of the twentieth century and, second, demonstrate clear connections to the controversial immigration policies of today.  

PEGGY SCHAUER (Education) will collect student work and baseline survey data from pre-service teachers at John Carroll University to look for places in the university curriculum and experiences in the field that best support moments of critical consciousness around race and class and encourage the adoption of practices and pedagogies the would be considered culturally responsive.

ANTHONY TARESCAVAGE (Psychology) will examine the utility of a recently developed psychological test, the Personality Inventory for ICD-11 (PiCD). This test is designed to assess a new diagnostic model of personality disorders, and it will be used by upwards of 100 countries to diagnose these conditions. In the United States alone, approximately 9% of the population has a personality disorder.

JAMES WATLING (Biology) deforestation replaces relatively cool and thermally buffered forest with warm and thermally varible human-dominated land cover.  The novel thermal landscapes resulting from deforestation create a challenge for ectothermic organisms whose body temperature varies with the surrounding environment.

Summer Research Fellowship 2018:

Carl Anthony (Biology / Category A) proposes to write a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed scientific journal.  The manuscript will be based upon data previously collected by me and by my students, and it relates to how small (but ecologically important) invertebrate species interact behaviorally within the North American temperate forest ecosystem. 

Nathan Gehlert (Counseling / Category B) will test the hypothesis that participation in service learning leads to an increase in students' levels of civic attitudes and skills.  It relies on data collected from 484 undergraduate students at JCU in fall 2014.  The date set includes data from 88 students who participated in service learning and 396 in a control group who did not.  Both groups were administered the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire at the beginning of the semester (pre-service for the service learning group) and at the end of the semester (post-service for the service learning group).  The fellowship will support the writing of a manuscript based on an analysis of these data.

Jeffrey Johansen (Biology / Category A) will write and submit a manuscript for publication in the Journal of Phycology on a new genus of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) with two species, one from the Atacama Desert and one from the Mojave Desert.  Will be doing analysis required to make the figures for the paper, and completing most of the writing.  This work is significant in my field as we are exploring the boundary between multiple populations of a species and separate, cryptic species.  

Bo Liu (Art History & Humanities / Category A) this project studies the transition of image of women in painting between the 7th and 11th centuries in China.  It challenges the widely accepted notion that major cultural and artistic changes occurred with the dynastic transition of the Tang to Song dynasty.  It will be argued that the change in emphasis is the depiction of women from physical beauty to virtues did not happen until one century after the foundation of the Song dynasty.

SeJung Park (Communication & Theatre / Category A) will write a journal article examining how corporations employ social media when confronted with a crisis and the effects of crisis management strategies by analyzing public responses to the strategies.  

Debby Rosenthal (English / Category A) proposes to write a scholarly article for publication in a peer-reviewed journal that explores the ways that sentimentalism, particularly women sentimental writers, impacted Charles Darwin and made i possible for him to write about intimate human feelings in The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (1872).

Anthony Tarescavage (Psychology / Category A) The current study examines a Flexible and Conditional Administration (FCA) method to decrease the test-taking time of one of the most widely used questionnaires in psychology (the MMPI-2-FR).  I developed an introduced this method in 2017.  The project examines administration time savings from the FCA method among bariatric surgery candidates, most of whom routinely undergo pre-surgical psychological evaluations to identify patients at risk for surgical complications.  

Megan Thornton (Classical & Modern Languages and Cultures / Category A) proposes to research and write an article for publication on the 2013 Mexican film Nosotros los Nobles, directed by Gary Alazraki.  This manuscript will explore how the film aligns with turn-of-the-century trends in Mexican cinema but also recalls past paradigms for nation-building in an attempt to reimagine the nation in its current postmodern form.

Pamela Vanderzalm (Biology / Category A) will conduct research concerning the development of connections (synapses) in the nervous system, using Drosophila melanogaster as genetic model organism.  Having identified a new gene involved in the process of synaptic growth, Tao-1, will attempt to identify other genes that work together with it, using a candidate approach.

Tahani Dari (Counseling / Category B) proposed project seeks to create and pilot a self-assessment tool for counselors to measure their knowledge, skills, attitude in community-based participatory research. 

