Topic: Faculty and Staff

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.

Appalachian professor and 2019–20 Fulbright awardee Dr. Paul Wallace is spending the 2019–20 academic year teaching at NovSU in Russia and refining the curriculum for a new App State Online graduate certificate in international leadership.

Powell, professor of creative writing at Appalachian, will teach a course on contemporary U.S. literature at Ovidious University of Constanta, in Romania, during spring 2020, as well as conduct research for his seventh novel.

Through the Fulbright Scholars Program, Williams, a professor in Appalachian’s Department of Nutrition and Health Care Management, will teach and perform research at Management Center Innsbruck in Austria in spring 2020.

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.