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Rhodes College is a community of active scholars, researchers, and grantseekers. The college, its faculty, and staff received the following grants since 2018.

2024

Steve Ceccoli (International Studies) and Han Li (Asian Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures)

Funder: Freeman Foundation. National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. Awarded September 2024.

Campus Safety 

Funder: State of Tennessee/FEMA. Tennessee Nonprofit Security Grant. Awarded September 2024. Project period October 2024 through June 2026.

Elizabeth Thomas, Office of Academic Affairs

Funder: Associated Colleges of the South. AVDF Toolkit and Implementation Guide for  Conversations about Equity in Evaluations. Awarded September 2024.

Iris Mercado, The Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis  Center

Funder: Project Pericles. Back to School for Democracy. Awarded September 2024.

Beatrix Weil, Chaplain 

Funder: Presbyterian Mission Agency. Food, Faith, and Free Elections. Awarded August 2024. Project period August through December 2024.

Kenneth Morrell and Susan Satterfield, Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Search Program 

Funder: Teagle Foundation. Cornerstone: Learning for Living recognition grant for the Search program. Awarded May 2024. Project period July 2024 through June 2027.

Joseph Kelly, Religious Studies

Funder: Project Pericles. Civic and Voter Engagement Fellowship. Awarded March 2024. Project period August 2024 through December 2024.

David Rupke, Physics

Funder: Space Telescope Science Institute. An Empirical Calibration of the NIRSpec IFU Point Spread Function to Enable High Contrast Imaging Spectroscopy. Awarded March 2024. Project period March 2024 through February 2027. 

Funder: Space Telescope Science Institute. Deep grism spectroscopy of the complex environment around an extremely red quasar within an ultramassive host at z=3. Awarded August 2024. Project period August 2024 through July 2027.

Funder: Space Telescope Science Institute. Extreme Feedback in Action: Fast and Powerful Molecular Outflows in the Local Universe. Awarded February 2024. Project period February 2024 through January 2027.

Laura Taylor, Educational Studies

Funder: Literacy Mid-South. Landscape Analysis/Photovoice Project, Raleigh Literacy Zone. Awarded February 2024. Project period February 2024 through February 2025.

Campus Safety

Funder: State of Tennessee. Higher Education Safety Grant. Awarded January 2024. Project period January 2024 through June 2025.

2023

Elin Ovrebo, International Programs

Funder: International Student Exchange Programs. Another Sky Awaits. Awarded August 2023. Project period August 2023 through May 2024.

Natalie Person, Office of Academic Affairs

Funder: Mellon Foundation. Institute for Race and Social Transformation. Awarded June 2023. Project period July 2023 through June 2026.

Kenneth Morrell, Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Search Program 

Funder: Teagle Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities. Cornerstone: Learning for Living planning grant. Awarded May 2023. Project period July 2023 through June 2024.

Rashna Richards, Office of Academic Affairs. Funder: Associated Colleges of the South. Women’s Leadership Institute. Awarded April 2023. Project period April 2023 through September 2023.

2022

Steven Haynes, Religious Studies

Funder: Ascendium Foundation. Institutional Collaboration in the Post-Secondary Education in Prison Space. Awarded November 2022. Project period December 2022 through May 2024.

Cara Djonko-Moore, Educational Studies

Funder: Maple Leaf Foundation. “Cultural Connections to Our Past: The Chickasaw in Memphis.” Awarded November 2022. Project period November 2022-May 2023.

Laura Taylor, Educational Studies

Funder: Associated Colleges of the South. “Engaging Multilingualism in the Liberal Arts Context,” in collaboration with Davidson College. Awarded June 2022. Project period December 2022-August 2023.

Rebecca Tuvel, Philosophy

Funder: Council of Independent Colleges. “Revise ‘Black Mirror' and Philosophy Course." Awarded October 2022. Project Period October 2022-June 2023. 

Elaine Frawley, Biology

Funder: National Institutes of Health. “The role of manganese homeostasis in the nitric oxide stress response of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.” Awarded July 2022. Project period September 2022- August 2025. .

