n Spring 2024, the Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation awarded its latest round of grants to support impactful global research endeavors led by faculty and graduate students. The grants awarded included eleven Graduate Global Research grants, eight Center Grants for individual faculty research, three Faculty Global Research with Undergraduates grants, and two Global Programs of Distinction grants for larger, collaborative work. From excavating ancient civilizations to probing contemporary geopolitical crises, these projects collectively reflect a commitment to advancing knowledge and addressing pressing global challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative scholarship.

The awarded faculty projects awarded are:

• A Film Portrait of Le Lynx: Press Freedom & Political Satire in Guinea I Bremen Donovan (Karsh Institute of Democracy)
• Archaeological Explorations of Gender, Power, and Climate Change on the Swahili Coast, c. 600-1600 CE I Adria LaViolette (Anthropology) and Kristina Richardson (History)
• Can Chinese Investment in Gwadar Port Under the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) Contribute to Reordering Eurasian Trade Flows: Evidence from Central Asia I Muhammad Tayyab Safdar (Global Studies)
• Exploring the Origins of Table Salt in Space I Rob Garrod & Mélisse Bonfand-Caldeira (Astronomy & Chemistry)
• Funding the Crisis in Ukraine Against the Russian Invasion I James Savage (Politics & Public Policy)
• Hybrid Forms of Professional Regulation: Comparing US Accountants and English Lawyers I Elizabeth Gorman (Sociology)
• Inscribing Muslim Women’s Body Spaces I Hanadi Al-Samman (MESALC)
• Launching Digital Language Tools: K’iche’ and Yukatek Maya Community Workshops I Allison Bigelow (Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese) and Rafael Alvarado (School of Data Science)
• The Visible Century: Belá Baláz’s Visible Man at 100 I Paul Dobryden (Germanic Languages & Literatures)
• Water Reuse, Urban Agriculture, and Heritage Preservation in Cairo's Al-Khalifa Neighborhood I Tessa Farmer & Phoebe Crisman (Global Studies) and Majid Shafiee-Jood (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
• What Can Ancient Roman Engineers Teach Us About the Future of Infrastructure Materials? I Andrés Clarens (Engineering)

The GPOD grantwinners are:

Institution Building to Support Equitable Research Between Communities and Universities
Laura Goldblatt (English & Global Studies) and Chris Colvin (Public Health Sciences) will investigate two community-led initiatives to develop infrastructure to support community-based research—1) a new Equity Center-funded review committee in Charlottesville (the “Residents for Respectful Research (R3) Project”) that reviews and approves proposals for community-based research before university IRB approval can be granted, and 2) a research dissemination network in Gugulethu, Cape Town (the “Street Committee Project”) that leverages existing local governance structures (street committees) to support the dissemination and translation of research findings for the broader community’s use. Both initiatives are efforts to move beyond a reliance on the good intentions, best practices, and resources and capacities of individual researchers and community members and build more sustainable institutional infrastructure to democratize knowledge production.

STAR Global Autism Initiative
Mandy Rispoli (EHD, Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education) and Michaela DuBay (EHD, Speech Communication Disorders Program)’s project will develop the STAR Global Autism Initiative as a new branch of UVA’s Supporting Transformative Autism Research (STAR). The mission of STAR Global Autism Initiative is to enhance awareness and facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue of UVa global autism research and outreach focused on cultural adaptation and cross-cultural collaboration with partners in low- and middle-income countries. Over the next year, they will apply our cultural adaptation model to adapt and pilot a caregiver training program with indigenous communities in Bolivia and to co-develop and pilot a training program for teachers of children with autism in western Kenya.