Author: Samayra Siddiqui

Duke Global Health Institute Calls for Pilot Research Proposals

Samayra Siddiqui

Deadline: May 15, 2017

The Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) invites research proposals building collaborative interdisciplinary research between DGHI investigators and researchers from one or more DGHI Priority Partnership Locations (PPL). Research should focus on at least one of DGHI’s identified Research Priorities with the larger goal of enabling investigators to leverage preliminary findings and data to obtain larger awards of external funding.

Eligible Applicants

Proposal teams must include one DGHI Faculty, and researchers from one or more Priority Partnership Locations. Proposals including two or more PPLs are encouraged. Proposals may include collaborators from other institutions as well. Junior faculty and faculty new to global health are strongly encouraged to submit proposals.

Budgets

The budget may include: supplies; salary support for technicians, research assistants, and graduate students; research related travel (but not travel to scientific meetings); and other justifiable research expenses. Faculty salary and indirect costs are not allowable expenses. Applicants may apply for up to $25,000 for one year. Smaller proposals for shorter periods are also encouraged.

Application Requirements

Applications must propose work in low and middle-income countries (a listing of eligible countries can be found at the World Bank website). Applicants are encouraged to identify collaborating in-country investigators, and should describe plans for how the results generated will be applied to obtain future external funding.

Cover Page. Must include the following information:

  • Proposal title
  • Name, title, departmental affiliation, address, e-mail address, and telephone number of all proposed investigators
  • Designation of a Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigators

Abstract (250 words maximum)

Research plan (3 page maximum – single spaced, 12 point font, 1” margins) including:

  • Statement of scientific objectives and their significance
  • Relevance to mission of the DGHI
  • Applicability of project goals to low and middle-income countries
  • Proposed methods and plans for data analysis (specific details recommended)
  • Work already completed related to the proposed work (if relevant)
  • Description of the research team and research setting, including in-country collaboration plan
  • Potential for future grant support

Appendix materials (1 page maximum each– single spaced, 12 point font, 1” margins) including:

  • Research schedule and milestones
  • Letter of support from a collaborating researcher in a low or middle income country

Budget and justification (1 page maximum)

Curriculum vitae or NIH biosketch for each investigator including current grant support and limited to five pages for each investigator

Submission Format

Please combine all required elements into a single pdf document and submit via email to Kelly Deal with the subject line of “DGHI PPL Pilot Grant Submission.”

Schedule

Application receipt date: May 15, 2017
Project start date: July 1, 2017

Inquiries

We welcome the opportunity to answer questions from potential applicants. For advice about overseas sites where projects could be undertaken, linkages with potential overseas collaborators, advice on preparing budgets for international projects, and questions about biostatistical support, please contact:

Sarah Cao
Assistant Director, International Operations
Duke Global Health Institute Telephone
(919) 681-3135

Kelly Deal
MPH Assistant Director, Research
Duke Global Health Institute
Telephone (919) 681-7159

Duke Performances Offers Curriculum Enrichment Awards

Samayra Siddiqui

Deadline: June 30, 2017

Each year, Duke Performances partners with more than 30 faculty across a range of departments and academic units to coordinate 120 distinct residency events, reaching over 2,000 Duke students. We bring world-class artists to Duke classrooms and public forums in ways that directly enrich campus and community life. As an organization, we believe strongly that engagement with the arts, and the dynamics of live performance, creates context for learning and inquiry, facilitating collisions between ideas and animating course material.

For the 2017/18 academic year, Duke Performances solicits proposals for three competitive grants: two in the amount of $1,500, and a third in partnership with the Duke Language, Arts & Media Program (LAMP) in the amount of $3,000. Awards will support the development of new courses or enhancements to existing courses that engage: 1) the theme or practice of artistic performance, and 2) the work of at least two of the artists or ensembles that Duke Performances will present during the 2017/18 academic year.

Grants will be awarded in the form of stipends payable in research funds for participating instructors. Prospective applicants should contact Brian Valentyn for an advance copy of Duke Performances’ seasonal schedule, which will not be publicly available until June. We welcome your inquiries, and are available to offer feedback on the details of all proposals prior to submission.

