Dr. Jeff Osborn presenting faculty workload models
St. Mary’s College of Maryland held the second annual Research Excellence Workshop (REW) on January 11th 2019 in Daugherty-Palmer-Commons and the Blackistone Room in Anne Arundel Hall. The REW provides broad professional development opportunities (beyond grants), institutional support for and recognition of faculty research, scholarship and creative activities. The specific goals of the 2019 REW workshop were to: present funding and research opportunities to arts, social science and humanities faculty, discuss faculty workload and research integration into scaffolded undergraduate curricula, formally recognize the efforts of faculty and staff in seeking external funding to support their endeavors, and provide a forum for networking with external guests and colleagues across campus.
The day’s events included:
- Funding and research opportunities in the arts, social sciences and humanities (e.g., Smithsonian, Social Science Research Council, MD State Arts Council, NEH, MD Humanities, Library of Congress, Folgers Shakespeare Library, ACLS, external foundations). Presented by: Lauren Sampson, SMCM Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Dr. Sabine Dillingham, SMCM Director of Research and Sponsored Programs, and Marilyn Hatza, Program Officer Grants & Strategic Partnerships, MD Humanities. The scheduled NEH visit by John D. Cox, Deputy Director, NEH Division of Education Programs had to be cancelled due to the partial federal government shutdown but might be re-scheduled for later in the spring semester.
- Lunch, inaugural Sponsored Research Awards, and ‘Meet & Greet’ with external stakeholders. In celebration of outstanding efforts and achievements, Dr. Julie King, Professor of Anthropology, was recognized as Most Successful Grant Seeker; Dr. Angela Johnson, Professor of Educational Studies, and Dr. Cassie Gurbisz, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, were recognized as First-time Awardees. We also held a drawing where the number of free raffle tickets for faculty and staff was equal to the number of proposals they submitted for external funding in FY18. Dr. Samantha Elliott’s ticket was selected from the random drawing, earning her a note of congratulations and $25 gift card to the campus bookstore. External networking guests included Ms. Hatza from MD Humanities, researchers from Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (Drs. Tom Miller, Dave Secor, Carys Mitchelmore, Hali Kilbourne, and Johan Schijf), Morgan State’s PEARL (Dr. Tom Ihde, Dr. Ming Liu, Richard Lacouture, and Amber DeMarr), and Dr. Jeff Osborn, TCNJ Dean of the School of Science, AAAS and CUR Fellow.
- Presentation by Dr. Osborn, introducing the CUR Transformations Project with emphasis on creating a more research-rich, connected, and scaffolded curriculum, and an overview of faculty workload models that work well for primarily undergraduate institutions such as SMCM. The SMCM CUR-Transformations teams also provided brief overviews of their goals and progress.
- Panel discussion on faculty workload solutions and research integration into scaffolded undergraduate curricula facilitated by Dr. Katherine Gantz. Panelists included: Dr. Osborn, Provost Michael Wick, Dr. Joe Lucchesi, Dr. Aileen Bailey, Dr. Pamela Mertz, and Dr. Christine Wooley.
Sincere thanks to all the attendees and congratulations again to our inaugural sponsored research awardees! The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs plans to hold annual research-focused workshops in support of faculty and staff scholarship. If you have ideas about future topics of interest or networking partners, please contact Sabine Dillingham at x4192, sldillingham@smcm.edu.