Dean’s Research Fellowships

Dean’s Research Fellowships support student and faculty scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences. Funding provides stipends for students and grants to faculty to work together on scholarly activities. Awards are made annually by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

This program has been made possible by funding from alumni, Arts and Sciences Leadership Council members, and donors. To learn more about how you can support this program, click here. The program began in July 2011.

2012-13 Dean's Research Fellowships

On March 19, Dean David Powers announced the recipients of the 2012-13 Dean's Research Fellowships.

Japanese American Baseball in Seattle, 1900-1942
Professor Marie Wong, Institute of Public Service
 
While much has been written about America's Negro Leagues, the history of Japanese American baseball in Seattle has been overlooked. Yet, between 1900 and until the WWII internment of Japanese immigrants and their American-born children, numerous baseball teams were part of Seattle's Japantown.  The Asahi, Mikado, Taiyo, Midgets, and Cherry teams were a few of the volunteer-organized clubs that helped unite and distinguish the skills and abilities of the Japanese American community of Seattle.  This research project will examine Japanese American baseball in Seattle and the formation of the Courier League that united these teams.. 

Pilot Evaluation of the Seattle Police Department’s ‘IF’ Project
Professors Jacqueline Helfgott, Elaine Gunnison, Stephen K. Rice. Peter Collins, and Jennifer Sumner, Criminal Justice Department

The IF project originated when Detective Kim Bogucki, Seattle Police Department Community Outreach Unit, asked inmates at the Washington Correctional Center for Women (WCCW), “If there was something someone could have said or done to change the path that led you here, what would it have been?” Afterwards, a WCCW inmate asked other inmates to write an essay in response to the question; more than 700 essays have been written. The project now includes workshops conducted at juvenile detention centers, middle and high schools, and in juvenile court. Former IF project participants share their experiences, pose the same question, and, with Detective Bogucki, provide resource referrals for the youth. There are plans to expand the program to men’s prisons and Echo Glen, the state juvenile residential facility. This project will design and implement a pilot evaluation of the IF project to determine if the program is achieving its intended goals of addressing the needs of program participants, promoting prosocial behavior, and preventing crime.

A Digital Edition of John Donne’s 1611 satirical work Ignatius His Conclave for the John Donne Digital Prose Archive
Professor Sean McDowell, English Department

Sean McDowell has spent the last year working on the transcription phase for the digital edition of John Donne’s 1611 satirical work Ignatius His Conclave for the John Donne Digital Prose Archive, an international project involving American, Canadian, and European scholars. After the archive editorial board finishes its review of the transcription, the project moves to the next phase, the coding of the text for the searchable online version. Digital text coding comes from the tagging of proper names and significant keywords. McDowell will work with students to tag correctly, which requires student researchers to have intimate knowledge of what they are tagging. They must know the connections between major historical figures, as well as the issues that brought them together in Early Modern religious controversies. They must have an acute sense of the historical and ideational contexts informing the tract. Students working on the online edition of Ignatius His Conclave will benefit from actual professional experience in digital humanities editing. 

2011-12 Research Fellowships

Cross-cultural Experiences from 19th Century Diarists
Professor Tom Taylor, History Department and the Global Awareness Program
International Studies major Gabrielle Porter, Class of 2012

This research project examined the journals written by and newspaper accounts written about four American bicyclists traveling through Asia in the late 19th century.  The journals entries provide a glimpse into cross-cultural understanding by a distinct group of travelers during a period in history when many areas of Asia were unfamiliar to Europeans. This project will be submitted to the Journal of World History and be part of a forthcoming world history text.
 
Taylor received his PhD from the University of Minnesota. He joined the College of Arts and Sciences in 1989. He teaches in the History and International Studies departments and directs the Global Awareness Program.  His scholarship focuses on historical travel narratives from Asian, European, and American cultures.

Scholarly Excellence

Go behind the scenes with some of Seattle U's most acclaimed faculty members in our Scholarly Excellence videos. Footage was taken during photo shoots for an academic research brochure and a special academic excellence edition of our alumni magazine. All videos by Eric Becker.

Assessment of Social and Ecological Impacts of Forest Conservation in the Andes
Professor Tanya Hayes, Anthropology
Environmental Studies major Sarah McHugh, Class of 2012

This research project in Ecuador focused on the institutional and socioeconomic aspects of environmental change and sustainable ecosystem management.  Hayes and McHugh worked with peasant farmers and indigenous peoples on soil conservation and forest management and examined the impact of different protected areas and property rights policies on forest conservation and the conditions that enable communities to self-govern their natural resource systems.  

Hayes received her Ph.D. from Indiana University. She joined the faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences in 2006 and teaches in the Environmental Studies and Public Policy departments. Her scholarship focuses on international environmental politics, sustainable development, and research design, with particular emphasis on forest policy implementation in Latin America.

Differential Defiance among Police Killers: An Assessment of Final Statement Narratives  
Professor Stephen Rice, Criminal Justice
Criminal Justice major Farrah Fanara, Class of 2012

Research on the felonious killings of police has tended to target determinants such as economic factors, political and demographic change, the crack epidemic, or ebbs and flows in prison populations on macro-level offender behavior. As such, relatively little attention has been given to micro-level offender motives and justifications. In an effort to extend the dialogue, the present study focuses on police killers’ final statements by assessing proclamations of innocence, proclamations of capital punishment / legal treatment illegitimacy, and defiant police-specific attributions amid offense and demographic controls. Qualitative assessments of the statements are included to illustrate coding themes and the emotional nuance of a death chamber setting.

Rice received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. He joined the College of Arts and Sciences faculty in 2008. He focuses his research on criminological theory, procedural/restorative justice, and the emotional aspects of crime. He also directs the department’s internship program. Rice recently published Race, Ethnicity, and Policing: New and Essential Readings with co-editor Michael White (NYU Press).

How You Can Support This Program

Stipends for students: $2,000 provides a student with a “work-study” style stipend.  Students are given opportunities to present their research on campus and at national conferences after their participation.

Your support provides these opportunities for students:

• Promotes an experience for intellectual risk-taking
• Provides a scholarly activity that engages critical thinking
• Engenders self-confidence as they become creative participants in their academic disciplines
• Prepares students to reach the cutting edge of knowledge their areas of interest
• Furthers active learning
• Develops insight into the relationships between knowledge and methods across disciplines.

Grants for faculty: $5,000 supports faculty members in their research while connecting their students to the broader conversations of their academic disciplines.

Your support promotes faculty scholarship in these ways:

• Supports research that advances the mission of Seattle University and the College of Arts and Sciences
• Promotes mentorship as faculty communicate their joy and passion about their research to students
• Engages outstanding students in an academic activity that furthers the discipline.

A  $7,000 gift creates a faculty-student research fellowship team.

A $35,000 gift creates five teams, the annual goal of the College of Arts and Sciences.

A $150,000 gift offers a permanently endowed  team in perpetuity.   Currently the College of Arts and Sciences has one endowed program in Sociology thanks to SU Sociology graduate Richard Beers.

If you are interested in participating in Dean’s Research Fellowships, please contact David Chow, Director of Development, by email or by phone at 206-398-4401.