About the Organization

Duke Performances presents willfully eclectic, forward-thinking programming at a dozen venues on campus and in Durham. Through superb performances, outstanding visiting artist residencies, and the commissioning and development of exciting new work, the organization takes a leading role in the cultural life of the nation and encourages meaningful engagement with the Duke campus and Durham community. Duke Performances offers a robust season of 70-80 presentations spanning classical, new music, jazz, American vernacular music, international music, theater, and dance, while coordinating over 120 residency events, including class visits, workshops, and public conversations with over 40 campus partners annually.

Eligibility

All regular and non-regular rank Duke faculty, including graduate instructors, are eligible to apply. We welcome proposals from those working in all departments and units across Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering, and Duke’s graduate and professional schools, and affiliated institutes. Courses should be offered during the 2017/18 academic year.

Grant support will be awarded for:

  • Stipends payable in research funds (but not course release) for participating instructors
  • Graduate assistant support; undergraduate student work support
  • Travel and meeting costs
  • Costs of outside speakers/consultants

All grant recipients will submit a brief closing reflection (500 words maximum) detailing their experience teaching the course and the extent to which desired learning outcomes were achieved.

Application

Proposals for Duke Performances awards should be submitted electronically by 5 PM on Friday, June 30, 2017 to Brian Valentyn and should include as a single pdf document:

  • A 1,000-word (maximum) narrative that describes: (1) the course to be developed or adapted, and the semester it will be offered; (2) the specific performances or artist residencies with which it seeks to engage; and (3) anticipated learning outcomes for students.
  • Syllabus or full list of reading materials.
  • A brief letter of endorsement from the department chair, Director of Undergraduate Studies, or Director of Graduate Studies.
  • A CV for each participating instructor

**Applicants who wish to be considered for the joint Duke Performances / LAMP award should submit their materials to both Brian Valentyn and Kristen Neuschel. Please note that proposals for the joint award must address at least one of the following LAMP goals as well as the Duke Performances goals articulated above. LAMP goals include:

  • Research as critical evaluation across media. Includes teaching students to make informed decisions about different types of sources and the critical consumption of media, such as print, video, audio, images, live performances, and social media.
  • Composing across media. Includes teaching students how to create and communicate knowledge across media, including oral presentations, alphabetic text (written essay), audio (podcast), image (photo essay), and video (digital story). LAMP encourages students to learn how to communicate within multiple media forms in order to reflect our 21st century engagements.
  • Public engagement. Includes helping students understand and gain practice in participatory citizenship through creating and sharing knowledge with publics beyond the classroom.

Review

Applications will be evaluated according the following criteria:

  • Engagement with the theme or practice of artistic performance.
  • Integration with Duke Performances’ seasonal programming. (How many visiting artists does the course engage? In what level of detail? Over what period of time?)
  • Potential impact on Duke campus and community

Awards will be announced by Monday, July 31, 2017.

Contact

For questions and advance copies of Duke Performances’ 2017/18 schedule, please contact Brian Valentyn.

Former Duke University Provost’s Legacy Thrives Harmoniously in Langford Lectures

Samayra Siddiqui
Provost Sally Kornbluth and John Supko at the Langford luncheon on February 21, 2017

Since 2000 when Thomas A. Langford, former Duke University Provost, Dean and Divinity School faculty member passed away, Duke has continued to remember his legacy through the Thomas Langford Lectureship awards.

Each year, several new or newly promoted Duke faculty are chosen to receive the award, based on the appeal of their research to an interdisciplinary audience and their embodiment of Langford’s dedication to teaching, research and service. The goals of the Langford program—to support and honor intellectual life at Duke, and to offer a platform for faculty to engage in interdisciplinary exchange—remain vibrantly alive with this year’s slate of awardees.

Last Tuesday, Langford honoree John Supko shared his work with colleagues and friends who gathered at the Doris Duke Center to hear Supko’s lecture, interspersed with selections from his compositions. Supko recently received tenure with his promotion to Associate Professor in the Music Department, and was chosen by the Duke Appointments, Promotions and Tenure committee as one of three awardees this year.

