EMU Today

YPSILANTI – The impact of Gender on investment decisions. A smarter baby monitor. A self-driving golf cart on the Eastern Michigan University campus.

Those are among the topics fifty one faculty members will pursue under the annual Faculty Research and Creative Activity Fellowships approved Thursday, June 18 by the EMU Board of Regents.

The fellowships are competitive awards given to faculty who submit meritorious research or special study proposals. The fellowships award up to 100 percent release time from teaching for one semester to help build a foundation for a faculty member’s future research or creative activities and as a base for future additional funding from other sources.

Unlike a sabbatical leave, the fellowship recipients are still expected to fulfill other contractual responsibilities, such as service to the University, during the released time.

The University Research and Sabbatical Leave Committee reviews the Faculty Research and Creative Activity Fellowship proposals and makes recommendations to the Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs.

Listed alphabetically below are the 51 awardees for the 2020-21 Faculty Research and Creative Activity Fellowships:

Muhammad Ahmed, Engineering Technology. "A Modified Artificial Intelligence Tool for Automatically Scoring Open-Ended Responses."

Amanda Allen, English Language and Literature. "Special Friends, Roommates, and Companions: The Queer Women Who Produced Early Cold War American Children’s Literature."

Cassandra Barragan, Social Work. "Development of Validated Measure: Assessing the Social Impact of Community-Based Fitness and Activity/Intervention-Based Programs for Older Adults."

Kimberly Barrett, Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology. “Environmental Enforcement and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States.”

Ashley Bavery, History and Philosophy. "Islam in the Heartland: Muslim Communities and the Racial Politics of the Midwest, 1900-1950."

Peter Bednekoff, Biology. "Looking out for the neighbors? Leveraging automated tracking data to examine sentinel behavior across neighborhoods of Florida scrub-jays."

Minnie Bluhm, Health Sciences. "The Science of Population Health and Happiness: Proposal for a State-of-the-Art Literature Review."

Jie Cao, Information Security and Applied Computing. "Self-driving Golf Cart on EMU Campus."

Howard Cass, Music and Dance. "Music Composition and Recording of a Large-Scale Jazz Quartet Suite."

Sean Xiangdong Che, Information Security and Applied Computing. “A Simulation- Based Teaching and Research Platform for SCADA Security.”

Sock Chung, Computer Information Systems. "Key Success Factors for International Students: An International Academic Partnership."

Daniel Clemans, Biology. “An Analysis of Biofilm Formation by Probiotic Microbes Obtained from Natural Sources."

Karen Ann Craig, Accounting and Finance. "Impact of Gender on Investment Decisions."

Jennifer Desiderio, Special Education. "The Impact of Team-Based Learning on the Content Mastery and Collaboration Skills of Future Special Education Teachers and Speech-Language Pathologists."

Michael Doan, History and Philosophy. "Completing a Book on the Philosophy of James Boggs."

Margaret Dobbins, English Language and Literature. "Aesthetically Disgusting: Rudyard Kipling in the Age of Decolonization."

John Dunn, English Language and Literature. “What Citizens Can Learn from Public Discourse: A Rhetorical Analysis of Selected Newspaper Opinion Columns on the 2018 U.S. Immigration Controversy.”

Bradley Ensor, Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology. “EMU Archaeology Field School Book Preparation.”

Michael Foster, World Languages. “Incorporating Theory and Affect into New Language Teacher Education.”

Steven Francoeur, Biology. “Linking “Green” and “Brown” Food Webs: The Importance of Algae.”

Debra Gombert, Music and Dance. “Multicultural Education in Music Therapy: Writing a New Song.”

Jillian Graves, Social Work. “Interprofessional Collaboration and Coordination Between Social Workers and Special Needs Planners for Individualized Needs Evaluations.”

Jenni Hoffman, Nursing. “Researching the Effectiveness of an Online Human Trafficking Awareness Program Among Nursing Students.”

Qin Hu, Engineering Technology. “Electroporation and Magnetic Hyperthermia Induced by Time Varying Magnetic Fields in Cancer Cells.”

Christine Hume, English Language and Literature. “Finishing The Unregistered: A New Book of Creative Nonfiction.”

Khairul Islam, Mathematics and Statistics. “On Association and Risk of Factors Affecting Parental Involvement in Education.”

Kristin Judd, Biology. “(un)Dammed if you do, Dammed if you don’t? Assessing the Ecological Impacts of the Peninsular Dam and its Removal.”

David Kass, Biology. “Generation of Manuscripts Incorporating Fifteen EMU Student Co-Authors, and Advancing Investigations of Mobile DNA in Mammalian Genomes.”

Jesse Kauffman, History and Philosophy. “Blood-Dimmed Tide: Central Europe's Long Great War.”

Annemarie Kelly, Health Sciences. “Interprofessional Collaboration and Coordination Between Social Workers and Special Needs Planners for Individualized Needs Evaluations.”

Tareq Khan, Engineering Technology. “A Smart Baby Monitor with Automatic Sleeping Posture Detection and Notification.”

Matthew Kirkpatrick, English Language and Literature. “The Alchemists (a novel).”

Allen Kurta, Biology. “Bats of the West Indies: Winged Mammals in an Island Environment.”

Laxmikant Manroop, Management. “The Ethical Implications of Big Data in Human Resource Management: A Qualitative Study.”

Tammy McCullough, Marketing. “An Investigation of Green Consumption Behaviors and Consumers’ Attitudes towards Green Marketing Initiatives.”

Laura McMahon, History and Philosophy. “Research Project on Phenomenology, Decolonialism, and Multicultural Politics.”

Christina Mirtes, Teacher Education. “Contemporary Play: Analyzing the use of Technology During Play in Preschool Environments.”

Paul Price, Biology. “Purification and Characterization of Novel Antibiotic Compounds.”

Chris Reilly, Art and Design. “Exhibition of New Photographic Artwork and Publication of Video Training Course on LinkedIn Learning.”

Pejman Rezakhani, Visual Built Environments. “Natural Disaster Recovery Model for Resilient Societies.”

Maria Ruggiero, Art and Design. “Entanglement.”

Ken Saldanha, Social Work. “A minority community becomes a majority: Tracing the history of Latinos from migrants to residents in western Michigan.”

James Saunoris, Economics. “What are the Main Drivers of Homelessness in the U.S.? New Evidence from a Dynamic Analysis.”

J. Michael Scoville, History and Philosophy. “On the Normative Reasons Relevant to Addressing Climate Change.”

Hannah Seidel, Biology. “Genetics of Color Production in Ball Pythons.”

Rita Shah, Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology. “Understanding the Impact of Building Design on Probation and Parole Supervision.”

John Staunton, English Language and Literature. “Micro-Financing Cultural Capital: Re-Serializing fin-de-siècle American Women Writers for 21st Century Contexts.”

Samir Tout, Information Security and Applied Computing. “Initiating Industry- Supported Experimental Research in Mobility, IoT, and Autonomy Cybersecurity (MIoTAC).”

Gary Victor, Marketing. “Profit over People--When Corporations Decide to Protect Profit Over the Health and Safety of the Public.”

Xining Yang, Geography and Geology. “Two Manuscripts: Examining Human Dynamics with Geospatial Technology.”

Yu Zhang, Accounting and Finance. “Are Overconfident CEOs More Capable? – Hints from CEOs' Letters to Shareholders.”

About Eastern Michigan University

Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest public university in Michigan. It currently serves nearly 18,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering and Technology; Health and Human Services; and, its graduate school. EMU is regularly recognized by national publications for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website.