SMCM Hosts Third Annual Research Excellence Workshop on January 17, 2020

March 16, 2020

Provost Michael Wick Provides Opening Remarks at the 2020 REW

St. Mary’s College of Maryland held the third annual Research Excellence Workshop (REW) on January 17^th, 2020 in Daugherty-Palmer-Commons. The REW provides broad research development opportunities (beyond grants), and institutional support for and recognition of faculty research, scholarship and creative activities. The specific goals of the 2020 REW workshop were to: present and discuss internal support for research at SMCM, present relevant funding and research opportunities, formally recognize the efforts of faculty and staff in seeking external funding to support their endeavors, and provide a forum for networking with external guests and colleagues across campus.

The day’s events included:

Panel on Internal Support for Research at SMCM

Part 1 – Provost Michael Wick, Associate Dean Katie Gantz, former and current department chairs Drs. Adriana Brodsky and Aileen Bailey presented ways to support faculty and undergraduate research from a College and departmental perspective.
Part 2 – Drs. Bailey and James Mantell presented an innovative workload model that allows for improved scholarly, creative, and research experiences of students while appropriately compensating faculty mentoring.

Session on External Funding and Networking Opportunities

This was one 2-hour session with three informal, sequential presentations (~30 minutes each) followed by ~30 minutes for questions from the audience.

Fulbright Scholars Program: Dr. Carleen Velez, IIE Fulbright Outreach Specialist, provided an overview of Fulbright programs popular with SMCM faculty, and offered tips for writing successful fellowship applications.
Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU)- and National Park Service (NPS)-facilitated research for faculty and students: Mr. Danny Filer, CESU Research Coordinator provided an overview of research and funding opportunities afforded to SMCM through our partnership with the Chesapeake Watershed CESU Network. In addition, Dr. Joshua Torres discussed research collaborations with NPS, specifically opportunities for SMCM undergraduate students to conduct archival research with NPS in the National Capital Region.
MD State Arts Council (MSAC) Funding and SMCM as MSAC Folklife Network Hub: Dr. Chad Buterbaugh, MSAC Director of the MD Traditions program provided an overview of MSAC funding and the MD Traditions Program. He also discussed SMCM’s new role as the southern MD hub for the MD Folklife Network, a new collaboration to which faculty can contribute. To discuss this new initiative with SMCM stakeholders, the executive directors and some board members of the Arts Councils for Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s County were also in attendance.

Clockwise from left: Dr. Gili Freedman, Dr. Shanen Sherrer, and Nick D’Antona ’19 (on behalf of Dr. Troy Townsend) receive 2020 REW Awards

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) Award Presentations and Networking Lunch

In addition to providing networking opportunities with external speakers and campus colleagues, this annual REW lunch celebrates and recognizes all SMCM faculty and staff who submitted proposals for external funding during the previous year, and we present the annual ORSP awards. As the Most Successful Grant Seeker in FY19, Dr. Troy Townsend, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, received the ORSP River Hawk Award; and Dr. Shanen Sherrer, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, and Dr. Gili Freedman, Assistant Professor of Psychology, were recognized as ‘Go-Getters’. To celebrate all grant seeking efforts, we held a drawing where the number of free raffle tickets per individual faculty or staff member was equal to the number of proposals they submitted for external funding in FY19. Dr. Holly Blumner’s ticket was selected from the random drawing, earning her a note of congratulations and $25 gift card to the campus bookstore.

NEH Funding Opportunities and Grant Writing Tips

Jeff Hardwick, Deputy Director of the NEH Division of Public Programs led this 2.5-hour afternoon NEH workshop that introduced popular NEH funding opportunities and tips on how to write a successful NEH grant proposal.

Sincere thanks to all the attendees and congratulations again to our sponsored research awardees! The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs plans to hold annual research-focused workshops in support of faculty and staff scholarship. If you have ideas about future topics of interest or networking partners, please contact Sabine Dillingham at x4192, sldillingham@smcm.edu.

