What can a century-old collection of letters, a father-focused parenting curriculum, and the poetry of Deaf writers teach us about the human experience?

Those questions, and many more, will drive 12 faculty-led research projects supported this year through the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) Office of Research and Engagement’s Research Innovation Grants. The program provides up to $4,000 per project to help faculty launch new lines of inquiry, expand existing research, and strengthen proposals for future external funding.

“These awards help faculty pursue promising ideas at an important stage– the beginning,” said Sarah Bowen, the college’s associate dean for research and engagement. “By supporting early research, we help position faculty to complete book manuscripts, compete for larger grants and expand the impact of their work.”

The 12 projects reflect the breadth of research across CHASS. They also reinforce the college’s commitment to scholarship that engages communities, informs public dialogue, and addresses issues that affect people’s lives.

Learn more about this year’s awardees and their projects:

Hegel’s Concept of Geist: A Reconsideration
Marina F. Bykova, Philosophy and Religious Studies
With archival and library research in Germany, this project challenges mystical interpretations of Hegel’s “Spirit,” repositioning it as a dynamic social achievement built through human interaction, shared institutions, and historical life. It will contribute to a book, Hegel on Spirit (under contract with Cambridge University Press). 

State-wide Community-Government-University Partnership on Best Practices for Drug Supply Advisory Councils and Communications in North Carolina
Jennifer J. Carroll, Sociology and Anthropology
This project will facilitate a working group of experts from governmental and non-governmental organizations to develop evidence-based, community-driven guidelines for drug supply monitoring and communication to help state and local governments improve public health and reduce overdose deaths in North Carolina.

The Invention of Silence: Remaking Our Understanding of Sound Through Deaf Poetics
Meg Day, English
This project comprises a monograph on Deaf poetics and the literary lineage of sound, silence, and white space in American poetics.

Access and Avoidance: Healthcare After Criminal Legal System Contact
Laura DeMarco, Sociology and Anthropology
This project examines healthcare access and avoidance among young adults who have been arrested, convicted, or incarcerated, contributing to our understanding of the role of mass incarceration in shaping racial health disparities.  

Infusing Trauma Content into a Father-Focused Parenting Curriculum
Antonio Garcia, Social Work
This initiative entails developing and implementing an online experiential trauma training module for facilitators delivering a father-focused parenting curriculum and examining whether it increases their self-reported trauma-sensitive knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Wicked Words: A Citizen Science Approach to Real-World Reading Barriers
Yingchen He,  Psychology
Wicked Words is a citizen science project where you help researchers analyze real-world reading challenges by submitting examples of “wicked” text that is difficult to read due to typographic, ambient, or perceptual factors. Visit go.ncsu.edu/WickedWords

ME to WE: A School-Based Pilot of Teacher Well-Being Implementation and Sustainability
Kristen Mahony-Atallah, Psychology
This project partners with local schools to co-design ways for teachers to build simple, sustainable well-being practices into their daily routines, supporting teacher well-being and stronger classroom environments.

The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jennifer Nolan, English
This project will create a multi-volume edition of the correspondence of F. Scott Fitzgerald, a scholarly resource that will open up explorations of his life, career, social and cultural contexts, what it meant to be a professional writer in 1920s and 1930s America, and much more.

Cultivating Knowledge in French West Africa’s 20th-Century Colonial Schools
Meghan O’Donoghue, World Languages and Cultures
By analyzing the inspiration behind a 1917 agricultural manual written by a French man for West African elementary school students, this project explores the intersection of agricultural education and France’s colonial agenda in early 20th-century French West African schools.

EquiProject: Sensing “In Sync” Through a Wearable Sensor Network for Trans-Species Rhythmical Harmony
David Rieder, English
EquiProject is a custom-built wearable sensor network that captures motion data from horse and rider simultaneously, making visible the moments of physical synchronicity that equestrians describe as being ‘in sync.’

Buddies: A Queer Film Classic
John Paul Stadler, English and Gary Needham, Film, School of the Arts
This research and writing project ​centers on “Buddies,” the first feature-length narrative film about AIDS in the United States, to examine its critical legacy in producing cultural memory around epidemics.

Techno-Religious Realism: Special Effects and the Aesthetics of Indian Cinema
Anu Thapa, English 
This project charts a genealogy of special effects in Indian cinema from 1910 to the present.