FTREG

Five Scholars Find Creative Ways to Strengthen Their Research and Teaching

Sarah Dwyer
Ocelot, book, marsh.
Top left: ocelot photographed by a camera trap in Oaxaca; right: near the Duke Marine Lab; bottom left: Chris Sims’ book

Last year, five Duke University faculty members set out to build skills and add new dimensions to their work. In these excerpts from their Faculty Teaching/Research Enhancement Grants (FTREG) reports, they share what they undertook and how these experiences will help them and their students.

Improvisation

Jody McAuliffe, Theater Studies andMcAuliffe. Slavic & Eurasian Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

I took the Summer Intensive in improvisation offered at the iO Theater in Chicago. Widely considered the premier venue for long-form improvisational performances and classes, iO was founded in 1981. The Summer Intensive condensed the entire iO Theater school of thought. Each week, a different iO teacher instructed the class in a particular level of curriculum. This intensive course prepared me thoroughly to teach improvisation at Duke to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Summer Intensive members.

Kathy Amato, my colleague in Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E), asked me to teach improvisation to Master of Engineering students enrolled in her class, Design Thinking. This intensive course at iO equipped me to guest teach in that course regularly and to offer regularly a new freshman seminar in Collaboration & Improvisation and a new course the Art of Improvising to undergraduates in Theater Studies and I&E.

Improvisation is a subject of great interest to our undergraduates. This intensive at iO decidedly broadened my teaching. It fit with my overall academic, research and professional plans, as I work as a director in professional and educational theater.

Alexander Technique

Eric Pritchard, Music, Trinity College oPritchard.f Arts & Sciences

I received the FTREG grant to attend Alexander Technique workshops at Ohio State University and Holy Names College.

The Alexander Technique (AT) is method of self-inquiry that has been used to improve performance within a wide range of activities, primarily within the performing arts, for over 100 years. It is now included in the curriculum at nearly all major conservatories and schools of music, theater and dance, and I am committed to bringing this work to Duke.

I had been offering an AT course for performing musicians, MUS 116, every semester since Fall 2017. The course has been very well received within the Department of Music but I felt that the time had come for me to open the class up to Duke undergraduates studying dance and theater. Cross-listing was approved with both of these departments.

Both workshops gave me the opportunity to study master teachers and collaborate with fellow teacher-trainees. The workshops were challenging at times but ultimately very affirming and profoundly useful as I moved into my first semester of teaching the technique to a wider variety of students.

Book Design and Typography

Christopher Sims, Center for DocumSims.entary Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

The cognate training work I undertook through my FTREG project was fortuitously-timed. Soon after receiving this support, I finalized my contract with Kehrer Verlag, a leading art publisher, for my first photography monograph, The Pretend Villages.

At the San Francisco Center for the Book workshop, I experimented with seeing the book as a sculptural object, and one that did not need to be “precious.” It seemed sacrilegious at times to cut open and dissect flea market-sourced books with tools, but it was helpful to understand in a material and physical way how the texture, weight and feel of a book impact the experience of interacting with its content.

Materials created by Chris Sims.

In the dienacht Publishing workshop, I created a full book dummy with six other participants. Whereas I had previously seen the challenge of making the books as being primarily about sequencing the images, creating the book dummy was instructive in terms of understanding more fully how the materials are important variables in the process.

The insights I learned in these workshops have proven extremely helpful as I work with the Kehrer Verlag book designers on moving my research project forward into this new space.

Geospatial Biodiversity Mapping

Jennifer Swenson, EnviroSwenson.nmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment

The FTREG support allowed a rich and fruitful exchange of knowledge, skills and learning with rural indigenous communities of Oaxaca, Mexico. The communities presented an on-the-ground land management and biodiversity mapping need, and we were able to contribute our knowledge of satellite remote sensing, geospatial analysis, species modeling, and field data collection to develop a new geospatial biodiversity database and collection protocols.

Our vehicle for this exchange was a master’s project completed by an excellent team of four students – Krista Erdman, Kim Myers, Virginia Patterson, Zifeng (Eric) Wang – with support from Elizabeth Shapiro and John Poulsen. The project was a resounding success and has laid the foundations for future work.