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Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Barry Muchnick Awarded $30,000 for Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm

November 4, 2019

Barry Muchnick, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, has been awarded $30,000 from The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States. The funds will support research, development, and implementation of new programming at the Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm through enhanced partnerships between St. Mary’s College and Historic St. Mary’s City. “The ‘Kate Farm’ is a special place to grow food and community,” said Muchnick. “The Community Foundation funding will allow us to deepen and expand the ways the farm serves all St. Mary’s students as well as the surrounding community.”

First founded as a student garden on campus, and then relocating in 2009 to a parcel leased from Historic St. Mary’s City near the corner of Point Lookout Road and Rosecroft Road, the Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm educates students about sustainable agriculture and empowers people to become engaged environmental stewards. The farm is one of the many unique living laboratories at St. Mary’s College that provides fertile ground for experiential learning. “The ‘Kate Farm’ is about much more than growing food,” said Muchnick, who coordinates the effort along with student farm managers and a Farm Advisory Board. “In addition to growing delicious produce, the Farm offers co-benefits including improved well-being through healthy eating, increased contact with nature, and a strengthened connection to our rural landscape and history.” Muchnick sees the farm as “a place to roll up your sleeves, solve real problems, build relationships, and practice caring for each other and the planet.”

As part of an effort to reach and engage all St. Mary’s students – not just environmental studies majors – Muchnick plans to use The Community Foundation award to help improve infrastructure, to launch a new mini-grant program to support farm-based scholarly and creative projects, and to develop new course offerings and a strategic plan for the Farm’s future.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland Gives Invited Plenary at Council on Undergraduate Research Transformations Project Yearly Meeting

October 14, 2019

The Council on Undergraduate Research Transformations Project (CUR-TP) held its third yearly meeting this past weekend, October 4-6, 2019, at which meeting participants continued their work on integrating undergraduate research experiences throughout the curriculum. Attending the meeting on behalf of St. Mary’s College of Maryland this year was director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning (CITL), Samantha Elliot, and members of the two departments involved in the CUR-TP Project including Psychology: Aileen Bailey (co-lead), James Mantell (co-lead), Torry Dennis, Gina Fernandez and Chemistry/Biochemistry: Kelly Neiles (co-lead), Geoffrey Bowers, and Daniel Chase.

At this year’s meeting Bailey, Mantell, Neiles and Bowers gave an invited plenary in the session titled “So what are we learning: Research agenda of the CUR Transformations Project” which was well received by project leaders and participants. The team also continued its work in collaborating with the CUR-TP administration team and other institutional participants to further develop its undergraduate research curriculum. These fruitful discussions include plans to disseminate what the two departments have learned both on-campus, with help from CITL, and off-campus through national conference proceedings.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland is one of only 12 institutions selected by CUR for its Transformations Project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF-DUE award #1625354). Through this project, participants from institutions around the country have been engaged in novel research to understand the student, faculty, departmental, and disciplinary influences on the process of integrating and scaffolding undergraduate research experiences throughout the curriculum.

SMCM Title IX Office Awarded Five-year Grant from the Maryland Department of Health

April 18, 2019

Michael Dunn, SMCM Title IX Coordinator

Over the next five years, the College’s Title IX Office will receive a total of $50,000 from the Maryland Department of Health’s Rape and Sexual Assault Prevention Program at the Center for Injury and Sexual Assault Prevention. The focus of the grant is “Preventing Campus Sexual Assault through Social Norms Change” and on implementing strategies to mobilize men and boys as allies to prevent sexual violence. This is the College’s third, and most significant, award from the Maryland Department of Health in the past three years.

The College will use these funds to continue developing a relationship with A Call to Men, a national violence prevention organization first brought to campus in 2017. A Call to Men is known for its important work with professional sports leagues, the U.S. military, and many other institutions.

For the next five years, trainers from A Call to Men will come to campus each semester to engage in ongoing programming and development with the general campus community as well as specific male populations, such as men’s sports teams and residential communities. The College will also use grant funds to support student professional fellows and upperclass students working on St. Mary’s Projects on related topics.