Alison Dachner (Management, Marketing and Supply Chain / Category B) this research will provide a literature review of employee exit management strategies and a future research agenda for strategic employee off-boarding. Most organizational research examines why people leave and focuses on retaining employees.  Little to no research explores the longitudinal effect of managing the leaving process and what happens after a turnover decision is made.  This research suggests that once a turnover decision is made the "break-up" between the employer and employee does not have to be all bad.  In fact, certain off-boarding strategies can be mutually beneficial to the organization and the former employee. 

Marcus Gallo (History / Category A) intends to co-author a biography of George Croghan with Dr. William Campbell of the University of Memphis.  We will write the introduction and first chapter during the summer of 2018.  Beginning in the 1740s, Croghan operated as a trader, land speculator,and diplomat for the British government in the Ohio Country and was enormously influential in the trans-Appalachian west, dealing with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, and the Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant.  Dr. Campbell and I will write the introduction and first chapter of the work during the summer of 2018.

Summer Research Fellowship 2017:

Paula Britton (Counseling / Category B) project involves the data analysis of qualitative data collected in 2015 from over 600 LGBQT older adult participants.  The research is looking at the process of aging in the LGBT community, particularly difference between mid-life and older-life sexual minorities. Our hope is to inform the mental health profession of data that will improve clinical interventions for this vulnerable population.  The data is already collected.  The summer project will involve both the analyses of the data and the writing of a manuscript for publication. 

Marcus Gallo (History / Category A) project will compare the property confiscations undertaken during the American Revolution in several states, mainly Maryland and Pennsylvania.  These two states produced contrasting revolutionary governments: while Pennsylvania had the most radical and egalitarian of the early state constitutions, Maryland's revolution strictly curtailed voting rights and kept control of the state in the hands of wealthy elites.  Nonetheless, both states turned to confiscating the property of prominent loyalists in order to boost state funds.

Rodney Hessinger (History / Category A) will complete one chapter in larger Cornell Press book project, "Sex and Sectarian Conflict in the Second Great Awakening."  As new sects were founded across America during early nineteenth century rivalries grew between churches.  Religious leaders often aimed attacks at the unusual sex and gender practices of competing churches.  Will concentrate this summer on reactions to Mormonism.  Will look at how apostate memoirs portrayed Mormon priests, accusing them of undermining consent for both converts and plural wives.  

Jacquelyn Nagle (Exercise Science / Category A) will write a manuscript examining the validity and reliability of tethered swimming test. 

Ralph Saporito (Biology / Category A) proposed project is aimed at understanding how mother poison frogs provide a unique form of parental care to their tadpoles.  In particular, will study how tadpoles acquire chemical defenses, which are necessary for protection form disease and predation, exclusively from a diet of their mother's unfertilized eggs.

George Bilgere (English / Category A) will complete the manuscript for his seventh collection of poetry.

Cecile Brennan (Counseling / Category B) project is to work collaboratively with colleagues at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to develop an ethical code for mental health practitioners.  In addition, the process of creating the code will itself be the focus of a journal article centering on issues of cultural difference and exploring the purported universality of core ethical concepts and values. 

Gregory Farnell (Exercise Science / Category A) project involves quantifying energy expenditure via the Apple iWatch Series 2 and the Actigraph GT9X accelerometer during aquatic exercise: a comparison of a real life exercise setting vs. laboratory environment. 

Julia Karolle-Berg (Classical & Modern Languages and Cultures / Category A) proposes to analyze a selection of German-language crime novels by the prolific Viennese author Otto Soyka (1882-1955).  Popular and esteemed in his day but now nearly forgotten, this research on Soyka advances my effort to reconstruct a literary tradition of the German-language detective novel between 1900 and 1933.  

Colin Swearingen (Political Science / Category A) do get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts impact election results and turnout at the local level? This project explores the impact of voter mobilization efforts (such as door-to-door canvassing and phone calls) on the outcomes of a local state senate district. 

Brian Macaskil (English / Category A) proposes to work on a project provisionally entitled "Nietzsche and Coetzee: Teachers of 'Slow Reading' (With Some Comments on Cinematography)." The project will concern itself with the defamiliarizing experience (especially in today's world) of being encouraged or forced to read slowly—mandate of the best literature—and will proceed to inquire into the possibility of fomenting such compositional and reading practices in cinematography with reference to the important French filmmaker Chris Marker and to the difficulties of filming J. M. Coetzee's novels.

