Dean's Research Chair Awards 2022 - 2024
"The Unfinished Revolution: The Political Life of A. Philip Randolph"
Eric Arnesen, Department of History
The Unfinished Revolution: The Political Life of A. Philip Randolph is a biography of one of the 20th century's most important civil rights and labor activists whose years of political engagement spanned the 1910s to the early 1970s. It explores currents of Black radicalism, trade unionism racism, anticommunism, and anti-colonialism during the Cold War. Critically exploring Randolph's multiple campaigns against governmental and union discrimination, it situates Randolph's political beliefs and activism in relation to broader African American political currents and explores his use of public opinion, political pressure, the judiciary, and grassroots mobilization in pursuit of racial and economic equality.
"Profit & Prophecy: Islam and the Spice Trade"
Joel Blecher, Department of History
In the Western imagination, the spice trade is often portrayed as the spark for the "European Age of Discovery" as explorers from Genoa, Lisbon, and Amsterdam set sail in search of a new passage to the East, ushering in an early period of globalization. My proposed project, Profit & Prophecy: Islam and the Spice Trade, unsettles this narrative by painting a starkly different portrait: when European explorers first set sail, not only had Muslim merchants already built a network that linked Italy to India to Indonesia, but Muslim scholars and mystics had constructed the social imaginaries that held global trade together. Behind the taste of saffron and the perfume of camphor lies this lost history that shines new light on a perennial question: how has religion shaped the history of capitalism, and why?
"Women at the Mughal Courts: The Portraits and Patronage of Hamida Banu Begum (1527-1604)"
Mika Natif, Corcoran School of Art & Design, Art History Program
My book project is the first and only publication devoted to Hamida Banu Begum (d. 1603), who was one of the wives of the second Mughal emperor Humayun and the mother of his heir and successor, the famous emperor Akbar of India. The book establishes Hamida Banu as a major source of dynastic legitimacy, political influence, and cultural prowess by analyzing the prominent role of her portraits and images in official Mughal court histories. Working through Hamida Banu's eight portraits allows us to untangle some of the complexities and challenges of dealing with royal Mughal female portrayals while exploring the intersection of gender and visual culture in Islamic societies.
"Gentrification: A History of Anxiety"
Suleiman Osman, Department of American Studies
Gentrification is a controversial issue in cities today. Yet the word is notoriously protean and loaded with outsized meaning. Gentrification: A History of an Anxiety will be the first comprehensive history of this contentious issue. The book points to five distinct waves of gentrification anxiety dating back to the early twentieth century.
"What Light: A Novel"
Jung Yun, Department of English
I will be using my Dean's Research Chair award to complete my third novel, What Light, on an accelerated time frame. What Light begins shortly after 9/11 and follows two Asian American families in New York as they struggle to navigate the loss and upheaval resulting from that event. Major themes that I plan to explore in this work include trauma, grief, and mental illness, particularly in relation to first generation immigrants.
Impact Awards 2022 - 2023
The CCAS Research Advisory Council made the decision that, to maximize the benefit of the awards, each faculty member would be able to receive either an Impact or an Enhanced Travel Award, but not both. Where the faculty member's name is annotated with an asterisk (*), both the faculty member’s Enhanced Travel and Impact applications were within the fundable category. In such cases, an Impact Award was made due to its higher funding cap, and the faculty member was informed that they could rebalance the use of the funds across both their proposed Impact and Enhanced Travel research programs as they saw fit.
| Agresta, Abigail | Department of History |
| Anderson, Catherine | Corcoran School of Art & Design, Interior Design Program |
| Belenky, Masha* | Department of Romance, German, Slavic Languages and Literature |
| Bisbey, Tiffany | Department of Organizational Science & Communication |
| Boyce, Douglas | Corcoran School of Art & Design, Music Program |
| Braun, David | Department of Anthropology |
| Bullock, Olivia | Department of Organizational Sciences & Communication |
| Cheers, Imani | School of Media and Public Affairs |
| Chen, Liana* | Department of East Asian Languages and Literature |
| Cohen-Cole, Jamie* | Department of American Studies |
| Daiya, Kavita* | Department of English |
| Dietz, Andrea* | Corcoran School of Art & Design, Design Program |
| Eich, Matthew | Corcoran School of Art & Design, Studio Arts Program |
| Gamber, Cayo* | University Writing Program |
| Gedan, Keryn* | Department of Biological Sciences |
| Hancock, Adrienne | Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences |
| Harizanov, Valentina | Department of Mathematics |
| Jeremic, Aleksandar | Department of Biological Sciences |
| Joubin, Alexa Alice* | Department of English |
| Kao, Lien-Yung* | Department of Mathematics |
| Kawano, Sandy* | Department of Biological Sciences |
| Kostal, Jakub | Department of Chemistry |
| Luthra, Aman* | Department of Geography |
| Mahshie, James | Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences |
| McAlister, Melani | Department of American Studies |
| Mitchell, David* | Department of English |
| Montoya, Maria del Carmen* | Corcoran School of Art & Design, Studio Arts Program |
| Orenstein, Dara* | Department of American Studies |
| Osder, Jason* | School of Media and Public Affairs |
| Peng, Yisheng | Department of Organizational Sciences & Communication |
| Quave, Kylie | University Wrting Program |
| Rohrbeck, Cynthia | Department of Psychology |
| Saw, Jimmy* | Department of Biological Sciences |
| Silver, Hilary | Department of Sociology |
| Vieira, Allyson* | Corcoran School of Art & Design, Studio Arts Program |
| Withers, Maida | Corcoran School of Art & Design, Theatre & Dance Program |
| Yu, Ning* | Corcoran School of Art & Design, Music Program |
| Zakai, Orian* | Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations |
| Zhang, Xiaoke | Department of Statistics |
Enhanced Travel Awards 2022 - 2023
| Abrams, Lowell | University Writing Program |
| Ahmad, Attiya | Department of Anthropology |
| Blyden, Nemata | Department of History |
| Cuellar, Manuel | Department of Romance, German, Slavic Languages and Literature |
| Dugan, Holly | Department of English |
| Grayfer, Leon | Department of Biological Sciences |
| Hernandez, Luz Patricia | Department of Biological Sciences |
| Lill, John | Department of Biological Sciences |
| Papish, Laura | Department of Philosophy |
| Shomstein, Sarah | Department of Psychology |
| Troutman, Phillip | University Writing Program |
| Vertes, Akos | Department of Chemistry |
| Wells, Jennifer | Department of History |
| Williams, Sid | Corcoran School of Art and Design, Theatre & Dance Proram |
| Youmans, William | School of Media and Public Affairs |
