In Spring 2002, we issued three Requests for Proposals (RFPs): one for University of Minnesota faculty, one for departments/programs/centers, and one for graduate and professional students. We made 15 awards in 2001-02, for a total of $80,777.
Faculty
The RFP for faculty requested proposals to fund interdisciplinary research, projects, or curricular innovation on health, environment, or the life sciences. We received 11 applications involving 38 faculty members from roughly 23 departments and programs. The Consortium made four awards:
- Environmental Politics in Japan—Prof. Jeffrey Broadbent (Dept. of Sociology) ($9850 awarded);
- Conference: "Crossing Boundaries: Medical Anthropology at the Beginning of the 21st Century"—Profs. Susan Craddock (Dept. of Women's Studies, Institute for Global Studies), Jean Langford (Dept. of Anthropology), and Karen-Sue Taussig (Dept. of Anthropology, Medicine) ($10,000 awarded);
- Patents versus Patients? Ethics, Markets, and Pharmaceutical Pricing Policies—Prof. Susan Craddock (Dept. of Women's Studies/Institute for Global Studies)($10,000 total awarded); and
- News Coverage of Drugs in Development: Need for a Cure?—Prof. Gary Schwitzer (School of Journalism and Mass Communication) ($9967 awarded).
Programs/Departments/Centers
The RFP for programs/departments/centers invited proposals seeking matching funds for colloquia addressing the broad societal implications of problems in health, environment, or the life sciences. We made five awards:
- Center for Austrian Studies, 22nd Annual International Conference: The Environment and Sustainable Development in the New Central Europe: Austria and Its Neighbors, September 2002 ($1000 awarded);
- Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Writing, Conference on Good Writing = Strong Medicine: Dr. Susan Love's Prescriptions for Better Health, Spring 2003 ($1000 awarded);
- Minnesota Center for the Philosophy of Science, 2002-03 lectures in the Studies of Science and Technology Colloquium Series ($3020 awarded);
- Center on Aging, 2002-03 colloquium series on The Implications of Translating Research Into Practice for an Aging Society ($1980 awarded); and
- Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications, workshop on Operational Modeling and Biodefense: Problems, Techniques, and Opportunities, September 28, 2002 ($1000 awarded).
Graduate and Professional Students
The RFP to graduate and professional students was intended to provide a stipend for research and writing in the summer of 2002 or academic year 2002-03. We were delighted that the RFP stimulated 51 proposals from students in 32 programs around the University, including several programs on the Duluth campus. Six awards were made (listed in alphabetical order):
- Imperialism, Domestication and Diet: The Impact of U.S. Nutrition Standards on American Indian Communities—Fernando Aguirre-McKibbin, Jr., PhD student, American Studies ($6000 awarded);
- Arguing Global Warming: The Reception and Uses of Climate Change Science in Public Policy Debates—Robert Hinrichs, PhD student, Communication Studies ($5000 awarded);
- Conservation in Community Space: Common Property and Forest Management Post-Fire in Lagos de Monte Ballo National Park, Chiapas, Mexico—Kris A. Johnson, PhD student, Conservation Biology ($5000 awarded);
- Tracking as a Bridge Between Environmental Ethics & Conservation Science—Jon Poppele, PhD student, Conservation Biology ($6960 awarded);
- A Life of the Dead: Personal Data and Surveillance in Everyday Life—Gauti Sigthorsson, PhD student, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature ($3000 awarded); and
- Indigenous Rights Claims in the Amazon Basin: Scale, Environment, and Identity in Northeastern Ecuador—Gabriela Valdivia, PhD student, Geography ($7000 awarded).