Philip Metres (English / Category A) proposes to complete revision of a book of essays tentatively entitled, "The Sound of Listening: Essays on Poetry," which I will submit to the University of Michigan Press's Poets on Poetry series. The work gathers a selection of articles, essays, and interviews about poetry from the last ten years, inviting us to consider the cultural work that poetry can do, and to expand beyond the usual boundaries of aesthetic judgement into the arena of the moral imagination.

Debra Rosenthal (English / Category A) will continue the critical conversation on African American author Ernest J. Gaines by writing a scholarly essay that redirects much-needed attention to his short fiction.  Specifically, address how Gaines portrays socioeconomic and racial inequality as affecting the development of masculine self.  The essay will focus on socioeconomic difference, health disparities that face the poor, and the struggle to achieve masculine identity in his five stories published in Bloodline.  These themes permeate Gaines's short stories and percolate throughout his later novelistic output. 

Summer Research Fellowships 2016:

Deniz Durmus (Philosophy / Category A) project contributes to the scholarship on pluralizing feminist studies by exploring different types of feminist movements in the Middle East.  Specifically focusing on Islamic feminisms and secular feminisms in Turkey and Iran.  The project shows that both Islamic and secular feminist movements have been effective in bringing positive political changes in women's situation in the Middle East, arguing that these marginalized movements should be studied more extensively and be included in our discussions if we want to achieve the ideal of pluralism and diversity.

Philip Metres (English / Category A) proposes to complete a book-length memoir tentatively entitled "Moscow on the Cuyahoga: On the Road with a Russian Poet," which on the level of plot tells the story of a friendship between an older poet, Sergey Gandlevsky, and a younger one (me) as they travel the United States on a reading tour.  Cross-cut stories of my time living in Russia, this quasi-bildungsroman explores: 1) the complexity of cross-cultural friendship; 2) the secrets of an education in poetry; and 3) the growth of a poet and a man.

Debby Rosenthal (English / Category A) will write a scholarly journal article that links the literary representation of climate change to the literary representation of socioeconomic inequality, two of my fields of interest.  Focusing on Barbara Kingsolver's important recent novel Flight Behavior (published in 2013), which dramatizes complex issues about climate change that face impoverished population in Appalachia.

Summer Research Fellowships 2015:

Matt Berg (History) will investigate the provisions of assistance to returning concentration camp inmates, returning émigrés who fled the Nazis, and Austrian soldiers liberated from Allied POW camps–three groups who returned to Vienna with little more than the clothes on their backs–during the crucial period between the end of hostilities in April 1945, and the introduction of amnesty for legally designated “less implicated” former Nazis in 1948 and their re-enfranchisement in the 1949 elections.

Greg DiLisi (Education) will work on an article on Thorium and Molten Salt Reactors (MSR). With the purpose to educate teachers of introductory physics sequences with the information needed to discuss thorium-based nuclear reactors as an alternative energy source.

Jean Feerick (English) will be researching and writing a book chapter, which has been solicited for publication in a volume called “Palgrave Handbook of Early Modern Literature, Science, and Culture,” eds. Evelyn Tribble and Howard Marchitello.

Edward Hahnenberg (Theology and Religious Studies) will produce a peer-reviewed article that advances a new methodological paradigm for the theological study of church.

Phyllis Harris (Sociology and Criminology) will identify the factors that created that feeling of community once a person receives a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Julia Karolle-Berg (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will analyze a selection of the most popular German-language detective novels from 1900-1933 in order to determine how conventions and trends of the genre emerged and evolved during this period.

Daniel Kilbride (History) will read four important Anglo-American accounts of African exploration and to track their critical reception in the American press.

James Lissemore (Biology) will identify additional proteins that assist HSP90 in the normal function of reproductive stem cells in C. elegans.

Philip Metres (English) will complete a book project of translated poems from the Russian entitled Farewell to the Falstaff of Youth: New and Selected Poems of Sergey Gandlevsky.

Debby Rosenthal (English) will write an essay that argues that Emily Dickinson understood language’s ability to embody action before such theories were codified a century later.

Peifang Tian (Physics) will study the mechanism of local responses of cerebral blood vessels to neuronal activation under normal condition.

Summer Research Fellowships 2014:

Jennifer Allen Catellier (Communication and Theatre Arts) will assess the effectiveness of health messages encouraging college students to eat healthy and exercise.  Her study will examine whether positive and negative messages influence the emotional associations with diet and exercise and if this leads to engaging in healthy behaviors.

