Seed grants support scholarly inquiries

handful of coins and a small seedling plant.Three recently hired Arts & Sciences faculty were awarded seed grant funding to develop unique research and creative projects in anthropology, history, and music. 

The annual new faculty seed grant program, sponsored by the WSU Office of Research and the Office of the Provost, provides support for junior faculty to develop research, scholarly, or creative programs that lead to sustained professional development and extramural funding.

The Arts & Sciences faculty are:

  • John Blong, Department of Anthropology
    Title: The impact of climate change on prehistoric food systems
    Application of a novel suite of methods to investigate how prehistoric people in the Great Basin region of western North America maintained food systems over millennia of climate change.
  • Andra Chastain, Department of History
    Title: Global Urban Histories in the Americas
    Research on how urban air pollution is represented, experienced, and ultimately understood as a public health crisis in Santiago, Chile; Mexico City; and Los Angeles.
  • Jacqueline Wilson, School of Music
    Title: Wya’uyɬá: The Music of Indigenous Solidarity
    Creation of an album of works for the bassoon by Māori composers to bring new depth to the Indigenous representation in the bassoon repertoire, combat monolithic racial depictions, and promote artistic sovereignty.

Full descriptions of their projects and others funded for 2022 are available on the ORAP website.

Adapted from WSU Insider.