Geospatial results.

We developed our project in close collaboration with ICICO, Integrator of Indigenous and Campesino Communities of Oaxaca, with whom colleague Elizabeth Shapiro has built a long term collaboration. ICICO was interested in identifying the best location of a biological corridor between two of its adjacent communities in southern Oaxaca. Together we decided to create models of potential corridors and wildlife connectivity for different species.

Areas of ecological importance were identified and prioritized based on the overlap of species distributions and a potential corridor was mapped using the corridor analysis tools. Protocols for future data collection were designed for the communities and all data produced was transferred to them for their use.

Marine Science and Ethics

Rebecca Vidra, Environmental SVidra.ciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment

I was supported by a Faculty Teaching/Research Enhancement Grant to spend a two-week residency at the Duke University Marine Lab. During this time, I met with eight of my faculty colleagues.

Some of these meetings involved fieldwork, as I hunted for flounder at night with Dan Rittschof and located a local pod of dolphins with Andy Read. Others involved sitting down with the syllabus for ENVIRON 102 to see how I could reorient some of the topics around marine issues. Tom Schultz was particularly generous with his time, meeting with me several times, taking me out to the oyster farm (where I proudly and meticulously cleaned bags of oysters!) and brainstorming ways to address environmental ethics in the soon-to-be-proposed Marine Science major for undergraduates.

Marine Lab view.

I was able to introduce more marine science/conservation into my ENVIRON 102 course, primarily by using a suite of marine examples to teach about ecology, threats to biodiversity and climate change. I am using more marine-based examples in my undergraduate Environmental Ethics seminar and in my graduate Ecosystem Science and Management classes, drawing on the work of my colleagues. By integrating these examples, research, and conversations into my class, I feel like I am bringing a little bit of the Marine Lab back to campus.

About Faculty Teaching/Research Enhancement Grants

A key goal of the Together Duke academic strategic plan is to invest in faculty as scholars and leaders of the university’s intellectual communities. Faculty Teaching/Research Enhancement Grants (FTREG) is a grant program intended to enhance faculty members’ capacity to carry out original research and provide transformative learning experiences for students.

See this year’s FTREG projects and all current Together Duke initiatives.

Thirteen Faculty Seek Out New Skills and Experiences to Enhance Teaching and Research

Sarah Dwyer
FTREG grantees.
Top row: Angrist, Bennett, Furtado, Guevara, Hartemink; middle: Maren, Mestyan, Miles, Shapiro-Garza, Starn; bottom: Stein, Weinthal, Vadde

Thirteen Duke University faculty members have been awarded Faculty Teaching/Research Enhancement Grants (FTREG) to acquire skills, knowledge, or experiences outside or beyond their main disciplines in 2020-2021.

A key goal of Together Duke is to invest in faculty as scholars and leaders of the university’s intellectual communities. Now in its second year, FTREG is intended to enhance faculty members’ capacity to carry out original research and provide transformative learning experiences for students.

Plain People, Modern Medicine: Gene Therapy Trials in Amish and Mennonite Patients in Lancaster, PA

Misha Angrist, Social Science Research Institute; Initiative for Science & Society

Angrist will spend time in Lancaster observing and chronicling the experiences of Anabaptist patients participating in gene therapy trials to treat their rare genetic diseases. Building on previous trips to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, this experience will inform a proposal for a book that will shed light on a new biomedical, social, and cultural phenomenon and prompt caregivers, researchers, policymakers, and patients to think about healthcare in new ways. This research will also enhance Angrist’s Focus course (Patient Activism and Advocacy) as well as his science writing course (Science and the Media) and the course he coteaches for NIH-funded trainees (Responsible Conduct of Research).

