Grants or Gifts Relating to Women in Higher Education

Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.

Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, received a three-year, $200,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for research on the social, political, economic, and institutional authority women have held in central and east Africa. Cymone Fourshey, professor of history and international relations will lead the Bucknell research effort. She will be joined on the project with researchers from the University of Texas at San Antonio and Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

The Society of Women Engineers is participating in a $2.9 million grant program from the National Science Foundation aimed at diversifying the faculty ranks of engineering faculty at colleges and universities in the United States. The Strengthening Engineering Faculty Through Diversity Serving Professional Organization Engagement program will establish a network of early-career women faculty and faculty from other underrepresented groups. The network will then seek to help these underrepresented faculty members succeed in the academic world of engineering.

Tennessee State University in Nashville received a three-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct research on why women and members of underrepresented minority groups continue to lag in degree attainments in STEM disciplines. The study will investigate the role of professional, social, and cultural identities on college major and career choices. The research will be under the direction of Marie Hammond, an associate professor of psychology at the university. Dr. Hammond is a graduate of Olivet College in Michigan. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri.