Institutional Awards
The GIANT Company/Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful – 2023 Healing the Planet Grant. $20,000. (Matt Steiman/College Farm) “Biodigester construction project.” The 2023 Healing the Planet grant program is designed to support food waste recovery and recycling projects that have some community benefit. We are seeking a grant to support portions of the planned biodigester project which are not otherwise funded by existing grants or cost sharing. Specifically, the requested funds will be used to pay for a custom garage to house the biodigester engine and control system and a portion of the cost of professional pipefitting services to complete the system installation.
National Fish & Wildlife Foundation. $143,535.50. (Julie Vastine, ALLARM) “Developing an Integrated Community-based Monitoring Approach to Track Restoration Progress” This request is to extend the “Developing an integrated community-based monitoring approach to track restoration progress” project in order to implement the monitoring plan and monitoring protocols developed during the first 2 years of the project, engage volunteers and start data collection for NFWF funded projects. This next project phase will be implemented over 28 months and achieve the following steps: 1) develop a volunteer engagement strategy and training materials; 2) pilot the protocol, with volunteers; 3) develop data communication templates for landowners and NFWF; and 4) explore data management tools to house the biological, photos, physical, and visual data. This funding will be paid to ALLARM through the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.
Campbell Foundation. $35,000. (Julie Vastine/ALLARM) “Susquehanna Stream Team & Creek Watch – continuation grant.” Dickinson College’s Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM) will use this grant to support the continuation and expansion of Susquehanna Stream Team as well as the enhancement of Creek Watch. Susquehanna Stream Team and Creek Watch strive to engage volunteers in stream assessments and use data for local change. Objectives for 2023 include: 1) 75 Volunteer Teams will collect credible scientific data and interpret that data to help inform local water quality approaches; 2) Stream Teams will fill water quality monitoring spatial gaps within Susquehanna tributaries and data is used to track restoration progress; and 3) Creek Watch will be used to report visual pollution, which will be addressed by a Riverkeeper or Conservation District.
National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) – Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grant Program. $75,000 (subcontract through Cumberland County). (Julie Vastine, ALLARM Program) “Clean Water Cumberland Scaling Up Implementation in Cumberland County (PA)” Dickinson College’s Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring program will be part of an integrated network (including of Clean Water Cumberland and other partners) to identify opportunities for watershed restoration in the County. ALLARM will help provide the necessary infrastructure to bundle the contracting of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) across several strategic farms. ALLARM will also and help to coordinate data collection opportunities to assess restoration progress. This effort will result in best management practices implemented on priority farms in the Mount Rock Spring Creek Watershed. ALLARM will be able to leverage existing funding from NFWF as well as EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program funding to support community-based restoration monitoring efforts.
Mellon Foundation – Higher Learning program. $800,000. (Neil Weissman/Academic Affairs and Darren Lone Fight/American Studies) “Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative.” This grant is for a three-year initiative in Native American studies centering on the complicated history and enduring legacy of Indian Boarding Schools in the US. This project will position us to initiate and contribute to a robust national conversation on the Indigenous boarding school experience, strengthen a vital new and understudied component in our undergraduate program, and position Dickinson at the forefront of humanistic study of the present and future of North American Indigeneity. Our goals for this initiative are to: 1) enhance Dickinson’s curriculum through the creation of an academic major in Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS); 2) provide a fuller and more truthful interpretation of the experience of the Carlisle Industrial Indian School (CIIS), a major site of memory for Native Americans located near our campus and with which our college had an intimate and complicated history; and 3) build out from the CIIS work to support scholarship, teaching, and networking on Native American issues past, present, and future. The project will advance teaching and research on contemporary Indigenous culture and history, support emerging Indigenous and Indigenously allied scholars, and examine issues that extend well beyond our campus or the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The grant will provide start-up funding for 1) a faculty director for a Center on the Future of Native Peoples; 2) Indigenously directed and focused symposia, alternating between the Indian Boarding School experience and the current/future Native American experience; 3) a postdoc position and short-term residencies at Dickinson to support scholarship and enhance curriculum; 4) a faculty summer study group and follow-on grants to develop/revise related courses; and 5) expansion of the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.
