Kansas State University

College of Arts and Sciences announces the Faculty Enhancement Program awardees for fiscal year 2020

Submitted by Laura Hohenbary

The College of Arts and Sciences has announced the Faculty Enhancement Program awardees for fiscal year 2020.

The purpose of the program is to increase the numbers and proportion of faculty members engaging in research, scholarship and creative activities, particularly those with the potential for garnering extramural funding and recognition. The program provides up to $10,000 each for faculty in disciplines that have not historically enjoyed access to substantial start-up or extramural funding opportunities.

The following are the awardees and their project titles:

• Rebecca Bender, modern languages, "Pregnant Minds and Literary Bodies: Motherhood and Feminism in Spanish Women's Literature of the Modernist Era (1910-39)."
• Jung Sim Jun, sociology, anthropology, and social work, "Acculturative Stress, Mobile Health Application, and Gastric Cancer Health Among Korean Immigrant Elders."
• Rachel Levitt, gender, women, and sexuality studies, "Differential Valuation."
• Alyssa Morris, music, "Parables: A CD Recording of New Music for Oboe by Alyssa Morris."
• Tom Sarmiento, English, "The Heartland of US Empire: Filipinxs Queering the Midwest, the Midwest Queering Filipinx Diaspora."

Tenure-earning faculty members within three years of hire were eligible to apply for funding for summer salary and research support. Applicants identified a particular project culminating in a scholarly work that would enhance their research capabilities, such as a book or national grant proposal. The funding provided by the program will be complemented by mentoring from a senior colleague at K-State or elsewhere, in addition to group activities among the awardees.

A special thank you to the review committee for helping with this year's selection. The committee included Associate Dean Louise Benjamin and former Faculty Enhancement Program recipients Nathan Albin, mathematics; Amanda Gaulke, economics; and Rosa Terlazzo, philosophy.