Distributed Computational Techniques for Machine Learning

Victor Bennett, Fuqua School of Business

Bennett will pursue a two-course sequence on tools—Scala and Spark—related to machine learning in distributed computing environments offered by Databricks in McLean, VA. His current project about the future of work requires matching three million establishments to 22 million shipments of automation technology, which would take years of computing on the Fuqua server. Knowledge of parallelization techniques will allow him to make use of code that would get the match down to within a day, and will enhance his ability to serve as a resource for doctoral students and faculty at Fuqua and across the university.

Mapping the Amazonian Moving Image: Territoriality, Media, and the Senses

Gustavo Furtado, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Furtado’s research project explores the ways in which visual and audiovisual media participate in efforts by competing sociocultural groups to appropriate the Amazon region symbolically and materially. In order to finish gathering materials, he will visit museums, cultural institutions, and film collections in three Amazonian cities: Iquitos, Belém, and Manaus. This research will contribute to a book-length monograph and enhance his undergraduate course, “Perspectives on the Amazon.”

Training in Biomarker Analysis to Enhance Integrative Research on Evolution of Aging

Elaine Guevara, Evolutionary Anthropology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Under the expert guidance of Virginia Kraus and Janet Huebner, Guevara plans to train in biomarker analysis at the Biomarkers Shared Resource Core in the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute. This training will assist her in developing a more integrative research program with methodological, analytical, and theoretical approaches drawn from evolutionary biology and basic aging research. Mastering new methods will help her train students in this area and foster interdisciplinary interactions among the Duke Lemur Center, Arts & Sciences, and the Molecular Physiology Institute.

Visiting Rhodes House to Learn About Character, Service, and Leadership Program

Alexander Hartemink, Computer Science and Biology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Hartemink will undertake a trip to Rhodes House at Oxford University in order to learn more about its Character, Service, and Leadership Program. He intends to visit during a three-day retreat for scholars-in-residence, and engage in conversations with program staff the following day. This experience will strengthen his first-year seminar, “The Examined Life,” by providing new and/or better methods for allowing students to reflect on their values, build a meaningful life, and be prepared to lead in the world. It will also enhance his contribution to the Office of University Scholars and Fellows, where he serves as faculty director, as well as his capacity to mentor and advise all his students.

A Cultural, Social, and Political History of Barbed Wire

Mesha Maren, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Maren will undertake fieldwork to scope out a new direction that will take her research, writing, and teaching deeper into the field of creative nonfiction writing. To inform a monograph that is part personal essay and part cultural, social, and political history, she will travel to several World War I battlefields where barbed wire first played a significant role. Maren will conduct research in the museums, memorials, archives, and guided tours at battlefields in Italy and France as well as museums in Rome, Florence, and Paris.

The Power of Land Survey: A History of British Surveying in Occupied Egypt, 1890s-1950s

Adam Mestyan, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

During a trip to London, Mestyan will conduct preliminary research for a book on the history of land survey in the early 20th-century British Empire. Marking a new research direction, this project will help him understand the British use of land survey, the mechanisms of metropolitan and imperial land survey, and the history of imperial British surveyors in occupied Egypt. This research will also enhance his course, “Engineering the Global Middle East,” and contribute to the development of a new course on land and law in modern Islam.

On Guard for Peace and Socialism: The Warsaw Pact, 1955-1991

Simon Miles, Sanford School of Public Policy

To jump-start the archival research process for a book, Miles will travel to Kyiv to consult the KGB’s in-house journal containing articles by intelligence community leaders and analyses of major issues, and to Prague to work in four key repositories. His grant will also support initial archival research carried out by a research assistant in Moscow. A broader archival scope is likely to amplify the book’s impact on the field, burnishing Duke’s standing as a top destination to study these questions. It will also inform his teaching of courses such as “American Grand Strategy” and “The Global Cold War.”

Global Environmental Justice: Scholarship, Teaching, and Practice

Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza, Nicholas School of the Environment

To support the incorporation of environmental justice concepts and case studies into her teaching and enhance her scholarship on how these issues are impacting communities in North Carolina, Shapiro-Garza will participate in a workshop, “Bridging Research, Policy and Activism for Environmental Justice in Times of Crises,” at the University of Freiburg. She will also serve as a scholar-in-residence at the University of Barcelona’s Institut de Ciéncia i Tecnologia Ambientals, a center for research on global environmental justice issues and the social movements addressing them. These experiences will deepen her understanding of global environmental justice issues, strategies to address them, and the methods to analyze their dynamics and outcomes.

