KUIA awards 16 grants for research and collaboration aboard
KU International Affairs has awarded more than $37,000 in travel grants to 16 KU faculty and graduate students to support research and collaboration abroad.
These competitively-awarded funds were dispersed among faculty and students in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and schools of Architecture & Design, Education, Engineering and Music. Through these funds, faculty and students will travel to 11 countries on four continents to conduct research, access archives, collaborate with colleagues and strengthen international partnerships.
Recipients will use the funds between now and June 30, 2021.
Faculty Grants
South, Southeast and East Asia Fund
The South, Southeast and East Asia Fund develops, strengthens and maintains institutional exchanges and academic collaborations between KU and counterparts at selected post-secondary institutions within Asia. Grant recipients include:
Hyesun Cho, associate professor of curriculum and teaching, who will travel to South Korea to explore opportunities to develop a short-term program for U.S. educators and administrators. The visit will be the first step toward applying for a Fulbright Hays-Group Projects Abroad grant and an Academy of Korean Studies Educational and Cultural Program grant to establish Korean cross-cultural learning experiences and educational and cultural programs in the U.S.
Kyoungchul Kong, associate professor of physics and astronomy, who will conduct research on Large Hadron Collider physics with research groups in South Korea at Pusan National University, Yonsei University and Seoul National University.
Ian Lewis, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, who will work with a collaborator at the Korean Advance Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to study measurements of the properties of the Higgs boson to learn more about dark matter. Lewis will collaborate with Hye-Sung Lee, assistant professor of physics at KAIST. Lewis also plans to give seminars at other institutions.
Bo Luo, professor of electronic engineering and computer science, who will conduct research at the Japan Advance Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) with Razvan Beuran, research associate professor at JAIST. Research will focus on smart grid security.
Kapila Silva, associate professor of architecture, who will travel to Sri Lanka to conduct research for a book project on vernacular architecture of the Kandyan era, which he is undertaking with Dhammika Chandrasekara, dean of the faculty of architecture at the University of Moratuwa.
International Travel Fund for Humanities Research
The International Travel Fund for Humanities Research supports KU faculty pursuing international humanities research abroad. The funds are intended for summer research projects and provides funding for airfare and related travel expenses. Grant recipients include:
Andrew Denning, associate professor of history, who will conduct archival research at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Brussels for his book on roads, mobility and the making of colonial Africa.
Alex Diener, associate professor of geography, who will travel to three key centers of place attachment research in Sweden to access databases and work with leading scholars in the field for a book project.
Dale Dorsey, professor of philosophy, who will accept the Plumer Fellowship at St. Anne’s College, Oxford, to work on a project about British moralists of the early modern period. The grant will support travel and accommodation during Dorsey’s fellowship.
Diane Fourny, associate professor of French and humanities, who will conduct research using archives and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris to study scholarly debates during the Enlightenment over Chinese civilization.
Marike Janzen, associate professor of humanities, who will attend and observe Berlin’s International Literature Festival, which is engaging with the theme of the refugee. Janzen’s research will contribute to her current book project.
Marcy Lascano, professor of philosophy, who will study four texts housed at Cambridge University for a research project on the 17th century philosopher Anne Conway.
Margaret Marco, professor of music, who will travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to research Uzbek oboe composer Polina Medyulyanova. Also, she will perform as the featured oboe soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of Turkiston at an international music festival organized by KU alumnus Shah Sadikov.
Peter Ojiambo, associate professor of African and African-American studies, who will travel to Kenya to collect data through archival and audio-visual materials in the Kenyan National Arichives and to conduct interviews related to Eddah Waceke Gachukia, a leading woman educator, for his current book project.
Rami Zeedan, assistant professor of Jewish studies, will travel to Israel to research the history of the integration of Arabs into the Israeli Defense Force at the Israeli Defense Forces Archives and the Israel State Archives.
Graduate Grants
International Enhancement Grants
International Enhancement Grants support graduate students pursuing semester or summer-long internationally focused academic or training opportunities in Latin America that will enhance their degree program at KU. The grant recipient is:
Tobin Jenning, master’s student in indigenous studies, who will travel to Antigua, Guatemala to attend language and culture courses in Kaqchikel, expanding upon his education at KU.
Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant
Pre-Dissertation Travel Grants support six- to eight-week trips for preliminary dissertation field activities taking place in Latin America. The grant recipient is:
Daniel Sarvestani, a doctoral student in anthropology, who will collect preliminary data to better explore how notions of cultural identity, belonging and indigeneity have developed in relation to Indigenous Peoples Rights Discourses among the Maya Chorti peoples of Honduras.
Each spring, faculty and graduate students can apply for travel grants, which help foster the international orientation, expertise and outreach of KU while also enriching students’ studies.
For more information visit the international affairs website.