Michael Dunn, SMCM’s Director of Title IX Compliance and Training/Title IX Coordinator is “very excited about the opportunity to develop impactful, sustained prevention work with influential campus communities, and to weave together academic and pre-professional opportunities”. Dunn appreciates the support of campus partners, including Student Affairs, Athletics, and Academic Affairs, in helping pull the pieces of the grant proposal and planned programming together.

New Partnership Between Environmental Studies and Historic St. Mary’s City Receives Grant Award from the Maryland Agriculture Council

February 12, 2019

From left to right: Project Coordinators Peter Friesen, Barry Muchnick, Madeline Beller (’19), and Bonnie Kangas

On Thursday, February 7, a faculty, staff, and student team representing the Heirloom Garden Project – a new partnership between the Environmental Studies Program at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Historic St. Mary’s City – received a grant award from the Maryland Agriculture Council during the Annual Taste of Maryland Agriculture gala in Glen Burnie, MD.

Hosted by The Maryland Agriculture Council – whose mission is to promote Maryland agriculture and to educate the public on its importance – the award gala included special presentations from U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, Governor Larry Hogan, and Joseph Bartenfelder, Secretary, Maryland Department of Agriculture. Attendees included a large contingent of Senators and Delegates from Maryland’s General Assembly and Congressional Delegation.

Selected from a large, competitive pool of proposals as an outstanding example of creative and unique programs being done on a local level, the Heirloom Garden Project will grow historically accurate heirloom crops for living history programs at Historic St. Mary’s City; facilitate agriculture-based service learning opportunities for St. Mary’s students; and produce educational materials about the importance of past and present sustainable agriculture practices for the general public.

Project Coordinators Dr. Barry Ross Muchnick, assistant professor environmental studies, and Peter Friesen, Director of Education at historic St. Mary’s City, accepted the award on behalf of the project, along with Bonnie Kangas, acting manager at the Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm and environmental studies major Madeline Beller (’19), a student member of the larger team that collaborated on the project proposal.

Environmental Studies students researched and wrote the grant proposal as part of the upper-level, interdisciplinary Keystone Seminar (ENST490) in Fall 2018, which examined the relationship between food systems and environmental citizenship. Committed to learning through experiential and applied discovery, the seminar hosted a grant-writing workshop by Sabine Dillingham, Director of Research and Sponsored Programs, and enabled students to break ground on the project through structured service-learning hours and reflection writing assignments.

Located at the Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm, The Heirloom Garden Project embodies how the Environmental Studies Program links theory and practice by building bridges between campus and the broader community.

For more information about the Heirloom Garden Project, or to learn how you can volunteer, contact brmuchnick@smcm.edu

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Barry Muchnick Presented on Innovative Environmental Studies Curriculum at Association of American Colleges & Universities Conference

January 29, 2019

Dr. Muchnick (left) with colleagues at the 2019 AAC&U conference

Barry Ross Muchnick, assistant professor of environmental studies, recently presented an invited talk at the annual conference of the Association of American Colleges & Universities in Atlanta, Georgia. His presentation highlighted the numerous and innovative ways civic learning is embedded within the environmental studies major, and derived in part from an AAC&U Mini Grant for Civic Learning in the Major by Design he received in 2018.

Part of an interdisciplinary panel that included faculty from communications studies and informatics departments, Muchnick’s talk featured student-driven, service-learning projects from recent years such as the Power Dialog, the Tiny House Project, and highlighted partnerships with the Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust to train students as Land Steward Monitors and with Historic St. Mary’s City to break ground on a new Heirloom Garden to grow period appropriate produce for the museum’s food-based living history demonstrations.

The conference audience included over 1,800 faculty, staff, and administrators from higher education institutions across the country. It was an ideal forum to foreground the entrepreneurial academic work conducted by the environmental studies program.

