Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP)

Assisting faculty and staff to engage in research and scholarly & creative endeavors

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) / 2019 / Archives for March 2019

Archives for March 2019

Professor King’s NEH-funded work with the Rappahannock Tribe Featured in National Council of University Research Administrators Magazine

Professor of Anthropology Julia King (left) and Rappahannock Tribe Chief Anne Richardson (right)

Professor of Anthropology Julia King’s National Endowment for the Humanities-funded work with the Rappahannock Tribe is featured in the March/April 2019 issue of National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) Magazine.

King, in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Chesapeake Conservancy, and the federally-recognized Rappahannock Tribe of Virginia, is tracing the history and development of the Rappahannock Indians in early American history (200-1850 AD).

NCURA Magazine is a member-only magazine available both in print and online for all NCURA members, published six times a year. It is arguably the leading national organization for research administrators with membership in the thousands.

Katie Robey ’19 Awarded $992 Research Grant from Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research Program

St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) student Katie Robey was selected to receive a research grant for her SMP by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society. Sigma Xi’s mission is to help foster the next generation of researchers and that is what they have done for Katie. With her SMP titled “Antidepressant Efficacy of L-655,708 Following Infusion into the Medial Prefrontal Cortex”, she hopes to uncover more about the neural circuitry that is responsible for the etiology of depression.

Katie’s project measures baseline depressive-like behavior by the novelty-suppressed feeding test, social interaction test, sucrose preference test, and open field test in a rodent model of depression. Robey will surgically implant treatment animals with guide cannulas and they will receive direct infusions into the medial prefrontal cortex of either the L-655,708 antidepressant or the drug vehicle. The drug vehicle is the solvent used to transport the drug into the system and when delivered on its own, serves as an experimental control. Robey hypothesizes that rats receiving L-655,708 will show significantly reduced depressive behavior when compared to the control group. All research involving vertebrate animals must be approved by the St. Mary’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

Robey, a biochemistry major and neuroscience minor, is working with fellow student Brooke Steinhoff ’19 under the guidance of Professor of Psychology Aileen Bailey. When asked about her research Robey stated: “I have been doing research with the same fast-acting antidepressant (L-655,708) for a couple of years and have studied its effect on several brain regions including the hippocampus and nucleus accumbens”. However, she wanted to extend the investigation by also looking into the medial prefrontal cortex since that region of the brain also plays a role in reward processing. Ultimately, the goal of Robey and collaborators’ research is to identify a safe, fast-acting antidepressant without the negative side effects of other alternatives.

Robey hopes that after she graduates from SMCM, additional future SMP students will continue working with L-655,708 in order to help further expand our understanding of its efficacy as a fast-acting antidepressant.

This article was written by St. Mary’s College of Maryland student and Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Fellow Mackenzie Brooks ’21.

Students Raynaud and Mehaffey Selected as Undergraduate Research Fellows

St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) anthropology students Melody Raynaud and Daniel Mehaffey have been selected as inaugural Undergraduate Research Fellows for the American Anthropological Association. Raynaud and Mehaffey are two of only six fellows selected from a nationwide pool of applicants that received the fellowship. Since receiving the fellowship from the American Anthropological Association, a first-year student, Colette Nortman, has joined the team in order to gain first hand ethnographic research experience.

Funded by the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, this program supports research projects that use ethnographic or mixed methods to address the question, how do anthropology majors prepare for life after college?

With mentor and professor of anthropology William Roberts, Raynaud and Mehaffey will focus their research on answering questions regarding students’ experiences of navigating career development. Their study also explores how building a community of practice among students and faculty at SMCM promotes the development of skills and knowledge that develop graduates’ character.

We asked Raynaud what she hopes to gain from this experience and her future directions after graduating from SMCM. Raynaud commented she is hoping the fellowship will enrich her anthropology experience beyond the skills learned in the classroom and hopes this study will help to reinforce how her anthropology degree will help her excel in any career she chooses to pursue.

This study will enable Raynaud and Mehaffey to submit a proposal to present their findings at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association jointly with the Canadian Anthropological Association in November, 2019, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Professor Roberts believes that these fellowships will provide the anthropology department with empirical information that will be useful as the College transitions to a renewed core curriculum, Learning through Experiential and Applied Discovery (LEAD). He also believes that while the department has done well preparing students for life after SMCM, this study will help strengthen the links between SMCM alumni and the department and our current anthropology majors and minors.

This article was written by St. Mary’s College of Maryland student and Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Fellow Mackenzie Brooks ’21, who adapted Michael Bruckler’s January 16, 2019 story published in the SMCM online Newsroom.

Professor Johnson Awarded Summer Residency Fellowship by MASS MoCA

Sue Johnson, professor of art, has been awarded a summer residency fellowship by MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) in North Adams, MA. Selected artists for this highly competitive fellowship program receive private studio space on MASS MoCA’s campus, newly renovated housing, free access to the museum’s galleries throughout the residency, optional financial and business coaching from Assets for Artists staff, and a daily group meal.

Johnson will be in residence for three weeks and plans to create works for her new installation project that re-visions the modernist narrative as it sets out to explore how women have been pictured as objects of desire.