Denise Ben-Porath (Psychology) will conduct a study investigating attentional biases to weight-related stimulus pictures among subjects with anorexia nervosa and control subjects, who are defined as undergraduate, college-aged students who do not have an eating disorder.

George Bilgere (English) will write and revise a collection of poems that will develop into a book.

Gwen Compton-Engle (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will make final revisions to a book manuscript about the use of costume in fifth-century BCE Athenian comedy.

Greg DiLisi (Education and Allied Studies) will use the micro-gravity environment of NASA’s 727 parabolic aircraft to test the dynamics of liquid bridges under varying total body acceleration as a function of bridge slenderness, support size, axial versus radial orientation, and the surface tension-to-density ratio of the test fluid.

Jeff Dyck (Physics) will perform the first measurements of thermal conductivity on the semiconductor zinc germanium nitride, a prospective material for future solid-state lighting technology and develop the techniques needed to conduct the measurements.

Jeff Johansen (Biology) will coauthor two chapters about the cyanobacteria of North America for a second edition of the technical reference text Freshwater Algae of North America:  Ecology and Classification.

Linda Koch (Art History) will uncover the remaining layers of meaning of a Renaissance painting of circa 1459 representing the Mystic Lamb in the palace of the Medici family in Florence.  The investigation will include nuanced meanings of specific details of the depiction and the thematic relationship of the image to the Procession of the Magi frescoes within the palace’s chapel.  Delving into the image is likely to yield additional clues about the family’s political maneuvering through visual imagery.

Bo Liu (Art History) will study the seventh-century Chinese painting “Thirteen Emperors” and how the artist was able to insert commentary messages into the king’s seemingly formulaic portraits.  Many aspects of the painting are insufficiently understood, including the identities of the kings, the meaning behind the selection of the individual kings, and the motivation of the artist.

Michael Martin (Biology) will update protocols used to determine ABO blood type via non-invasive means to be less labor intensive and adapted for use with newer technology.

Phillip Metres (English) will complete a book project of translated interviews and supplemental poems tentatively entitled Conversations after the Fall.  The book will offer a perspective of the transition of Russian life and poetry from the Soviet era into post-communism, democracy, and capitalism.

Debby Rosenthal (English) will contribute an essay to the forthcoming volume The Transnational Histories of Uncle Tom’s Cabin under contract with the University of Michigan Press.  Her essay will discuss the recent Iranian theatrical production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was written and directed by renowned Iranian playwright and puppeteer Behrooz Gharibpour, as a political and aesthetic response to the disenfranchisement of black Americans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Jackie Schmidt (Communication and Theatre Arts) will study similarities and differences of the friendships that exist between close and business friends in Russia, Croatia, and the United States.  The results will be compared to earlier studies bout friendship experiences in these cultures to determine if there is a match between what one expects and what one will do for their friends.

Jayme Stayer (English) will finish writing the fifth chapter of his book manuscript, Becoming T.S. Eliot, in which he tracks the rhetorical development of T.S. Eliot’s poetry.

Colin Swearingen (Political Science) will explore the potential impact of presidential campaign field offices on an Ohio community’s election results by analyzing the distance between a community and the closest field office(s).

Pamela Vanderzalm (Biology) will conduct research to further understand how epithelial cells regulate cell death versus growth and division.  This has important implications for cancer biology because about 85% of tumors are epithelial in origin and the genes in this study are conserved between Drosophila and humans.

John Yost (Psychology) will use the context of the 2012 presidential election to examine the impact of a worldview threat on the perception of one’s own mortality as measured by the predicted age of one’s own death.  This is the inverse of the Terror Management Theory, which asserts that humans are conscious of their inevitable death and, therefore, seek self-esteem to buffer themselves from death anxiety through upholding and defending cultural worldviews.

Summer Research Fellowships 2013:

Denise Ben-Porath (Psychology) will determine the differential treatment effect of a brief mindfulness intervention vs. a brief distraction intervention in women diagnosed with an eating disorder before and after an exposure meal.

Paula Britton (Education and Allied Studies) will explore the consequences of early life experiences and parental support of sexual orientation/gender on adult LGBTQ mental health with an emphasis on implications for counselor intervention.

Chrystal Bruce (Chemistry) will conduct a study involving computational modeling of the interactions between DNA and small molecules that will allow for better design of anticancer and antibiotic pharmaceuticals.

