Faculty research grants awarded

Mon, December 17, 2007 |

Several Valparaiso University professors have received grants supporting their research and scholarly work from the University’s Committee on Creative Work and Research.

Grants totaling $21,000 were awarded to the following faculty members:

• Dr. Gretchen Buggeln, associate professor of humanities and American studies, for continuing research on the emerging religious culture of American post-World War II suburban churches through a study of their architecture and material culture;

• Robert Clark, assistant professor of chemistry, to support research for determining critical features of gas-sensing heme proteins;

• Dr. Scott Duncan and Dr. Pete Johnson, assistant professors of mechanical engineering, to purchase computer hardware needed for the design and analysis of solar heliostats (devices that track the sun) and wind turbine blades;

• Dr. Christina Grabarek, assistant professor of education, to support research on college students’ perceptions of their emotional and adaptive well-being relative to eating disorder characteristics;

• Dr. Larry Jorgensen, assistant professor of philosophy, to support development of a three-part monograph of the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s theory of mind;

• Dr. David Owens, associate professor of English, to complete research and draft a chapter for a book examining the emergence of Civil War fiction in the decades following the war;

• Dr. George Pati, assistant professor of theology, for travel and other expenses related to research on the socioreligious and political milieu of colonial Kerala in India;

• Dr. Aaron Preston, associate professor of philosophy, to support research for a book examining Plato and personal freedom;

• Dr. Jennifer Prough, assistant professor of humanities and East Asian studies, for a research project that will explore the place of Japanese comic books in the United States;

• Dr. Matthew Ringenberg, associate professor of social work, for a research project that will compare and contrast how social services in Australia and the U.S. are provided to youth with behavioral challenges; and

• Dr. Michael Watters, associate professor of biology, to support research into the mutation of the fungus Neurospora crassa.