The Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs

The Vice President's Grant for Student Research in Diversity (SRD)

SRD: 2010-2011 Awards

The Vice President's Grant for Student Research in Diversity

2010 - 2011 Awards

The Committee for Community and Diversity is pleased to announce the 2010-2011 recipients of the Vice President's Grant for Student Research in Diversity.

The awards provide support for outstanding student research projects related to diversity in research, teaching, learning, or community building. Diversity, in the context of this award program, is broadly defined and includes the exploration of multiple perspectives involving culture(s), language(s), gender, sexual orientation, race-ethnicity, and disabilities, among others.

The SRD Grant Subcommittee of the CCD was extremely impressed with the important questions and relevant topics proposed as well as the high-quality and innovativeness of the proposals submitted.  Spanning a broad spectrum of diversity, the proposals truly attest to the varied and meaningful scholarship on the part of students at Teachers College. Ultimately, two applicants were selected as grant recipients each receiving a $3,000 award and one other applicant received an Honorable Mention Award for $1,500. 

Grant Recipients

Student Name:  Paula Garcia, Ph.D. candidate, Speech and Language Pathology Program

Faculty Sponsor:  Dr. Karen Froud, Associate Professor of Speech & Language Pathology

Department:  Biobehavioral Sciences

Proposal Title:  Perception of English Vowels by Spanish-English Adult Bilinguals: An EEG Study.

The Spanish-speaking population is the fastest growing language in the United States. Full participation in social and cultural circles, however, remains difficult for many Latino/a immigrants, because the sounds system of English is sufficiently different from that of Spanish to constitute a barrier to the acquisition of native-like English language production skills. This study addresses this issue by examining whether providing perceptual training to late Spanish-English bilinguals can lead to a reorganization of English speech sounds at the level of the brain. The study entails using auditory perceptual training to late Spanish-English bilinguals, and will examine their behavioral and neurophysiologic responses to the sounds of English before, during and after training.

Student Name:  Annie I. Lin, Ph.D. candidate, Counseling Psychology Program

Faculty Sponsor:  Dr. Derald Wing Sue, Professor of Psychology and Education

Department: Counseling and Clinical Psychology

Proposal Title: Initial Development of the Asian American Racial Microaggressions Scale

This study focuses on constructing a scale that will measure the Asian American experience of racial microaggressions, a modern day definition of prejudice and discrimination. Only one qualitative study to date has been conducted on the Asian American experience of microaggression and no measure adequately captures the Asian American experience of racial microaggressions.  To develop a quantitative measure on Asian American racial microaggressions, a four step process is proposed:  a pilot study, exploratory factor analysis, validity analysis, and a test-retest reliability analysis.  Approximately 300 self-identified Asian Americans will be asked to participate in the study.

HONORABLE MENTION

Student Name:   Katemari Rosa, Ph.D. candidate, Science Education

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Felicia Moore Mensah, Assistant Professor of Science Education

Department: Mathematics, Science & Technology

Proposal Title: Gender, Ethnicity, and Scientific Identity:  Understanding How Black Women Build Their Identities as Scientists

This study aims to analyze the relationships between race, gender, and those with careers in the sciences, specifically for women of African descent and the choices that led them to pursue careers in Physics. The research will explore how one major and perhaps unique, theoretical contribution to the field of science education has not given full attention to Black women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Overall, the study will seek to understand how these Black women physicists built their identities as scientists; how they negotiated their multiple identities, desires, and structures in order to become Black women scientists.  It is expected to promote a better understanding about the construction of scientific identity in minority groups, contributing to the field of science education.

Thank you again to all of the applicants for their exceptional work and rigorous efforts.  We sincerely look forward to the scholarship and proposals next year will bring.