Thirteen distinguished faculty selected to receive 2019 University Research Council Awards were honored recently at a luncheon hosted by the University Research Council and the Office of Grants and Research Services.

The summer stipend and research grant competition is one of the most longstanding and competitive sources of faculty development at Seton Hall. To be considered for awards, faculty submit research proposals that are judged by a panel of faculty experts, including senior faculty and previous award winners. 

Since its inception in the late 1970s, the University Research Council has made more than 300 awards and has been a primary venue for university-sponsored faculty research support. The Office of the Provost, which supports the Council, has increased the funding by about 80 percent during the past three years. The current awardees receive a summer stipend or research grant of $10,000.

The 2019 distinguished faculty cohort of honorees and their projects include:

• Pamela Adams
  Department of Management, Stillman School of Business
  Project title: "Linking Vertically Related Industries"
  Research Interests: Management of innovation, entrepreneurship, industry analyses and strategic marketing.
   
• Edmund Adjapong
  Department of Educational Studies, College of Education and Human Services
  Project Title: "Utilizing Hip-Hop to Support the Development of Science Geniuses"
  Research Interests: STEM Education, Hip-Hop education, issues of class, race, gender, privilege, diversity and youth programming.
   
• Nabeela Alam
  School of Diplomacy and International Relations
  Project Title: "Extended Family and Women's Household Autonomy"
  Research Interests: Political economy of institutions and development, where institutions can be both formal and informal.
   
• Dawn Apgar
  Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, College of Arts and Sciences
  Project Title: "Examining Social Workers' Interest in and Commitment to Macro Practice: Learning from the Next Generation of Professionals"
  Research Interests: Social Work Licensure.
   
• Timothy Fortin
  Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology
  Project Title: "The Metaphysics of Sexual Difference"
  Research Interests: Philosophy of psychology and the philosophy of fatherhood.
   
• Suzanne Gantar
  Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
  Project Title: "Centrome Clustering in Cancer by Aurora Kinase C"
  Research Interests: Investigating the use of meiosis-specific genes as therapeutic targets for cancer treatment.
   
• Karen Gevirtz
  Department of English, College of Arts and Science
  Project Title: "The War for Drugs: Men, Women and the Birth of Big Pharma, 1650-1740"
  Research Interests: How and why literary forms, particularly the novel, evolve. Specializes in the long eighteenth century (1660-1798), Jane Austen, women writers and non-fictional prose.
   
• Phyllis Hansell
  College of Nursing
  Project Title: "A Pilot Intervention Study to Improve Functional Health Status in Women with HIV"
  Research Interests: Women infected with HIV enabling their power through effective coping aimed to improve their holistic healthcare outcomes.
   
• James Kimble
  Department of Communication, Journalism and Public Relations, College of Communication and the Arts
  Project Title: "The Conflicted Origins of the New Deal"
  Research Interests: Domestic propaganda and the way it helps to construct a rhetorical community even as it fosters depictions of an enemy of Other; World War II, Civil War era and Cold War.
   
• Debasmita Roy
  Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
  Project Title: "Understanding the Regulation of Stem Cells by Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinase Using C. elegans"
  Research Interests: How cells, especially stem cells, communicate to maintain normal health. Understand how stem cells decide whether to remain stem cells or differentiate into specialized cells like muscles, neurons, blood cells, etc.
   
• Ellen Scully
  Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology
  Project Title: "New Narratives for Old: Reading Early Christian Theology Using the Historical Method"
  Research Interests: Early Christianity with a focus on Latin patristics in the 3rd through 5th centuries.
   
• Mitra Shojania-Feizabadi 
  Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences
  Project Title: "Dynamic Specifications of Breast Cancer Microtubules Interacting with Tau protein and Taxol"
  Research Interests: Evaluate the mechanical and dynamic differences that exist in the intracellular functions of cancer cells versus brain cells.
   
• Gregory Wiedman
  Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
  Project Title: "Exploration of Lipid-Flippases as New Antimicrobial Targets"
  Research Interests: Cell membrane and molecules that interact with cells/cell membranes using techniques from Analytical Chemistry.

For additional information, contact the University Research Council and the Office of Grants and Research Services.