Mellon Foundation – Higher Learning program. $350,000. (Claire Seiler, English and Alyssa DeBlasio, Russian) “Beyond the New Normal: Disability, Literature, and Reimagining Social Justice” This grant is for a three-year project to create a literary disability studies program across literature and languages departments at Dickinson College. Our project pursues a broadly collaborative investigation of the idea of “normality.” We propose to explore the historical centrality of literature to the imaginative projection of bodily norms; and we aim to embrace the promise of literature and of literary-interpretive methods for the contemporary effort to understand disability and normality not in isolation from, but in concert with, other broadly stigmatized or privileged markers of embodiment. Our primary goal for this project is to energize a lasting network for literary study and for the humanistic study of disability at and beyond Dickinson. We do this through 1) support for faculty scholarship, the development of shared expertise, and public humanities work; 2) curricular innovation and pedagogical development; and 3) community engagement in central Pennsylvania and with the US Army War College.
PA Department of Human Services, Office of Child Development and Early Learning – Workforce Support Grant 2.0. $41,984. (Gina VanKirk, Dickinson College Children’s Center)
Constellation – E2: Energy to Educate Grants program. $15,000. (Matt Steiman/College Farm) “Clean Energy from Waste Education Program.” This grant provides additional funding for continued work on the farm's biodigester project, which involves construction of a waste-to-energy system for conversion of food waste and cattle manure into renewable electricity and fertilizer. This grant funding will be used for unrestricted construction costs to support aspects of the project not covered by other sources. In exchange, the Dickinson College Farm will deliver educational content to local schools, farmers and the broader community through videos, field trips and course materials. This is the same arrangement that was funded by an earlier award in 2020. We have delivered substantial biogas education video content—which has been widely distributed—and we have worked with a local middle school to provide a biogas lab component for STEM classes.
Berks County Community Foundation – Metropolitan Edison Company Endowed Sustainability Energy Fund – Green Building Grant. $150,000. (Jenn Halpin, College Farm and Ken Shultes, Sustainability and Facilities Planning) “F.A.R.M. Lab Design Development.” This grant will provide the Dickinson College Farm with funding to advance the F.A.R.M. Lab project to the completion of design development. Grant funds will be used to fund RE:Vision's design of the project’s architectural, structural, systems engineering, civil engineering, and landscape architecture as well as developing compliance pathways for Living Building Challenge and/or LEED certification.
PA Liquor Control Board, Bureau of Alcohol Education – Reducing Underage Drinking and Dangerous Drinking Grant. $33,320. (Missy Taylor and Lauren Strunk, Wellness Center) “Preventing High-Risk Drinking at Dickinson College” Continued support from the PLCB would allow ongoing prevention of high-risk or dangerous drinking among Dickinson College students. The goals of this program are as follows: To continue expanding the Wellness Center alcohol peer education program. To provide accurate alcohol-related information to Dickinson students via a social norming campaign and facilitate alcohol programming for all incoming students during their extended orientation. To increase the professional competency of Wellness Center staff regarding alcohol-related issues. Assess the current scope of alcohol use and related issues among students via a campus-wide electronic survey.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection - Act 101 Section 902 Recycling Grant. $55,283 (through Cumberland County). (Matt Steiman, College Farm) “Food waste chopper for anaerobic digester” If funds are awarded, a food waste chopping machine will be purchased to be used as a component of the farm’s anaerobic digester system (currently under development). The food waste chopper will allow us to convert whole produce from Project SHARE food bank, the College Farm, and other community resources into a format compatible with the anaerobic digester system. Additionally, the chopper will allow us to utilize all food waste from campus (dorms and events), as well as dining hall waste, in the event that the cafeteria’s pulping machine is offline. All processed food wastes will be converted to renewable electricity and fertilizer in the anaerobic digester. This project is being sponsored by the Cumberland County Recycling Department.
PA Department of Human Services, Office of Child Development and Early Learning - Workforce Support Grant. $52,749. (Gina VanKirk, Dickinson College Children’s Center)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Supporting Anaerobic Digestion in Communities. $29,988 (supplement). (Matt Steiman, College Farm) “Co-digestion of Food Residues and Dairy Manure on a Diversified Small Farm” Continuation of EPA funded biogas digester development and research project.
Arthur Vining Davis Foundations – Private Higher Education program. $275,295. “Civil Dialogue Across the Curriculum, Campus, and Community” (Noreen Lape, Associate Provost) This three-year grant will be used to create a national model for the teaching and practice of civil dialogue across differences. Acknowledging that civil dialogue is a fraught concept that must mean more than just performative politeness, we aim to educate citizens who can listen with an empathetic and ethical mindset to perspectives other than their own and then reason with a depth of understanding. Our unique approach integrates classroom learning across disciplines, leadership training, campus involvement, and community engagement. Since faculty development is key to building capacity to sustain this work, we will provide resources and tools to help faculty develop assignments, lesson plans, and/or entire courses, as well as workshops for them to work with colleagues across disciplines on course design. We will develop a new elective course to train students as civil dialogue facilitators and give them opportunities to partner with campus and community groups to lead dialogues on challenging contemporary issues. This grant will 1) build a cohort of 25-35% of faculty who will use these tools to educate current and future student cohorts, and 2) impart to 30-40% of the student body the skills for conducting effective civil dialogues in their personal and professional lives.
Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (LSRA). $77,400. (Julie Vastine, ALLARM) “Lower Susquehanna - Stream Team Expansion and Restoration Monitoring” Dickinson College’s Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring received $77,400 to support community monitoring efforts in the Lower Susquehanna watershed. ALLARM strives to engage volunteers in stream health assessments and use data for local change through two of its programs: Susquehanna Stream Team and Community-based Restoration Monitoring. From July 2022-June 2026, ALLARM specifically hopes to enhance Susquehanna Stream Team baseline monitoring efforts and to teach volunteers to implement community-based restoration assessments. This funding is derived from a consent decree in Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper v. Keystone Protein Co.¸ Civil No. 1:19-cv01307 (M.D. Pa.), for environmental projects in the Susquehanna River watershed. LSRA brought a successful citizen suit against Keystone Protein Company for violations of its Clean Water Act discharge permit. For more information, please visit https://lowersusquehannariverkeeper.org/press-release-keystone-protein-lsra/.
Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) - Nonprofit Security Grant Fund Program. $15,000. (Dee Danser, Public Safety) Dickinson College has been awarded funds to enhance security at the Asbell Center for Jewish Life. Installation of additional physical security measures at the Asbell Center will serve as a deterrent against acts of violence, increase safety of those utilizing the facility, and provide a sense of calm to those attempting to worship, learn, and gather in this space. This project is supported by PCCD Subgrant # 37556, awarded by the PCCD. The opinions, findings and conclusions expressed within this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of PCCD.
Faculty Awards
Wilson Center – Kennan Institute Title VIII-Supported Summer Research Scholarship. $7,000. (Karl Qualls, History) “Transforming Childhood in Stalin’s USSR: Putin’s Model?”
National Endowment for the Humanities – Summer Stipend. $6,000. (Amy Farrell, American Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies) “Girl Scouts of the USA: Race, Feminism and American Empire”
American Philosophical Society – Franklin Research Grant. $6,000. (Karl Qualls, History) “Transforming Childhood in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Stalin’s USSR, and New Deal America”
The Azrieli Foundation. $50,000. (Azi Grysman, Psychology) “The Intergenerational Transmission of Meaning: Memories of the Holocaust across Three Generations” The principal goal of this project is to explore personal meaning from Holocaust trauma as it is embodied by individuals and transmitted in families. The core of the project is an analysis of three Holocaust survivors’ testimonials that were collected in the late 1990s from survivors who emigrated to Canada and the United States after the War. The analysis will focus on patterns of describing their traumatic experiences, emphasizing the differences in how the three individuals interpreted and made meaning of them. During the funded period, I will interview their descendants, including three children and eight grandchildren to explore how the meanings and messages of the first generation have been passed to subsequent ones. The resulting analyses will speak to current science on memory and perception, epigenetics, trauma and its legacies, and will yield insights into understanding how the third generation, the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, understand their ancestry. The ultimate product of this work will be a book that is written to be broadly accessible to scholars from different disciplines, educators, and the general public.
UK Research and Innovation, Arts and Humanities Council - Indigenous Research Methods. (Amalia Pesantes Villa, Anthropology) “Water justice & youth mental health resilience: co-creating art-based solutions with Alaskan Native and Awajun communities” This project seeks to demonstrate how Indigenous youth’s knowledge, creativity and innovation can play a vital role in responding to water injustice and adverse mental health outcomes. The major contribution of this project will be to co-produce art-based tools within an intergenerational and intercultural dialogue, to support Indigenous youth in visualising alternative water futures that safeguard the water sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and improve their mental health and wellbeing. The tools being co-produced will be a result of collectively designing the research agenda by prioritising local needs, co-conducting research through active community participation, co-learning in the research process, and finally, co-producing knowledge. This is based on the need to recognise Indigenous people as research partners rather than mere informants or research assistants. The study will be implemented over 30 months with Awajun and Alaska Native Peoples in Amazonas (Peru) and Alaska (USA) respectively, where members of the project team have long-term established collaborations and trusted relationships with local organisations and communities. The study will adopt participatory and empowering approaches that are in line with the cultural practices of Awajun and Alaska Native Peoples but at the same time acknowledge the need to openly discuss their past experiences in research processes. Although our case studies come from Peru and United States, they have broader application for Indigenous Peoples in many countries as well as for youth from other marginalised communities that have faced historical loss and devaluation and must meet the ongoing challenges of mental illnesses and water injustice. This project is being led by the University of Greenwich.