Understanding Peru’s Moche Civilization

Orin Starn, Cultural Anthropology and History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

At its height around 700 A.D., the Moche’s achievements included adobe pyramids as large as those in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and highly advanced irrigation systems to water their desert lands. During a trip to Peru, Starn will join local excavation teams at new sites in the Chiclayo and Trujillo areas. Learning more about the process of archaeological research and deepening his knowledge of Moche culture will enhance his teaching by incorporating more material on indigenous civilizations. It will also serve as the basis for a book about the quest to understand the Moche.

Jerusalem: Human Rights in a Contested City

Rebecca Stein, Cultural Anthropology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences; Erika Weinthal, Nicholas School of the Environment

Stein and Weinthal will take a joint trip to Jerusalem establish partnerships with Israeli nongovernmental organizations and human rights groups that will benefit future teaching on the Israel/Palestine conflict. The Shufat refugee camp will provide the basis for on-site learning modules in the course, which will include an examination of the ways that Palestinian refugees residing in the camp navigate access to services. This experience will also benefit the professors’ scholarship by providing an opportunity to consider refugee issues within the broader context of environmental issues, rights, and mobility.

We the Platform: Contemporary Literature in the Sharing Economy

Aarthi Vadde, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

To enhance her research and writing on the ways in which social media platforms configure contemporary literary and popular culture, Vadde plans to gain knowledge of how programmers and artists think about data, network architecture, and human-computer interaction. Pursuing training in information science and media archaeology, she will incorporate new knowledge and tools into a research program that links the history and future of the web to the sociology of literature. Increased computational literacy will strengthen her sociotechnical approach to analyzing literary works and readerships and inform a new course that connects humanistic criticism with responsible computing.

See all initiatives in the Together Duke academic strategic plan, including the current RFP for Collaboratories for Research on Immigration or on Science, Technology & Ethics (deadline: January 24, 2020).

Seed Funding Spotlight: Five Current Opportunities for Duke Faculty

Sarah Dwyer

Faculty and students.

Duke University faculty members can apply for any of these opportunities with deadlines between October 15 and November 4.

Faculty Fellowships for Collaborative Project Courses

Deadline: October 15, 2019

Duke Learning Innovation, in partnership with Bass Connections, is launching a Faculty Fellows program to support faculty interested in designing (or re-designing) courses that are collaborative and project-based. Participants will receive $5,000 and guidance from pedagogy experts, as well as the opportunity to collaborate on course (re)design with a group of faculty from across campus.

Intellectual Community Planning Grants

Deadline: October 18, 2019

The Provost’s Office is offering support to faculty who are interested in convening a group of colleagues to begin or test a new collaboration around a shared intellectual interest. Project funds ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 will be awarded for use during the 2020 calendar year.

Faculty Teaching/Research Enhancement Grants

Deadline: October 31, 2019

The Provost’s Office is offering support to faculty to acquire skills, knowledge, or experiences outside of or beyond their main discipline or to underwrite a trip to scope out a new direction for research. Funds awarded will most likely fall within the range of $2,000 to $5,000.

Special Call for Proposals Related to Immigration

Deadline: October 28, 2019

Bass Connections is accepting proposals for new projects addressing research related to immigration. Project funding ranges from $5,000 to $25,000. This special call for proposals does not take the place of the normal Bass Connections RFP process; see below.

Bass Connections 2020-2021 Projects

Deadline: November 4, 2019

Bass Connections is accepting proposals for 2020-2021 projects that engage faculty, undergraduates and graduate/professional students in the interdisciplinary exploration of complex societal challenges. Faculty may apply for between $5,000 and $25,000 for a year-long project. When completing a proposal, faculty can take advantage of special opportunities in the following areas:

  • Joint proposal for a year-long Bass Connections project and a Summer 2020 Story+ or Data+ project
  • Biodiversity conservation
  • Energy access
  • Ethics
  • Arts
  • Humanities.