Loretta Jackson-Hayes (Chemistry) Terry Hill (Biology)

Funder: National Science Foundation. “RUI: Protein-Protein Interactions of Protein Kinase C During Polarized Growth in Filamentous Fungi.” Awarded June 2022. Project period January 2023-December 2025.

Larryn Peterson (Chemistry William Eckenhoff (Chemistry)

Funder: National Science Foundation. “MRI: Acquisition of 400 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectrometer Console and Probe to Bolster Excellence in Undergraduate Research.” Awarded June 2022. Project period October 2022-December 2025. .

2020

Dan Blustein (Psychology), Betsy Sanders (Computer Science), and Katie White (Psychology). Funder: National Science Foundation. “Acquisition of a movement tracking system to explore embodiment and cognition.” Awarded September 2020. Project period September 2020-August 2023. Read more about it .

Ross Sowell, Mathematics/Computer Science. Funder: National Science Foundation. “Grounded Reasoning about Robot Capabilities for Law and Policy.” Collaborators Cindy Grim (Oregon State University) and Ruth West (University of North Texas). Awarded September 2020. Project period September 2020-August 2023. Read more about it .

Peter Hossler, Urban Studies. Funder: Health Resources and Services Administration. “Building the West Tennessee Addiction Network,” in collaboration with Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation. Awarded August 2020. Project period September 2020-February 2022.

Dave Rupke, Physics. Funder: NASA, Space Telescope Science Institute. “Witnessing the circumgalactic medium in formation: Imaging OVI in the warm-hot CGM of a record-breaking galactic wind.” Awarded June 2021 . Project period June 2021-May 2024.

Amy Jasperson and Justin Rose, Political Science & Office of Academic Affairs. Funder: Associated Colleges of the South. “CREATE: Competency-Rich Education for Anti-Racist Teaching & Learning Environments.” With collaborators at Birmingham-Southern College, Furman University, Rollins College, and The University of the South. Awarded August 2020. Project period September 2020-August 2021.

Beatrix Weil, Chaplain. Funder: Interfaith Youth Core. “We are each other’s: Racial Equity and Interfaith Cooperation Awards.” This award provided funding to students from different faith traditions to create art that illustrates how their faith tradition informs their passion for racial equity. Awarded September 2020.

Beatrix Weil, Chaplain. Funder: Interfaith Youth Core. “We are each other’s: campaign curriculum awards.” This project supported student discussion of interfaith leadership and the intersection of worldview and service. Awarded September 2020.

Beatrix Weil, Chaplain. Funder: Presbyterian Mission Agency. “Teaching the Bible.” This award supported a weekly virtual discussion group among students and the chaplain, with guest speakers, on queer, Black perspectives on the Bible, queer theology, liberation theology, womanist theology, reformed theology. Awarded August 2020.

Seok-Won Lee, History. Funder: Academy of Korean Studies, Korean Studies Research Fellowship. “The Origins of Sociology and Modernization Theories in Early Postwar Korea.” Project period February 2021 – January 2022.

Darlene Loprete and Dhammika Muesse, Chemistry. Funder: Associated Colleges of the South. ChemTutor 2.0. Collaborators: Sara Sprenkle, Steve Desjardins, Janice Friend, Kyle Friend of Washington & Lee University; Kate Hayden of Birmingham-Southern; Brian Mosby of Rollins College. Awarded June 2020. Project period July 2020-July 2021.

Michael Collins,  Biology. Funder: Tennessee Ornithological Society Conservation and Research Grant. Barn Owl Ecology. Awarded June 2020.

Clara Pascual-Argente, Modern Languages and Literatures (Spanish). Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities. The Story of Apollonius of Tyre: An Edition and Translation of Two Medieval Iberian Texts. In collaboration with Emily Francomano, Georgetown University. Award date October 2020. Project period January-December 2021. Read more about it .

Laura Kelly, Educational Studies. Funder: Project Pericles. Up to Us Voting Modules. Award date February 2020. Project period September-December 2020.

Brian Larkins (Computer Science) and ���Dz�é&�Բ�����;��ǻ�������ܱ�� (Information Services). Funder: National Science Foundation. A high performance computing cluster to accelerate research, education and training at 51���� College. Award date June 2020. Project period July 2020 – June 2022. Read more about it .

