Grant Announcements

Smith, an associate professor of psychology at Appalachian, received more than $40,000 in NSF grant funding for the first year of a three-year study on optimism biases. Such biases can cause people to engage in risky behaviors, he said.

During the 2019–20 academic year, Appalachian astronomy professor Dr. Richard Gray will teach and perform research at the University of the Free State in South Africa as part of his Fulbright award.

Appalachian’s Sornito-Carter, an assistant professor of anthropology, will travel to the University of the Philippines Visayas in August 2020 to complete Fulbright research on heritage conservation and disaster management in relation to climate change in the Philippines.

This grant funding supports graduate student Chelsey Johnson’s work during the 2019–20 academic year to document living folk traditions in Appalachia. The project is part of the “In These Mountains” initiative, which aims to preserve Central Appalachia’s arts and culture.

Dr. Cara Fiore, visiting assistant professor in Appalachian’s Department of Biology, will travel to the Caribbean island of Curaçao in summer 2020 to begin her research of sea sponge filtration and its impact on the coral reef food web.

For the past 34 years, An Appalachian Summer Festival has brought renowned creative and performing artists to the High Country. This year’s lineup includes Patti LaBelle, The Temptations, the Punch Brothers and others.

Appalachian’s Marta Toran has received grant funding from the American Geophysical Union to update the university’s PYES mobile photo booth — an outreach project designed to raise awareness for geoscience careers and the importance of earth science literacy.

Gokee will spend the next two academic years leading archaeological research in the Bandafassi region of eastern Senegal to study how the Atlantic slave trade impacted social life in this West African “shatter zone.”

Powell, assistant professor in Appalachian’s Department of Anthropology, is one of only seven scholars in the U.S. and Canada selected by the Cornell University Society for the Humanities (SOH) as 2019–20 Fellows.