Faculty awarded grants for research, scholarly work

Wed, December 31, 2008 |

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

Grants totaling nearly $7,500 were awarded to the following faculty members:

• Dr. Zuhdi Aljobeh, associate professor of civil engineering, for research on contaminant and gas flows in multi-layered porous media that aims to improve the design, construction and monitoring of solid and hazardous waste disposal facilities;

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

• Dr. Sara Danger, assistant professor of English, to support work on her book manuscript "Victorian Women Writers and Visual Culture: Women Writing in the Age of Illustration," which examines the concurrent rise of the professional woman author and the proliferation of illustrated texts between 1830 and 1880;

• Dr. Richard DeMaris, professor of theology, for research examining the gospel of Mark as therapeutic ritual – given its original composition and use in the mostly oral culture of the ancient church – rather than the traditional approach of biblical scholars in interpreting Mark as a work of literature;

• Dr. Carmine Polito, associate professor of civil engineering, to develop a bender element system that can determine shear wave velocity in soil specimens for the College of Engineering's Soil Mechanics Laboratory and use in student and faculty research and coursework.

Grants from Valpo's Creative Work and Research Committee help foster a climate of systematic inquiry and teaching excellence on campus through the support of research and creative work and faculty-student collaboration on projects.