Beloit College has received more than $1.3 million in grant funding from four donors in March 2016. The grants will expand the college’s commitment to both research and diversity.
Beloit College was awarded a three-year $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will focus on inclusive leadership through targeted faculty and staff development. Housed in the Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness, the Inclusive Leadership Project will provide a comprehensive tiered faculty development program that will enhance the living and learning experiences of all students by promoting activities that transform the curriculum through pedagogical experimentation, teaching, operations, and culture. Anthropologists Dr. Lisa Anderson-Levy and Dr. Nicole Truesdell are the co-principal investigators for the project.
The Henry Luce Foundation – Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment (LIASE) has awarded a four-year $400,000 grant to Beloit for interdisciplinary study of Asia and the environment. The grant will support Landscapes in Transition: Environment, Culture, Society in China and Japan, an interdisciplinary curriculum centered around water resources in China and physical and cultural landscapes in Japan. Elisabeth Brewer, Susan Furukawa, James Rougvie, Sue Swanson, Pablo Toral, and Daniel Youd are the co-principal investigators and will lead student research trips to China and Japan in collaboration with partner institutions in each country.
The Logan Museum of Anthropology was awarded $99,948 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the Bristol Collection Reference Resources Project. With collections curator Nicolette Meister as principal investigator, the project will catalog and make digitally accessible the important collection of Frances Bristol. The Bristol Collection, donated to the Logan Museum between 2006 and 2014, documents four decades of community change in Oaxaca, Mexico. It includes 436 objects that are primarily textiles, plus a rich archive and more than 8,000 slides and photographs. The Logan Museum of Anthropology is a nationally accredited museum housing more than 15,000 ethnographic and 300,000 archaeological objects from 125 countries and 600 cultural groups.
A $270,000 grant from an anonymous donor will allow for more student research opportunities by establishing the summer science scholars program. This program furthers the science division’s goals of providing training across all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines so that students develop as scientists, and will build capacity for future summer research opportunities. The grant will fund 15 students per summer for a period of three years. Students will engage in active, mentored projects with Beloit College science and math faculty during 8-week extended or 4-week intensive field-based research experiences. Faculty James Schulte, Paul Stanley, and Sue Swanson are the principal investigators for the project.