Supko’s music engages with the process of discovery through novel computational strategies. He works in a relatively unexplored field of generative music produced by algorithms that suggest unexpected combinations of sounds, rhythms and harmonies. The resulting pieces are by turns mysterious, serene, frightening and poetic.

On this spring-like day, sounds created by Supko and his occasional collaborators filled the high wooden-beamed room of the Doris Duke Center. Supko’s music has been described as spell-bindingly beautiful, hypnotic and eerie, and he offered selections that proved each of those descriptions and that ranged from ethereal to jarring.

Bill Seaman, Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, with John Supko

Last semester Erich Jarvis, a former Duke neurobiologist now at The Rockefeller University, delivered his Langford lecture “Dissecting the Molecular Mechanisms for Vocal Learning and Spoken Language: A Personal Journey” at a luncheon in his honor. This year’s third honoree is Tsitsi Jaji, who joined Duke’s faculty in 2015 as Associate Professor of English and African & African American Studies. Jaji will give her Langford lecture “Unsettling Scores: Black Revisions of the American Frontier Myth” in April.

Music is one thread that connects all three of this year’s awardees. Jarvis is known as a top researcher in the songbird field, and Jaji’s work bridges music and literature. The Langford Lectureship program continues to celebrate interdisciplinary scholarship in its fullest capacities, in tribute to Thomas Langford.

Erich Jarvis with Provost Sally Kornbluth, at Jarvis’ Langford luncheon on September 19, 2016

Duke Global Health Institute Offers Two Fieldwork Grants

Samayra Siddiqui

Deadline: March 6, 2017

The Duke Global Health Institute will offer two grants, The Aalok S. Modi Global Health Fieldwork Fund and The Paul Farmer Grant, to support undergraduate independent global health fieldwork projects. Applicants should have a demonstrated interest in learning more about the challenges of global health disparity.

DGHI Workshop Requirements

DGHI fieldwork grant recipients are required to attend 1-2 brief pre-departure training workshops and attend the fieldwork re-entry workshop in fall, if the student will be on campus in the fall. The pre-departure training workshops focus on cross cultural preparation, communication tools and ethics, and health and safety planning. The re-entry retreat assesses the field experience, and prepares the student to present their work at a Global Health Showcase in the fall.

DGHI Grant Submission Guidelines

Fieldwork grant applications should include the following items and are due no later than 5pm, March 6, 2017. You are only required to submit one application to be considered for either grant unless additional supplemental materials are listed within the individual grant information.

Priority is given to rising sophomore and junior students enrolled in a DGHI education program or working with a DGHI faculty member.

How to Apply

  • Resume (submit with the words “fieldwork grant application – resume” in the subject line).
  • Letter of recommendation from the Duke faculty project mentor (must be emailed directly by the letter writer).
  • If applicable, Community Collaborator Statement of Commitment (can be mailed, emailed, or faxed. In some cases, the appropriate community liaison may be a Duke Faculty or staff member, in which case only the letter of recommendation for Item 3 above is required).

The Aalok S. Modi Global Health Fieldwork Fund

Aalok S. Modi’s dream of a career in medicine and global health was left unfulfilled with his sudden death in February 2008. Together with his family and friends, the Duke Global Health Institute created a scholarship in his name to empower other Duke students to engage in global health research that embodies Modi’s commitment to serve humanity. This grant, which is awarded to an undergraduate student for independent global health fieldwork, honors the legacy of Modi’s strong commitment to global health. Modi, who was studying to become a doctor, led the Duke Global Health Student Action Committee, in which he diligently advocated for greater student involvement in the field. Applicants should complete the primary grant application and include the final question specifically referencing the Modi grant. Funding can go up to $5,000.

The Paul Farmer Grant

This grant is awarded to an undergraduate student(s) for independent global health fieldwork projects. It is provided by the Paul Farmer Global Health Fund, which honors the Duke alum, global health pioneer and DGHI board member. Applicants should have a demonstrated interest in issues of global health disparity. All projects must include a Duke faculty mentor as well as a community based partner in their research location. Funding can go up to $10,000.