Please see additional funding opportunities for faculty and postdocs and for students. For a more comprehensive search, visit Duke’s research funding database for all open opportunities.

Duke Faculty Can Request Funding to Enhance Their Teaching and Research

Sarah Dwyer

FTREG.

Deadline: October 31, 2019

Overview

The Provost’s Office is again offering support to Duke faculty via a Faculty Teaching/Research Enhancement Grant (FTREG). Faculty may use an FTREG for one of two purposes:

  1. To acquire additional skills, knowledge, or experiences outside of or beyond their main discipline that will enhance their capacity to carry out original research and/or provide excellent learning experiences for Duke students. Supported activities include: a cognate training workshop; field work opportunity that includes specific training; short-term engagement with a community organization relevant to a new line of research; travel to meet with a leading scholar or group of scholars working in an area highly relevant to the applicant’s scholarly growth or teaching trajectory.
  1. To underwrite a trip to undertake fieldwork, interviews, or archival exploration in order to scope out a new direction for research.

Grant funds may not be used for attendance at conferences, nor for salary support.

Funds awarded will most likely fall within the range of $2,000-$5,000. In unusual circumstances, funding may be available up to an absolute cap of $10,000.

Recipients from the first year of this grant represent a broad range of activities. The average grant award given last year was $4,378.

Eligibility

Any Duke regular rank faculty member with a primary appointment in a school other than Medicine or Nursing may propose faculty teaching/research enhancement activities.

A preference will be given to faculty at the assistant or associate level.

Selection Criteria and Review Process

Proposals will be evaluated based on the extent to which the proposal articulates how the experience will contribute to broadening the applicant’s research and/or teaching. Successful proposals will make a compelling case for how the proposed experience would amplify the faculty member’s intellectual trajectory and benefit the Duke community.

Applicants should provide a letter of support from the faculty member’s department chair or dean, as appropriate. And requests for funding to visit a leading scholar or group of scholars should also include a letter of support from that individual or group.

Proposals will be reviewed by a faculty panel convened by the Executive Vice Provost, the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, and the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. Final decisions will be made by the Vice Provosts in consultation with the Provost. Decisions will be announced in December 2019 and funds will be awarded in February 2020. Awardees will be expected to provide updates on their activities during the year and an eventual reflection on the impact of those activities on the trajectory of their research and/or teaching.

Proposal Requirements

The Provost‘s Office uses Formstack to submit applications.

You will be asked to provide the following information:

  • an updated, short curriculum vitae (no more than 2 pages);
  • a brief narrative that articulates the proposed activities, how the experience will contribute to broadening research/teaching, how it fits with overall academic, research, and professional plans (no more than 3 pages);
  • a budget and timeline for use of the funds;
  • a letter of support from a departmental chair or dean, commenting on the benefits of the proposed training or experience to the applicant and her/his intellectual community;
  • for those applicants seeking to visit a leading scholar or group of scholars: a letter of support from that individual or group;
  • information on other funding already obtained or requested (if applicants receive news about other funding proposals after the deadline, they should provide updated information to Mindy Miller, mindy.miller@duke.edu).

To apply, visit https://dukeinterdisc.formstack.com/forms/ftreg_fall2019.

Timeline

RFP released 09/04/2019
RFP deadline for submission 10/31/2019
Project winner(s) notified 12/13/2019
Funds made available* 02/03/2020

*Funds to be expended by 06/30/2021.

Contact

For any questions regarding your proposal, please contact: Mindy Miller, mindy.miller@duke.edu.

FAQ

Who can apply?

All current regular rank faculty with a primary appointment in schools other than Medicine and Nursing may propose faculty teaching/research enhancement activities. A preference will be given to faculty at the assistant or associate level.

What kinds of items and expenses would FTREG funds be able to cover?