SMCM Hosts Second Annual Research Excellence Workshop

January 25, 2019

Dr. Jeff Osborn presenting faculty workload models

St. Mary’s College of Maryland held the second annual Research Excellence Workshop (REW) on January 11^th 2019 in Daugherty-Palmer-Commons and the Blackistone Room in Anne Arundel Hall. The REW provides broad professional development opportunities (beyond grants), institutional support for and recognition of faculty research, scholarship and creative activities. The specific goals of the 2019 REW workshop were to: present funding and research opportunities to arts, social science and humanities faculty, discuss faculty workload and research integration into scaffolded undergraduate curricula, formally recognize the efforts of faculty and staff in seeking external funding to support their endeavors, and provide a forum for networking with external guests and colleagues across campus.

The day’s events included:

Funding and research opportunities in the arts, social sciences and humanities (e.g., Smithsonian, Social Science Research Council, MD State Arts Council, NEH, MD Humanities, Library of Congress, Folgers Shakespeare Library, ACLS, external foundations). Presented by: Lauren Sampson, SMCM Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Dr. Sabine Dillingham, SMCM Director of Research and Sponsored Programs, and Marilyn Hatza, Program Officer Grants & Strategic Partnerships, MD Humanities. The scheduled NEH visit by John D. Cox, Deputy Director, NEH Division of Education Programs had to be cancelled due to the partial federal government shutdown but might be re-scheduled for later in the spring semester.
Lunch, inaugural Sponsored Research Awards, and ‘Meet & Greet’ with external stakeholders. In celebration of outstanding efforts and achievements, Dr. Julie King, Professor of Anthropology, was recognized as Most Successful Grant Seeker; Dr. Angela Johnson, Professor of Educational Studies, and Dr. Cassie Gurbisz, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, were recognized as First-time Awardees. We also held a drawing where the number of free raffle tickets for faculty and staff was equal to the number of proposals they submitted for external funding in FY18. Dr. Samantha Elliott’s ticket was selected from the random drawing, earning her a note of congratulations and $25 gift card to the campus bookstore. External networking guests included Ms. Hatza from MD Humanities, researchers from Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (Drs. Tom Miller, Dave Secor, Carys Mitchelmore, Hali Kilbourne, and Johan Schijf), Morgan State’s PEARL (Dr. Tom Ihde, Dr. Ming Liu, Richard Lacouture, and Amber DeMarr), and Dr. Jeff Osborn, TCNJ Dean of the School of Science, AAAS and CUR Fellow.
Presentation by Dr. Osborn, introducing the CUR Transformations Project with emphasis on creating a more research-rich, connected, and scaffolded curriculum, and an overview of faculty workload models that work well for primarily undergraduate institutions such as SMCM. The SMCM CUR-Transformations teams also provided brief overviews of their goals and progress.
Panel discussion on faculty workload solutions and research integration into scaffolded undergraduate curricula facilitated by Dr. Katherine Gantz. Panelists included: Dr. Osborn, Provost Michael Wick, Dr. Joe Lucchesi, Dr. Aileen Bailey, Dr. Pamela Mertz, and Dr. Christine Wooley.

Sincere thanks to all the attendees and congratulations again to our inaugural sponsored research awardees! The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs plans to hold annual research-focused workshops in support of faculty and staff scholarship. If you have ideas about future topics of interest or networking partners, please contact Sabine Dillingham at x4192, sldillingham@smcm.edu.

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SMCM Faculty and Staff Working to Transform Undergraduate Research

November 12, 2018

St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) was well represented and very well received at the second annual meeting of the Council on Undergraduate Research Transformations Project (CUR-T), funded by the National Science Foundation (Award no. 1625354). The inter-disciplinary SMCM team attending the conference included Drs. Mertz, Neiles, Bowers, Dillingham, Wooley, Koenig, and Foster.

SMCM faculty and staff at the November 2018 CUR conference

SMCM CUR Transformations Project Team Members at 2018 Conference (L to R: Drs. Mertz, Neiles, Bowers, Dillingham, Wooley, Koenig, and Foster)

The CUR Transformations Project aims to understand and incorporate successful strategies to integrate high-quality undergraduate research (UGR) throughout four-year undergraduate STEM curricula. SMCM’s contribution to this ambitious nation-wide endeavor focuses on undergraduate research integration in the disciplines of psychology and chemistry & biochemistry, and we have a committed team of 16 faculty and administrators working toward this goal.

