Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Expanded Support Bolster Research in Humanities & Social Sciences

A proposal development specialist, an interdisciplinary research initiative, and a research framework are among new developments aimed at bringing awareness and expanding resources for research in Utah State University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“Faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences participate in impactful and award-winning research focused on the very things that make us human: language, history, education, religion, creative expression, security, health, governance and culture,” said Julia Gossard, associate dean for research in the college.

“CHaSS faculty work to address complex social issues, encourage free thinking, and reflect on past, present and future challenges facing humanity,” she said. “Their research impacts communities by encouraging students to discover what excites them and engaging society in meaningful dialogue and action.”

Gossard has worked with college administration to create a new framework to emphasize the wide array of faculty and student research projects taking place in the college.

The newly drafted statement highlights the fact that CHaSS faculty “produce data, scholarship and interventions that energize stakeholders to tackle existing and future challenges facing humanity.”

And CHaSS is expanding resources, particularly for faculty looking to bolster support and find funding to complete and bring additional recognition to their research.

Among these efforts was the recent search for a proposal development specialist. Hired this summer to help faculty create competitive funding proposals, Nicole Steinicke is a CHaSS graduate and former collegiate research fellow who looks forward to learning how to support a range of faculty across different disciplines.

“My background in social work provides me with the necessary skills to listen effectively to faculty needs and desires, address concerns and clearly communicate a plan for [obtaining] funding,” Steinicke said. “My hope is that I can relieve the stress surrounding grants and that it leads to more opportunities for the faculty members.”

Steinicke’s position is shared between CHaSS, the Caine College of the Arts, and the USU Office of Research, a decision informed, in part, to meet the unique needs of researchers in the humanities and arts, where large government grants are harder to come by and research can take many forms. She joins Barbara Warnes, a longtime CHaSS employee whose position was reconfigured to serve alongside Steinicke and provide additional assistance with the funding proposal process.

Like the decision to share resources with arts faculty, another interdisciplinary initiative is focused on studying health and educational disparities in Utah, the nation and the globe. Together with the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services and the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources, CHaSS has formed the Health and Educational Disparities Collaboration to grow interdisciplinary curricular offerings, enhance existing research agendas, encourage strategic faculty hires, and create other avenues to research health and educational concerns through their areas of expertise.

Gossard said this initiative is an important collaboration since “data from the Utah Population and the Environment Poll indicates that Utahns, especially those in rural communities, face increasing challenges to access quality health care and education.”

“As Utah’s land-grant university,” she said, “USU researchers are especially poised to advance research programs that investigate these disparities.”

It also expands USU researchers’ capacity to produce innovative scholarship and scientific data on issues most pressing to Utahns. The first research cluster will meet on Sept. 4 around the theme of “Mental Health & Wellbeing,” with lightning faculty presentations and a research landscape presented by the Office of Research’s Strategic Proposal Development Specialist Dawnie Elzinga.

To make faculty aware of these new resources and collaborations, CHaSS is revamping its research website and hosting several open houses, inviting faculty to explore the support available to help fund and, ultimately, achieve greater recognition for the work many of them are already doing.

For more information, please visit https://chass.usu.edu/research/ .