Launch Awards Program Recipients 2017

The DRN-LAP is intended for faculty of color and diversity scholars at MSU. The award is intended to aid scholars in launching new research through pilot study, creative projects of scholarly merit or the enhancement of a measure or technique. Work that benefits diverse scholars or populations will be prioritized. Collaborations across departments or colleges are also of high priority. Learn more about the Launch Awards Program

2017 - 2018 Recipients

Jennifer E Cobbina and Bianca Riesdorf, CSS School of Criminal Justice; CCAS Media & Information

Project: Digital rehabilitation: A pilot study of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the prisoner reentry process

This study aims to evaluate the use and usefulness of ICTs in parolee’s reentry process.

 

Peter De Costa, CAL Linguistics, Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages (L & L)

Project: Building a Foundation for a Research-Practice Partnership with the Lansing Refugee Development Center

This project aimed to further the development of research-practice partnership between Lansing’s Refugee Development Center (RDC), Dr. De Costa and Dr. Carrie Symons (Department of Teacher Education) by analyzing asset inventory data from the RDC’s 2017 GLOBE summer program, and collaborating on the design of the curriculum for GLOBE 2018.

 

Laura Dilley, CAS Communicative Sciences & Disorders

Project: Neurocognitive basis of disparities in clinical evaluations of speech of African Americans

This project aimed to identify acoustic‐phonetic properties responsible for auditory detection of AAE dialect and determine how listener bias and listener experience affect speech intelligibility, specifically for African Americans and AAE dialect.

 

Alexandra Hildago, CAL Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures

Project: The Weeping Session

This project aimed to develop a website and preview of the film The Weeping Session in support of completion of the film. The Weeping Session intertwines the repercussions of the loss of a beloved person with the loss of one’s country through emigration and through political upheaval like the dictatorship currently oppressing Venezuela.

Cecelia Martinez-Gomez, CNS Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Project: Enhancing sustainable agriculture by unraveling the metabolic footprint of plant-microbiome interactions dependent on rare earth element

This project aimed to unravel the mechanisms by which an effective group of agrochemicals, rare earth elements (REE), affect plant-microbe interactions. Specifically, this project aimed to uncover the functional effect of REE upon Methylobacterium, and seeks to identify the mechanism leading to plant growth stimulation.

 

Chezare A. Warren, Education Teacher Education

Project: Utility of Empathy in Culturally Responsive Interactions with Young Black Men and Boys

This project aimed to produce an instructive model for the application of empathy in multicultural classroom contexts by studying specific pedagogical moves teachers make during one-on-one interactions that produce evidence of culturally responsive pedagogy, the motivations underscoring their actions, and the role empathy ultimately plays in their professional decision-making.