Grant News

On October 26, together with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) awarded a new continuation grant to the college’s Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program. Now in its 32nd year at Carleton, the MMUF program supports talented students from underrepresented backgrounds who plan to pursue a PhD in humanistic fields. Participants are selected at the end of their sophomore year or during their junior year through a competitive application process. Directed this year by Cathy Yandell,  W. I. and Hulda F. Daniell Professor of French Literature, Language, & Culture, and Sindy Fleming, Assistant Dean of Students, Carleton’s program supports up to ten fellows through two years of intensive work in the humanities, which includes independent research, participation in regional and national activities with other Mellon Mays fellows, and preparation for graduate school.

Carleton recently received a $249,372 Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) grant, made possible by the federal CARES Act, from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE). The GEER grant enables Carleton’s Information Technology Services to provide assistance to underserved students (defined by the grant as lower-income students, students of color, indigenous students, and students with disabilities) in the form of high-quality laptops, software applications, and captioning services for courses that have shifted to online instruction because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project, which aims to ensure that all students have equal access to the technological tools necessary to succeed in their courses, is being spearheaded by the college’s Chief Technology Officer, Janet Scannell, and the Director of Technology Support, Austin Robinson-Coolidge.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded a five-year, $1.4 million TRIO/Student Support Services (SSS) grant to Carleton College. The new award will help Carleton support 140 students who come from low-income backgrounds (as defined by federal guidelines), who are the first in their family to attend college, or who have a documented disability. The grant will enable Carleton’s TRIO staff to continue providing individualized advising and other proven tools of success to program participants. It will also guide efforts to increase retention, persistence, and graduation rates through innovative collaborative efforts with campus partners, including the Career Center and the Quantitative Resource Center. The renewal of Carleton’s TRIO/SSS program—which has been continuously funded by the Department of Education since 1981—ensures a new generation of Carls have the support necessary to achieve their academic, personal, and career goals.

The Minnesota State Arts Board is seeking qualified reviewers from a variety of backgrounds to remotely read, score, and annotate grant applications through November 2020. To qualify, interested individuals must be a Minnesota resident, have access to the internet, and have a background in at least one art form or artistic tradition, or a knowledge of or experience with nonprofit organizations. Stipends will be provided for constructive feedback. More information and an interest form can be found on the MN State Arts Board website.

Amna Khalid, Associate Professor of History, has been awarded the inaugural John Stuart Mill Faculty Fellowship from the Heterodox Academy (HxA). Prof. Khalid’s year-long fellowship will enable her to give her undivided attention to issues that she is passionate about and that align with the mission of HxA: increasing open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in higher education.

Ryan Terrien, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, is the recipient of an NSF award for his project “Collaborative Research: An Agile Electro-Optic Frequency Comb for Precision Near-Infrared Radial Velocity Spectroscopy with the Habitable Zone Planet Finder.” As part of collaborative research with partners at UC Boulder, U Arizona, Pennsylvania State U, the team will upgrade the Habitable Zone Planet Finder spectrograph with new functionality and improved performance that will accelerate US exoplanet science and astrophysics and demonstrate technology for the future generation of astronomical instruments.

Barbara Allen, James Woodward Strong Professor of Political Science and the Liberal Arts, has been named a Fulbright Scholar. As a Scholar at the University of Luxembourg (UL), Prof. Allen will work as a public diplomat to advance international understanding and cooperation. At UL, in addition to giving public lectures, she will teach courses on political theorists Elinor and Vincent Ostrom, and on comparative political communication.

Susannah Ottaway, Professor of History, will contribute to work funded by the NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grants, titled “Developing an Irish Castle in Virtual Reality.” With Thomas Herron at East Carolina University, the team will design and test teaching modules built in virtual reality for an existing 3-D digital model of Kilcolman Castle, Ireland, home of English poet Edmund Spencer.

Rika Anderson, Assistant Professor of Biology, was awarded a Global Fellowship from the University of St. Andrews, which enables scholars to work within the academic community at St. Andrews. She will work in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences on projects related to the early evolution of microbial metabolisms on Earth.

Janet Lewis Muth, Director of Health Promotion, has been granted the 2020 Gallagher Koster Innovative Practices in College Health award from the American College Health Foundation. The award will support a collaborative campus project to teach faculty members how to incorporate well-being strategies into their courses during the 2020-21 academic year. Led by the Office of Health Promotion, this project will increase proactive approaches to well-being in academic environments. Carleton is only the fourth liberal arts college to receive this funding in the award’s 17-year history.