The Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation (CGII) in the Office of the Vice Provost for Global Affairs announced a new round of grants for Fall 2022 to support global research by faculty and graduate students. The awards included eight Center Grants and three G-pods awarded to faculty for projects like Breaking Boundaries: The Society for Amazonian and Andean Studies Symposium and collaborating with colleagues to create a UVA presence on autism in global context with new projects in Kenya and Bolivia.
While some are smaller grants for individual research (up to $15,000), G-pods are awarded for larger collaborative work (up to $100,000). In addition, CGII also awarded grants to 19 graduate students to help with their dissertation research.
“These funds are crucial to encourage scholars to extend beyond disciplinary and regional commitments to collaborate with colleagues in ways they might otherwise not have,” said Brian Owensby, Director of CGII. He added that to do this sort of work, colleagues must not only see the value in collaboration, but must also relish the challenge of learning to talk across the professional and disciplinary fields. “The world we live in demands a willingness to think across these boundaries.”
Some of the student projects that were awarded in the Fall included From Darkness into Light: Caves and Religious Practices in Ancient Athens and Attica by Caroline Carter, Transnational Peace Movement During Cold War by Felix Zuber, and Nostalgic Networks of Intimate Writing: Diaristic and Epistolary Discourses in the Nineteenth-Century Spanish Caribbean by Elizabeth Mirabal Llorens.
The faculty projects awarded in the Fall are:
- Breaking Boundaries: The Society for Amazonian and Andean Studies Symposium from Sonia Alconini ,
Kylie Quave , George Mentore - Expanding Autism Diagnostic Capabilities in Bolivia using the ECHO Model from Michaela DuBay
- Lithium Territories from Mona El Khafif
- Film Diplomacy from Aysehan Jülide Etem
- Dignity, Heritage, and Indigenous Lands from Jim Igoe
- Pepea in Schools: Understanding the Special Education Landscape for Student with Autism in Kenya
from Mandy Rispoli - Funding the Migration and Refugee, COVID, and Ukraine Crises: The European Union and the Stability
and Growth Pact from James Savage - Aging in Indonesia at the Margins of Care from Sylvia Tidey
The awarded G-pod projects are:
The Democratic Futures Project: An Alliance of Scholars, Advocates, and Policy Makers: Steve Parks’ focuses on how democratic activists do what they do, especially in the global south. The partnerships draw together insights and best practices from across constituencies and then utilizes the DFP’s extensive network to circulate the research where it will have the greatest impact. The project continues to challenge the paradigm that the future of democracy rests primarily on what happens in the global north. Much of the most creative work affirming and entrenching democracy comes from global south countries.
Labor Migration in Global Supply Chains: Jennifer Bair with colleagues in Data Science (Jonathan Kropko), Law (Camilo Sánchez), and Adam Slez (Sociology) to better understand the nexus between global supply chains and labor migration effects. Surprisingly, there has been relatively little work at the level of sub-national to sub-national movements, where so much labor migration happens. The project will map labor flows and connect them to supply chains and international/global worker-led initiatives.
Global Center for Equitable Computer Science Education: Jennifer Chiu from UVA and Camilo Vieira from Universidad del Norte in Colombia will look to understand how to make computer science education equitable and accessible for learners across cultural, social, and economic contexts by looking at learning in elementary schools and providing professional learning opportunities to the students.