University of Baltimore – Combating Overdose Through Community-level Intervention Initiative (ultimate funding source: The White House, Office of National Drug Control Policy). $25,733 (subaward). (Sharon Kingston, Psychology) “Gamifying an Evidence-Based Parenting Intervention to Improve Access for Caregivers with Addiction to Reduce Substance Use Outcomes in Their Children” Children of caregivers with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at very high risk for becoming the next generation of substance abusers due to exposure to severely adverse conditions. To disrupt pathways to OUD, this project represents an innovative approach to disrupting these pathways by providing a well-established family intervention-Triple P-in a novel, highly accessible and engaging platform. Triple P has been repeatedly demonstrated to exert the largest effects on both substance-involved parent and child outcomes; however, barriers to implementation persist in the ability to engage parents in family interventions which has limited their ability to achieve full benefits and bring them to scale. A solution is to transform Triple P, one of the most effective parenting programs, into a smart phone game application to increase its acceptability, relevance and accessibility for even the most difficult to reach caregivers.
National Science Foundation - Building Research Capacity of New Faculty in Biology (BRC-BIO). $456,522. (Crystal Reynaga, Biology) “BRC-BIO: Trade-offs in locomotor performance: comparing hoppers and jumpers in variable environments” Throughout evolution, we have seen the emergence of new modes of locomotion, which have played a crucial role in an organism’s ability to navigate new habitats. Although major evolutionary transitions (such as water to land) are rare, subtle adaptations can provide important insights into locomotor specialization. For example, behavioral transitions between microhabitats may result in more subtle shifts in an animal’s locomotor strategy. In some cases, the locomotor system may be flexible enough to accommodate changes in the physical properties of the environment. We hypothesize that specialized ways of movement, such as jumping and hopping, each have uniquely constrained motor control strategies and muscle-tendon properties. However, adjustments to locomotor outcomes may be independently tuned through different levels of organization (such as muscle and tendon level). Frogs provide a unique model to examine locomotor trade-offs in performance and specialization given their diverse locomotor strategies and body plans. To address this hypothesis, we will: (1) Quantify and compare interspecific kinematic variation between long distance endurance hoppers (Cane toads) and fast powerful jumpers (Cuban tree frogs), in response to environmental perturbations in substrate stiffness. (2) Measure hindlimb muscle motor patterns in response to substrate stiffness to characterize the motor control mechanisms used in long distance endurance hoppers. And (3), characterize tendon ultrastructure and collagen fibril organization to determine the role of tissue stiffness across species specialized for differing modes of locomotion and power output.
Vermont Studio Center – Residency. (Adrienne Su, Creative Writing)
Art Omi – Residency. (Adrienne Su, Creative Writing)
National Endowment for the Humanities – Fellowships Open Book Program. $5,500. (Amy Wlodarski, Music) “George Rochberg, American Composer: Personal Trauma and Artistic Creativity” As a result of this grant, Professor Wlodarski’s monograph will be made freely available online. This grant was awarded to her publisher, University of Rochester Press.
Charles E. Kaufman Foundation of The Pittsburgh Foundation - Integrated Research-Education Grant. $100,000. (Michael Roberts, Biology and Jeffrey Forrester, Mathematics/Data Analytics) “Reprogramming Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells Toward Cell Cycle Arrest and Death” [Reference # KA2022-129527] Cancer is a group of genetic diseases characterized by the transformation of normal cells into cells that lose their specialized functions, divide continuously, and escape the mechanisms of programmed cell death available to normal cells that are damaged. In the high mortality cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a commonly mutated gene encoding a growth signaling protein that becomes hyperactive is called RAS. Oncogenic RAS mutations are responsible for approximately 20 percent of all human cancers. In this study we will exploit the availability of RAS-driven AML cell lines to investigate how hyperactive RAS signaling can be shut down by genetically altering the leukemic program of gene expression. Candidate genes, known to inhibit RAS signaling which are “off” in the AML cells, have been identified and will be introduced into the AML cells. The effects of “overexpressing” these genes will be evaluated by measuring changes in leukemia cell proliferation and death. Overexpressed genes that facilitate the reversal of AML cell characteristics will be further assessed to determine the mechanisms by which they reprogram the leukemia cells toward non-dividing and destructive states. We believe this project will generate novel information about genetic strategies for facilitating the reprogramming of RAS-driven cancers leading to proliferative cessation and cell death, while training young scientists through hands-on experimentation and computational data analysis. Funding for the “Reprogramming Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells Toward Cell Cycle Arrest and Death” [Reference # KA2022-129527] project was provided by the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation of The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Integrated Research-Education Grants program.