Leslie Curtis (Art History) will investigate the theme of the Mystic Knight in the work of French Symbolist artist Odilon Redon with regard to how the symbolism and meaning of key works on this theme can be better understood by a careful consideration of the artist’s tendency to combine experiences from his travels in the Pyrenees and his service in the Franco-Prussian war with particular texts, images and operas.

Rebecca Drenovsky (Biology) will work on a project to understand the resources that limit plant establishment, growth, and recruitment in a suite of perennial grasses commonly used in rangeland restoration programs in the Intermountain West.

Nathan Gehlert (Department of Education and Allied Studies) will create an assessment of relational competencies in order to extend the field of psychology’s understanding of how to define and assess competency in relationships.

Penny Harris (Sociology and Criminology) will extend resiliency research by focusing on older adults who are experiencing chronic disease, such as dementia or HIV/AIDS, and identifying factors that can foster resilience in this population.

Erin Johnson (Biology) will look for compounds that hold the potential to enhance the immune system’s response to viral infections.

Angie Jones (Psychology) will gain a better understanding of the production effect, which refers to enhanced memory for items read aloud compared to silently. Very little work has been done in the field to understand how/why the effect occurs.

Sharon Kaye (Philosophy) will write an Introduction to Philosophy (designed for undergraduate students) for the Teach Yourself series of the British publisher Hodder and Stoughton (published by McGraw-Hill in the United States).

Dan Kilbride (History) will research and write an essay about how American abolitionists used contemporary information about Africa in their campaigns against slavery and racism.

Phil Metres (English) will compose a series of poems that would offer a complex but detailed rendering of life across zones of global conflict. But more than merely depicting conflict, the poems will help develop a cosmopolitan poetry that offers a vision of peace-building among and between entrenched enemies.

Joan Nuth (Theology and Religious Studies) will write a chapter of a book manuscript intended to be “A Theological Primer for Spiritual Directors.” This chapter focuses on the nature and destiny of the human being, and complementing the “Principle and Foundation,” the starting point of the “Spiritual Exercises.”

Paige Rinker (Mathematics and Computer Science) will complete the development and implementation of an analysis tool designed to identify cluster patterns in a novel form of rank data. This type of analysis has natural applications in market research.

Ralph Saporito (Biology) will examine how differences in the distribution of poison glands in frogs lead to differences in protection from predation, thus further understanding how animals defend themselves against natural predators.

David Shutkin (Education and Allied Studies) will write an essay based on qualitative research on a school district’s technology reform initiative. Using sociological theory, the essay will seek to explicate how the goals of the reform initiative are undermined by the very technologies that are featured as the means to the success of the reform.

Summer Research Fellowships 2012:

Carl Anthony (Biology) will locate, collect, and rear individuals that will be used to tet whether amphibians are developing resistance to local strains of a fungus.

Paula Britton (Education) will explore the psychological impact of sexual minority discrimination on functioning of lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons.

Kathy Gatto (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will complete research for and write an article titled “Ecofeminism and the Films of Lucrecia Martel.”

Bo Liu (Art History) will write an article that examines changing modes of representation of women in 10th-14th-century Chinese paintings.

Tracy Masterson (Psychology) will complete an article that analyzes data collected from participants in the Autism Internship Program (offered in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic).

Jennifer McWeeny (Philosophy) will write an article entitled “Merleau-Ponty, Embodied Intentionality, and the Operative View of Emotions.”

Phil Metres (English) will translate “The Book of Grass” into the first American edition of the selected poems of modern Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky.

Alissa Nutting (English) will work toward publication of an anthology on innovative creative writing pedagogy techniques, including her survey of the ways creative writing is currently taught outside of the historical workshop model.

Chris Roark (English) will examine the influence of Thelonious Monk’s music on the writing of John Edgar Wideman.

Yi Shang (Education) will conduct an analysis of growth trajectories of K-12 math achievement using NEAP long term trend data of the past three decades.

Megan Thornton (Classical and Modern Languages and Cultures) will research and write an artcile on the use of epigraphs in the poetry of exiled Cuban writer Zoe Valdes.

Peifang Tian (Physics) will study the local responses of cerebral blood vessels to neuronal activation under normal conditions which may facilitate alleviation or treatment of neurological disorders such as stroke, vascular disease and dementia.