Grants Support Inquiry into Global Cancer, Planetary Health and Other Challenges

Samayra Siddiqui

With funding from Duke’s Provost and Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies, two Duke Global Health Institute-led teams have initiated new multidisciplinary collaborations.

Megan Huchko, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and global health, will lead a team focused on developing an intellectual community at Duke to identify technologies, programs and health policy changes that can address disparities in reproductive tract cancer outcomes in women worldwide.

Another team, led by William Pan, assistant professor of global environmental health, will explore the planetary health initiative in the context of other movements across other disciplines, to identify steps Duke should take to address interdisciplinary challenges in science, policy and global sustainability.

Read the full article on the Duke Global Health Institute website and learn about the other recipients of Intellectual Community Planning Grants.

 

Photo: Megan Huchko and William Pan are among the Duke faculty members to receive grant funding to establish new multidisciplinary collaborations.

Kenan Announces Spring Art Contest and Exhibition

Samayra Siddiqui

Deadline: February 14, 2017

What is the function of art in our lives? The ‘What Is Good Art’ (WIGA) competition and exhibition was begun as a means to explore how visual art and ethics are intertwined, in how we view things and how that affects us. The theme for What Is Good Art? 2016-2017 is What Were You Thinking?

Spring Art Contest and Exhibition

Each spring, Team Kenan holds the WIGA competition around a different theme. As always, the WIGA theme is intentionally broad and open to many interpretations. Duke University students are encouraged to submit entries to compete for four prizes, and have their work displayed in a collective exhibition in the Keohane Kenan Gallery of the West Duke Building. A distinguished panel of experts in art and/or ethics convene to select pieces for display. All Duke students are invited to submit works in any medium for the spring contest and exhibition around the theme of What Were You Thinking?

How to Submit

  • Submissions will be due on Tuesday, February 14th. The exhibition opening and prize announcement will be scheduled for mid-March.

Prizes

  • First Prize: $500
  • Second Prize: $300
  • Third Prize: $100
  • Gallery Choice Prize: $100

Duke Offers Collaboration Development Grants

Samayra Siddiqui

Deadline: March 10, 2017

Collaboration Development Grants are offered to faculty members who wish to collaborate on new artistic work with artists or faculty members in their own or different disciplines. Grant applications are evaluated once each semester by a subcommittee of the Council for the Arts, who propose the results to the full Council. Grants are awarded by the Provost and Vice Provost for the Arts upon the Council’s recommendation.

Description

This grant provides funding to bring collaborators together to plan and/or produce an artistic project of high quality that enhances the professional standing of the participating artists. Applications for grants to plan a larger-scale project as well as applications to produce/present a completed project are eligible.

Each grant will be no more than $3,000 and may be used to cover costs for travel to, i.e., see comparable work by other artists, bring collaborating artists together for project development, or visit facilities that are equipped for the kind of work proposed in the project. It may also be sued to cover the cost of materials to develop a test project. Please note that this grant does not provide funding for honoraria and salaries.

The grant period lasts one year from the time of the award.

Eligibility

  • A Collaboration Development Grant supports collaborative projects between artists.
  • The Project Leader for the collaboration can be a regular rank faculty member at Duke (i.e., Professor of the Practice or Tenure track artists and scholars), or non-regular rank faculty who has taught two or more courses a year for three years and who will continue to serve in this capacity for the duration of the grant period.
  • Collaborators may include any Duke faculty and instructional staff as well as professional artists inside and outside of Duke.

Note: Honoraria and salaries are ineligible for funding through Collaboration Development Grants.