The 2018 annual meeting allowed all 12 institutions participating in the CUR-T project to highlight their progress toward achieving project goals, and by all accounts our SMCM psychology and chemistry/biochemistry teams excelled and impressed. Congratulations to all of them, and please feel free to ask them about their CUR-T-related progress and insights. Each team works to create a more research-rich, connected, and scaffolded curriculum, and contributes to two major research questions: 1) What effect do student characteristics (e.g., preexisting academic preparation) have on scaffolded integration of UGR into the curriculum and student learning outcomes? 2) How do different STEM disciplines/departments effectively integrate the components and outcomes of high-quality UGR to reach more students? The CUR-T principal investigators received NSF funding to answer these pertinent questions in order to advance the academy’s understanding of effective teaching and learning and the disciplinary and cultural factors necessary for curricular integration and transformation. Collectively, we are at the cutting edge of STEM curricular transformations.

: SMCM Team Members Presenting at the Conference

SMCM Chemistry CUR Conference Poster

SMCM Psychology CUR Conference Poster

SMCM Announces 2018 Cohort of SURF Researchers

April 20, 2018

The 2018 cohort of SURF students with co-directors Dr. Rhoda (top left) and Dr. Emerson (top right)

As the Spring 2018 semester draws to a close, a group of students with diverse interests and backgrounds are preparing to take part in the St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program this summer. The SURF program partners students from intentionally varied disciplines with faculty mentors to engage in directed research or creative work. While working full-time for eight weeks on their individual projects, students will also participate in workshops and group meetings to develop their professional skills. The SURF program will culminate in a symposium in July 2018, allowing each student to showcase their finished projects to the campus and local community.

Nine students were chosen during a competitive selection process to participate in the SURF program this summer:

Justyce Bennett, a junior DeSousa-Brent Scholar studying anthropology, is working on a project entitled “Visual and Material Cultures of Slavery: The View from Art History” under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Art History Emily Casey. Justyce will research the methodology of archaeologists and art historians to establish an interdisciplinary approach to the interpretation of artifacts found on sites that relate to slavery. The project’s purpose is to develop a critical method for approaching these artifacts that connects them to larger visual cultures and provides insight into the culture and lives of enslaved people, while also allowing room for personal agency and creativity.

A sophomore studying chemistry and applied math, Nick D’Antona is conducting the project “Printing Perovskite Solar Cells: A Low-cost Production Method for Renewable Energy”. Nick and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Troy Townsend hope to layer inks with an automated printing process so that they consistently produce stable and efficient solar cells. Nick hopes to earn his PhD in chemistry, but first wants to be a research chemist and explore the materials sciences. He hopes to gain better presentation skills and is thankful for the research experience available through the SURF program.

James Judlick is a junior studying psychology. His project “Queer Eye for the Employer: A Résumé Audit Study for LGBTQ Individuals” is a study of possible discrimination against LGBTQ men as they apply to administrative, clerical, and management positions. The project will be mentored by Dr. Ayse Ikizler, an Assistant Professor of Psychology with a background in the effects of oppression of marginalized groups and the intersectionality of identity. James is looking forward to the collaborative and interdisciplinary aspects of the SURF program, hoping to become a group therapist in the future.

Bethany Laffan is a sophomore English major who is working with Professor of English Jeffery Coleman on the project “Literary Rock Star: A Reception Study of Haruki Murakami’s Popularity in Japan and the United States”. Analyzing the novels Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle through various psychoanalytical theories, Bethany hopes her research will reveal intercultural connections between readers in Japan and the United States. She hopes to use SURF to gain more experience in research and analysis and later become an English professor or librarian.