Funds may be used to cover a cognate training workshop; field work opportunity that includes specific training; or short-term engagement with a community organization relevant to a new line of research. Funds may be used for travel to meet with a leading scholar or group of scholars working in an area highly relevant to the applicant’s scholarly growth or teaching trajectory. Funds may be used to support a trip to undertake fieldwork, interviews, or archival exploration in order to scope out a new direction for research.

How are the FTREGs different from other grants, like the Intellectual Community Planning Grants (ICPG), and Collaboratories?

FTREGs are aimed at individual faculty members who wish either to scope out a new research project or to acquire additional skills, knowledge or experiences outside/beyond their main discipline that will enhance their capacity to carry out original research and/or provide excellent learning experiences for Duke students. In contrast, both ICPGs and Collaboratories support groups of faculty. Collaboratories support groups of faculty working on more established projects that seek to provide tangible solutions to targeted problems. ICPGs provide seed funding to groups of faculty wishing to explore a new collaboration around a shared intellectual interest.

From Improv to Book Design, Five Faculty to Broaden Skills through New Grant Program

Sarah Dwyer

FTREG.

Five Duke University faculty members have been awarded Faculty Teaching/Research Enhancement Grants (FTREG) to acquire skills, knowledge, or experiences outside or beyond their main disciplines.

A key goal of Together Duke is to invest in faculty as scholars and leaders of the university’s intellectual communities. FTREG is a new grant program intended to enhance faculty members’ capacity to carry out original research and provide transformative learning experiences for students.

iO Summer Five-Week Intensive in Improvisation

Jody McAuliffe, Theater Studies and Slavic & Eurasian Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

To deepen her knowledge of improvisation, McAuliffe will take part in the Summer Five-Week Intensive offered by the iO Theater in Chicago. Each week, a different iO teacher will instruct the class in a particular aspect of the curriculum. The program culminates in a performance in the iO Theater. This intensive experience will enhance McAuliffe’s ability to teach improvisation to undergraduate and graduate students at Duke, including Master of Engineering students enrolled in the Design Thinking course. She will also offer a new course in improvisation to undergraduates in Theater Studies.

Alexander Technique Training Workshops

Eric Pritchard, Music, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Pritchard will attend workshops on the Alexander Technique at Holy Names College in Spokane and the Barstow Institute at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He has been offering an Alexander Technique course for performing musicians, MUS 116, every semester since Fall 2017, and would like to open the class to undergraduates who are studying dance and theater. The workshop in Washington will give him access to a team of distinguished instructors grounded in multiple artistic disciplines. The Nebraska workshop will provide access to a different group of teachers than the ones he has worked with before.

Book Design and Typography

Christopher Sims, Center for Documentary Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

A monograph of Sims’ photography project, Theater of War: The Pretend Villages of Iraq and Afghanistan, will be published in Spring 2021. To leverage this opportunity and gain insights into the field of book design and print publication, Sims will attend two workshops. The San Francisco Center for the Book “Introduction to Book Arts” course is a two-day intensive workshop designed for experimentation across disciplines. Lensculture’s “Book Design Masterclass” in Amsterdam is a six-day collaborative workshop covering the practical aspects of book-making as well as how to solve the challenge of the printed book medium—shifting from singular images to the book as an object.

Linking Community Forest Carbon Management and Wildlife Movement with Geospatial Technologies

Jennifer Swenson, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment

Swenson plans to explore how her research can be applied in a unique indigenous land management context. In Mexico, she will meet with a nongovernmental organization, Integrator of Indigenous and Campesino Communities of Oaxaca (ICICO), and community leaders. Together they will consider how to complement their current field efforts for wildlife (e.g., camera traps) with geospatial models of connectivity. Using data gathered through previous monitoring, she will help the communities select species for conservation efforts. Then, using geospatial analysis combined with participatory land use planning techniques, they can determine the siting of biological corridors or conservation areas for these species. If their efforts are successful, this will be Mexico’s first wildlife corridor that is based on community lands. Swenson, Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza, and John Poulsen have assembled a group of three master’s students to contribute to this work.