Selection Criteria

The Council for the Arts will evaluate applications according to the following criteria:

  • The significance of the proposed project. Does the collaboration address important artistic issues? Will the project make an important contribution to a particular genre, or will it help define a new artistic genre and practice? Are other presenting organizations interested in the project?
  • Suitability of the project for the participating artists. Are the artists capable of doing the work they propose? Will they need additional support or training from other experts to complete the project?
  • Appropriateness of the budget and timeline. Have the artists anticipated all of the expenses and are these expenses legitimate? Is the timeline for completing the work realistic?
  • Professional benefits for the participating artists. Will the project enhance the professional standing of the artists and will the project open the doors for other important professional opportunities for the artists?
  • Other benefits growing out of the collaboration. These may include the appeal of the project to Duke students, the potential for new courses, the potential for outreach to the Durham community, and/or enhanced national reputation of arts Departments and Programs.

Submission Procedure

The proposal should be submitted by the Project Leader and include the following:

  • Names and affiliations of the collaborators.
  • A narrative of no more than three pages including a description of the project, justification for support requested, and the desired outcomes of the development period (e.g., new skills acquired, small-scale proof of concept projects, participation in professional workshops related to the project, etc.).
  • Budget (not to exceed $3,000; this should be submitted in addition to the three page proposal description). Allowable expenses include travel for site visits, equipment and materials to develop projects, and fees for courses and conferences that offer training in a new technology or medium that will contribute to the project. Requests for honoraria and salary support are not allowed.
  • Proposals should be submitted in one pdf that includes the names and affiliations of collaborators, the narrative (three pages maximum), and budget.
  • Applicants who would like to submit supplemental material are encouraged to do so through a website (Flickr, YouTube, their own site, etc.).

Proposal Submission

Proposals should be submitted electronically to Council for the Arts, c/o Danette Clark.

Deadlines

Project proposals due by 4:00 p.m. (3 page maximum): March 10, 2017

Applicants to be notified of the results: April 6, 2017

Funding available: July 1, 2017

Direct questions to Danette Clark.

Duke Service-Learning Offers the Betsy Alden Awards

Samayra Siddiqui

Deadline: March 20, 2017

The Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Awards recognize one graduating senior, one faculty member and one community partner for their commitment to the ideals of service-learning. Each Alden award winner will receive $250 to further develop his/her community-building and leadership skills.

One of the “founding mothers” of the service-learning movement at Duke, Betsy Alden began combining learning and service in the 1980s. Since then, she has done it all: created and taught service-learning courses; forged community partnerships; recruited, inspired, and mentored faculty and students; developed and administered campus service-learning programs; and championed service-learning through publications, lectures, workshops and service on national boards. In the ten years Betsy led the service-learning movement at Duke, service-learning evolved from an obscure pedagogy used by a handful of faculty to a vibrant cross-disciplinary practice.

Eligibility

Graduating seniors, faculty members, and community partners who have participated in at least one service-learning course at Duke are eligible for an Alden Award.

Selection Criteria

Students
  • Leadership, initiative, or ongoing commitment to academic service-learning
  • Quality of reflection about the service-learning experience
Faculty
  • Meaningful integration of the service experience with course content (structure of the service experience, selection of community partners, use of critical reflection)
  • Consideration of, and ongoing commitment to, the needs of community partner(s)
  • Impact of community partnership(s) at Duke or in the local community
  • Involvement in the service-learning community at Duke
Community Partners
  • Ongoing commitment to the academic and personal development of Duke students
  • Collaboration with Duke students and faculty members

Nomination Instructions

Any member of the Duke community or a community partner organization may nominate an eligible student, faculty member, or community partner (individual or organization) for a Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Award.

  • Faculty and community partner nominations: Submit a statement of approximately 500 words indicating why the nominee deserves the award in light of the criteria listed below.
  • Student nominations: Submit a statement of approximately 500 words indicating why the nominee deserves the award in light of the criteria listed below. ALSO, the student nominee must provide a short description or reflection on their service-learning experiences at Duke. Please provide the student with the instructions below. We suggest doing so by the first week in March to allow time for them to prepare a statement before the nomination deadline, generally the week after spring break.

Joint nominations are welcomed. Nominations should be submitted to Dane Emmerling, Assistant Director, Duke Service-Learning, by e-mail, mail (Box 90739), or in person (West Duke 213), and must be received by the deadline.