Darrell Ray (Student Life) and Matt Dean (Athletics). Funder: NCAA Strategic Alliance Matching Grant. Assistant Director of Media Relations project. Awarded 2020.

Beatrix Weil, Chaplain. Funder: Council of Independent Colleges, NetVUE Professional Development. Award for vocational exploration. Award date June 2020. Project period July 2020 – June 2021.

Loretta Jackson-Hayes, Chemistry & Office of Academic Affairs. Funder: National Science Foundation. Workshop: Broadening access to research opportunities at PUIs and HBCs in the Memphis region. Award date February 2020. Project period February 2020 – February 2021.

Milton Moreland and Amy Jasperson, Office of Academic Affairs. Funder: Associated Colleges of the South. Rapid Response Transition to Remote Learning to Facilitate Positive Synchronous Engagement (and to Reduce Disruptive Technological Distractions) Across Varying Levels of Faculty Expertise. Award date April 2020. Project period April-December 2020.

Milton Moreland and Natalie Person, Office of Academic Affairs. Funder: Associated Colleges of the South. Supporting Rapid Responses to International Curricular Issues. Award date April 2020. Project period April-December 2020.

Steve Haynes, Religious Studies. Funder: Project Pericles, Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ in the Humanities. A grant to support developing the course titled “Mass Incarceration: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives.” Award date May 2020. Project period June 2020 – July 2022.


2019

October 2019. Alicia Golston, Student Life, U.S. Dept. of Justice Campus Grant, project period 10/2019 – 9/2022.

October 2019. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded $900,000 to Rhodes for a project titled “Building a Culture of Health Equity, Human Flourishing and Well-Being through the Public Humanities.” Read more about it .

August 2019. Rhodes College received a grant of $650,000 from the National Science Foundation, through the Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) program, for the IMPACT project (Integrating Meaningful Practices with Access to Computational Thinking). The principal investigator is Dr. Betsy Sanders, associate professor of computer science and chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science department. Co-PIs are Dr. Mauricio Cafiero (professor of chemistry), Dr. Jonathan Fitz Gerald (associate professor of biology), and Dr. Katie White (professor and chair of psychology, director of fellowships and undergraduate studies, and Winton M. Blount Professor of Social Sciences). Read more about the program .

June 2019. Dr. Ali Masood, assistant professor of political science, received a grant from the National Science Foundation, Law & Social Sciences directorate, to study judicial decision-making. His co-principal investigator is Dr. Jennifer Bowie at the University of Richmond.

May 2019. Tennessee Higher Education Commission awarded Rhodes a 2019-2021 grant through the Diversity in Teaching program. Funds will be used for scholarships and testing fees for Rhodes students seeking to become K-12 teachers. The principal investigator is Dr. Natalie Person, who chairs the Educational Studies department, is dean for curricular development and a professor of psychology.

March 2019. Dr. David Rupke, associate professor of physics, is a co-PI on a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute in support of the project titled, “Galactic Winds across the Gas-Rich Merger Sequence.” The PI is Dr. Sylvain Veilleux at the University of Maryland, College Park.

February 2019. Dr. Laura Kelly, assistant professor of educational studies, was selected as a Periclean Faculty Leader by Project Pericles, for the term April 2019 through March 2020. The award will support Kelly’s development of a civic engagement course titled, “Issues at the Intersection of Education and Immigration.”

February 2019. Rhodes College received a grant of nearly $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation, through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. The Noyce program aims to meet the growing local and national need for highly qualified science and mathematics teachers. The project’s principal investigator is Dr. Zac Casey, assistant professor of educational studies; co-PIs are Dr. Jonathan Fitz Gerald (associate professor of biology), Dr. Dana Horgen (assistant professor of chemistry), and Dr. Chris Seaton (professor of mathematics). Read more about Rhodes’ program 

December 2018. Dr. Kenny Morrell, associate professor of Greek and Roman studies, received a grant from Associated Colleges of the South for “Studying Cultures of the Ancient Mediterranean.”

May 2018. Dr. Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba (International Studies) received a grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation for her research entitled, “The Role of Institutions in Shaping America’s Future Demographics.” Read more about her work . The grant is also supporting her , Everybody Counts.