Enhancing Teaching of Marine Science and Ethics through Faculty Collaboration

Rebecca Vidra, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment

The grant will support a two-week summer residency at the Duke Marine Lab, where Vidra will meet with colleagues, visit their classrooms, and participate in some of their research projects. Drawing on the strengths of Marine Lab faculty, Vidra will develop a three-week module on marine issues for ENVIRON 102: Introduction to Environmental Science and Policy, and will prepare a course proposal for an undergraduate/graduate seminar on the ethics of marine conservation and policy. Vidra will also forge new collaborations that build on her research on community-based fisheries management in Kauai, in order to bring this work into her teaching.

See all current initiatives in the Together Duke academic strategic plan.

Image, left to right: Jody McAuliffe, Eric Pritchard, Christopher Sims, Jennifer Swenson, Rebecca Vidra

Duke Faculty, Meet FTREG: New Funding Opportunity to Enhance Teaching and Research

Sarah Dwyer

FTREG.

Deadline: November 19, 2018

Opportunity

This grant competition seeks to give Duke faculty members a chance to acquire additional skills, knowledge, or experiences outside/beyond their main discipline that will enhance their capacity to carry out original research and/or provide excellent learning experiences for Duke students. Supported activities include: a cognate training workshop; field work opportunity that includes specific training; short-term engagement with a community organization relevant to a new line of research; and travel to meet with a leading scholar or group of scholars working in an area highly relevant to the applicant’s scholarly growth or teaching trajectory.

NOTE: Grant funds may not be used for attendance at conferences, nor for salary support.

Proposals require a clear explanation of how the experience will contribute to broadening the applicant’s research and/or teaching and a letter of support from the faculty member’s department chair or dean, as appropriate. Requests for funding to visit a leading scholar or group of scholars should also include a letter of support from that individual or group. Successful applications should include a compelling case for how the proposed experience would amplify the faculty member’s intellectual trajectory and benefit the Duke community.

Funds awarded will most likely fall within the range of $2,000-$5,000; though in unusual circumstances, funding may be available up to an absolute cap of $10,000.

Eligibility

All current regular-rank faculty with a primary appointment in schools other than Medicine and Nursing may propose faculty teaching/research enhancement activities. A preference will be given to faculty at the assistant or associate level.

Proposals

Proposals will be accepted from Oct. 17 through Nov. 19, 2018 at 5:00 p.m.

Proposal Requirements

The Provost‘s Office uses MyResearchProposal online application software to submit applications. You will be asked to upload the following documents:

  • An updated, short curriculum vitae (no more than 2 pages)
  • A brief narrative that articulates the proposed activities, how the experience will contribute to broadening research/teaching, how it fits with overall academic, research, and professional plans (no more than 3 pages)
  • A budget and timeline for use of the funds
  • A letter of support from a departmental chair or dean, commenting on the benefits of the proposed training or experience to the applicant and her/his intellectual community
  • A listing of all other concurrent proposals for funding to support the proposed activities (we will ask awardees to update us when any additional funding for the proposed activities is awarded/received).

Instructions

  • A step-by-step user’s guide for applying via the MyResearchProposal software is available. Please review this document.
  • Enter Access Code PROVOST then select the 2019 Faculty Teaching/ResearchEnhancement Grants (FTREG) opportunity and follow the instructions.
  • For any questions concerning MyResearchProposal passwords or system issues, please contact Anita Grissom or Kara McKelvey at myresearchproposal@duke.edu.

Timeline

RFP released 10/17/2018
RFP deadline for submission 11/19/2018
Project winner(s) notified 01/10/2019
Funds made available* 05/15/2019

*Funds must be expended between 5.15.19 and 6.30.20.

Contact

For any questions regarding your proposal, please contact Carolyn Mackman, carolyn.mackman@duke.edu.

Review and Selection

Proposals will be reviewed by a faculty panel convened by the Executive Vice Provost, the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, and the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. Final decisions will be made by the Vice Provosts in consultation with the Provost. Decisions will be announced in January 2019 and funds will be awarded May 15, 2019. Awardees will be expected to provide updates on their activities during the year and an eventual reflection on the impact of those activities on the trajectory of their research and/or teaching.