April 10, 2013
College of Arts and Sciences announces faculty enhancement awards
The College of Arts and Sciences has established a Faculty Enhancement Program to increase the number and proportion of faculty members engaging in research, scholarship and creative activities — particularly those with the potential for garnering extramural funding and recognition. The program emphasizes enhancing opportunities for faculty in those disciplines that have not historically enjoyed access to substantial start-up or extramural funding opportunities.
Tenure-earning faculty members within three years of hire were eligible to apply for funding for summer salary and research support. Applicants were expected to identify a particular project culminating in a work product that would enhance their research capabilities, such as a book or national grant proposal. The funding provided by the program will be complemented by mentoring from a senior colleague at K-State or elsewhere, in addition to group activities among the awardees.
The second annual competition for the Faculty Enhancement Program was recently completed. Sixteen applications were peer-reviewed and 13 faculty members were selected for awards. The awardees, all assistant professors are: Sarah Riforgiate, communication studies; Anson T. Y. Ho, economics; Mark Crosby and Cameron Leader-Picone, both in English; David Defries and Ranin Kazemi, both in history; Hrant Hakobyan, mathematics; Melinda Cro, modern languages; Laura Donnelly, music, theatre, and dance; Carla Martinez Machain and Josephine Gatti Schafer, political science; Perla Reyes Cuellar, statistics; and Marta Alfonso-Durruty, sociology, anthropology and social work.
Dean Peter Dorhout said, “While we are in the midst of strategic planning at the college and department level, we recognized that we had a unique opportunity to provide some critical investments to begin to make progress on the thematic goals of K-State 2025. Equally as important, we combined the financial investment with a commitment to mentoring junior faculty who will help us build a Top 50 research university.”
Special thanks to the peer review team of professors Joe Aistrup, Glen Brown, Beth Montelone and Angela Powers, who committed time and talents to this program, as well as provided feedback to the faculty who were not selected.