National Endowment for the Humanities – Fellowship. $55,000. (Mariana Past, Spanish and Portuguese) “Unbroken Nostalgia: An Annotated Translation of the Haitian-Cuban Poetry by Hilario Batista” Preparation of a trilingual (English, Spanish, Kreyol) translation and critical edition of Unbroken Nostalgia: Haitian Kreyol Poetry in Cuba by Hilario Batista Félix (1955– ), an important Haitian-Cuban writer.
Yaddo – Residency. (Adrienne Su, Creative Writing)
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts – Residency. (Adrienne Su, Creative Writing)
American Institutes for Research - COVID-19 & Equity in Education Research-Practice Partnership Network. $5,000 (supplement). (Jacquie Forbes, Educational Studies)
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. $154,669. (Matthew Pinsker, History) Slave Stampedes on the Kentucky Borderlands will be a three-year cooperative agreement with the National Park Service and House Divided Project extending our earlier project concerning Slave Stampedes on the Missouri Borderlands. Both phases of this multi-year effort focus on creating digital resources to help explain the story of mass or serial group escapes from slavery during the period from 1840 to 1865. The project involves the development of a free database of historical records, including thousands of newspaper articles, various multi-media elements (such as videos, maps, and interactive timelines) and a detailed report or monograph that helps put the story of group freedom seeking into historical context.
National Program for Scientific Research and Advanced Studies (PROCIENCIA). (Amalia Pesantes Villa, Anthropology and Archaeology) “Intercultural maternal health services during the pandemic: Learning from the experiences in the Central Amazon of Peru” The study seeks to document and analyze the changes intercultural maternal health services in the province of Satipo during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru. We aim to develop public policy recommendations to improve maternal health services for indigenous populations in Peru that stem from the perspectives of indigenous peoples and health professionals in the Central Amazon. In addition, this study will (1) improve the understanding of the experiences of indigenous peoples during the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of maternal care, and (2) develop relevant evidence for indigenous women and indigenous organizations to advocate for their specific needs and demand better quality services that respect their worldview. The study will have two phases: Phase 1: a) in-depth interviews with women who sought prenatal care and/gave birth between (March 2020- December 2021), indigenous leaders, community health agents and professionals of health at the different levels of care and b) cases studies through verbal autopsies of maternal deaths and obstetric emergencies that occurred in the established time period. Phase 2: Coding using a qualitative analysis software to prepare a preliminary report that will then be shared with indigenous organizations and indigenous women in c) participatory workshops that would enable the co-creation of recommendations to improve public health and maternal health services. The study will be carried out in two Nomatsiguenga communities in the Pangoa district and two Ashaninka communities in the Mazamari district, Satipo province, Junín region, Peru. No funds will be coming to Dickinson College through this grant.
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. $19,033. (Maggie Douglas, Environmental Studies and Environmental Science) “Mapping and mitigating pesticide hazard for pollinators in the Great Lakes Basin using native bees as the focal species. Phase 1. Pesticide Hazard Decision Support Tool. Modeling and data expertise.” Agricultural pesticides pose a risk to the wild and managed pollinators essential to food production and the function of natural ecosystems. We propose leveraging recently generated novel datasets describing pesticide use by active ingredient and aggregate insecticide load for state-crop combinations in the states associated with the Great Lakes Basin to predict hazard faced by insect pollinators in the Region. These data allow mapping of pesticide indicators at fine spatial scales relevant to pollinator research and conservation. Coupled with information on pesticide fate and species occurrence, we can provide insights to pollinator conservation decision-making in the Great Lakes Basin: (1) where and how are pesticide hazards to pollinators distributed over the landscape, and (2) where and how can pesticide mitigation most effectively aid pollinator conservation? Addressing these questions will aid in planning for pollinator habitat restoration and enhancement (“low” chemical hazard areas), habitat protection (low chemical hazard environments in high-quality pollinator habitat) and pesticide mitigation (high-hazard environments otherwise suitable for pollinators).