Lily Pohlenz is working on a biology-focused project, “What’s the Buzz on Somatic Wolbachia Infection? Using Drosophila Melanogaster as a Model Organism to Understand the Control of Disease Transmission in Mosquitoes”. She will be conducting research under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Biology Kevin Emerson. Since somatic Wolbachia infection limits disease transmission among mosquitos, Lily and Dr. Emerson are attempting to learn its method of growth as a potential mechanism for preventing the spread of vector transmitted diseases. Lily is majoring in biology, with a minor in philosophy. She hopes to travel and help others during a future stint with the Peace Corps and later work as a physician’s assistant. Lily is looking forward to designing a project and conducting experimental research as part of her SURF experience.

Collaborating with Research & Instruction Librarian Amanda VerMeulen, Stephanie Schoch is working on the project “Visualizing Refugee Health Data: Impact of Domain-specific Knowledge on Comprehension”. Stephanie is a computer science and psychology double major graduating in May 2019. Her project will investigate the role of domain-specific knowledge in health data visualizations. This research specifically focuses on how healthcare domain knowledge affects comprehension of data visualizations with varying properties and attributes. She plans to apply for PhD programs in the fall, with current research interests including human-computer interaction, UX (user experience) design, and data visualization.

Kelly Healy will work with Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Shanen Sherrer on her project titled “Cutting a Pathway: Locating Binding Site of Environmental Contaminant Cadmium in Metal-binding Protein”. Kelly is a junior, double majoring in biology and biochemistry with a minor in music. She hopes that SURF will give her more research experience and prepare her for grad school.

With Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Barry Muchnick, Elizabeth (Izzy) Peterson is conducting the project “A Call to Animate: A Study and Subversion of Propaganda’s Power”. A studio arts major with a minor in film & media studies Izzy hopes to work in the film industry as a production designer. Her research is focused on analyzing propaganda films of the early 20th century, such as Disney war bond shorts, Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, the films of Leni Riefenstahl, and more. She intends to uncover the techniques behind successful propaganda films and employ them in her own animated short film she hopes will serve as a “call to enlist” for women in the arts.

The SMCM community wishes this summer’s cohort of SURF students the best of luck and anticipates many exciting outcomes from their scholarship!

~St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship~

First Annual SMCM Research Forum held Jan 12, 2018

February 21, 2018

Audience members including (left-to-right): SMCM faculty James Mantel, Torry Dennis, and Amanda VerMeulen

St. Mary’s College of Maryland held the first Annual Research Forum on January 12^th 2018 in the beautiful Blackistone Room in Anne Arundel Hall. The goals of the multi-disciplinary forum were to: offer both general advice for faculty and staff seeking external funding and specific feedback for those with developed project ideas, to provide a venue for intentional networking with external guests and among existing colleagues, and to celebrate active awards and recent efforts to secure external funding.

The day’s events included:

Panel Discussion: Writing More Competitive Grant Proposals: Tom Wenzel, professor of chemistry and grant writing consultant, and SMCM faculty-scholars (Drs. Bailey, Deane-Coe, Grossman, Neiles);
Lunch Buffet & Networking: Featuring external guests representing the Maryland State Arts Council, St. Mary’s County Arts Council, National Park Service and Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units Network, Conservation Branch of Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) at Patuxent River, Naval Air Warfare Center- Aircraft Division at Patuxent River, and Southern Maryland Higher Education Center;
Panel Discussion: Securing External Funding in the Humanities and Arts: Christine Kalke, NEH Senior Analyst and International Coordinator (retired), Amy Stolls NEA Director of Literature, and SMCM faculty-scholars (Drs. Başaran, Brodsky, Gabriel, King, Wooley);
Individual Consultation Sessions: Review and expert feedback on grant proposals with Dr. Tom Wenzel, Dr. Christine Kalke, and Amy Stolls;
Wine & Cheese Reception: Open to all faculty, in recognition and celebration of active awards and recent efforts to secure external funding, with remarks from Provost Wick; co-sponsored by the Offices of the Provost and Institutional Advancement.

The forum was well attended, with active discussions continuing throughout the day. The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs plans to hold annual research forums in support of faculty and staff scholarship. If you have ideas about future topics of interest, please contact Dr. Sabine Dillingham at x4192, sldillingham@smcm.edu.

Provost Wick delivers remarks during the forum reception