The School of Communication recently announced 11 small competitive grant awards for innovative faculty projects. These awards were funded from the SOC Dean’s discretionary fund and will provide seed funding for new research and creative initiatives, as well as help broaden the impact of existing projects.

SOC Dean Sam Fulwood III said “I’m delighted that we were able to bring back this grant program after a brief hiatus last year; it was inspiring to read about our faculty’s ideas and I’m grateful to all those who submitted a proposal.”

Professor Filippo Trevisan, SOC’s Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs who helped coordinate the grant program, added that “these projects engage with some of the most pressing challenges of our time – from environmental justice communication to the role of media and technology in democratic societies – and many of them will provide SOC students with additional opportunities to become involved in research and creative work.”

The funding period runs from December 2022 until August 2023 and this is a complete list of the projects (in alphabetical order):

• Professor Kurt Braddock: This might sting a little: The Role of Perceived Insult in the Efficacy of Attitudinal Inoculation ($2,500)
• Professor W. Joseph Campbell: Gettysburg’s endgame and its relevance to contemporary war correspondence ($1,250)
• Professor Maya Livio: Salvaging Birds, post-production ($2,500)
• ProfessorBrigid Maher: RUDE GRRLS UNITE ($1,000)
• Professors Adrienne Massanari, Pat Aufderheide, and Aram Sinnreich: The uses, politics, and design of federated platforms for creative communities: A digital ethnographic proposal ($3,000)
• Professor Wendy Melillo: From prohibition's demon drink to acceptable indulgence: Distillers and the Battle to Normalize Liquor in America ($1,000)
• Professor Ericka Menchen-Trevino: Contextualizing digital trace data in the social science ($500)
• Professors Claudia Myers and Laura Waters Hinson: Goodwin House - Documentary Short ($3,500)
• Professor Maggie Stogner: Upstream, Downriver – Justice screening event and outreach ($1,250)
• Professor Margot Susca: Local news in crisis: 30 years after the Telecommunications Act ($2,500)
• Professors Leena Jayaswal and Shaun Schroth: RIVISITED ($1,000)