Professor of Economics Geoffrey Woglom, Professor of History Sean Redding, Professor of Physics Robert Hilborn and Dean of the Faculty Gregory Call serve on the Committee on the Faculty Research Awards Program, which determines the recipients.
FRAP encourages and funds the research of all regular full- and part-time, tenured and tenure-track College faculty members. The award is divided into two rounds, and professors have already submitted applications for the second round.
FRAP will not announce the second-round winners until April due to the lengthy decision-making process. However, it is a process that committee members relish. "One of the best parts of my job is having the opportunity to learn about the research of my colleagues," said Call. "They do exciting work and it's a great pleasure to be able to help support it."
The professors listed below all received first-round funding from FRAP for a variety of independent research projects.
Biology
Professor Ethan Clotfelter
Assistant Professor of Biology Ethan Clotfelter and Visiting Scholar Daniel Ardia will research incubation in tree swallows. The award will fund supplies and equipment needed for field work experiments. "Any time animals engage in some aspect related to reproduction there's some trade-off that's involved. ... Experimentally we're going to manipulate a trade-off," said Clotfelter.
Clotfelter and Ardia will use air conditioners to cool the nests of birds in an attempt to prove that the birds with cooler nests will have to make sacrifices such as spending less time to find food. "I do feel obligated to mention that these changes in the temperature that we're going to induce are very small," said Clotfelter. "We're not expecting to really stress the birds out."
The ultimate goal of the project is to better understand the trade-off made during incubation. This experiment will be the first in which the nests of the birds will be cooled; in previous experiments, heated nests were used. Clotfelter and Ardia will begin the project, but ultimately their goal is to get students involved in their research as well. "Students who might be interested in spending the spring or summer months looking at birds should certainly give us a call," said Clotfelter.
History
Professor Catherine Epstein
Professor of History Catherine Epstein will write a biography on Arthur Greiser, the regional leader of Warthegau, an area of Poland that was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939. Greiser devoutly believed in Nazi doctrine. "Greiser was intent on making the area a model for the rest of Nazi Germany," said Epstein. "To that end, he engaged in some very radical Nazi policies."
Epstein has completed much of her research, but there are additional archives she wants to visit at the National Archives outside of Washington, D.C., and other Polish and German archives she hopes to visit. She could not visit as many research facilities as she had hoped during her trip to Berlin last year because of the vast amount of time such detailed research requires in order to grasp the implications of the documentation.
"My research is based on archival sources," she said. "I read these very carefully and on the basis of these readings, try to arrive at the best possible understanding of what occurred or what Greiser or others thought that they were doing.
"All of my past research has studied how the upheavals of the first half of the 20th century shaped German lives," continued Epstein. "Their response to this upheaval has been an endless source of fascination for me."
History
Professor Rick A. López
Professor of History Rick López will continue his current research on Mexican national integration after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He plans to combine all of his research into a book in the near future. López will use the grant to support field work and archival research in Mexico as well as archival work at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. He hopes to have completed both his research and his manuscript by the time his grant period expires.
"When Mexicans think of Mexico, certain ideals stand out," said López. Focusing on modernism and national integration, this cultural study will attempt to understand how this idea of modern Mexico came to be. "My research is speaking to a lot of issues people are coming at right now, but I'm coming at them in a new way," said López.
Biology
Professor Jill Miller
Professor of Biology Jill Miller will conduct an experiment studying the evolution of separate sexes in the genus Lycium (Solanaceae). The research grant will cover costs for equipment and supplies.
Miller was thoroughly excited to hear that she had received FRAP funds. "I was pleased as punch," she said. "I am collaborating with Anna Savage [a graduate student] so [when I received the news] I ran in the lab to tell her."
Many plants with hermaphroditic sexual expression produce both male and female gametes, which presents the possibility of self-fertilization. To prevent this type of in-breeding, many hermaphroditic plants have evolved mechanisms preventing self-fertilization. In Lycium, plants have a gene that codes for self-incompatibility. However, many Lycium plants have also evolved separate sexes. The presence of both separate sexes and this particular gene both prevent self-fertilization: "Two separate mechanisms in that genus both do the same thing," said Miller. She plans to investigate whether these two mechanisms are actually redundant or if one developed due to an outside factor.
Music, Asian Languages and Civilizations
Professor David B. Reck
Professor of Music and Asian Languages and Civilizations David Reck is using his research grant to support a study documenting classical south Indian (Carnatic) music that was exhibited at the Madras Festival of Music and Dance in December and January. Reck has spent a great deal of time in south India studying the classical music of the area. The Madras Festival showcases nearly 300 performers in various Indian classical traditions for events such as concerts, conferences and seminars.
English
Professor Karen Sánchez-Eppler
Professor of English and American Studies Karen Sánchez-Eppler expects to publish her book "Dependent States" some time this winter. "It is one of the wonderful things about working at Amherst that there is a strong support for scholarship," she said.
The grant will cover the costs for indexing the book and various production costs such as copyright fees for illustrations.
Exploring the role of children as reformers in the 19th century, the book is a social study of childhood in 19th century America. "I want to imagine that 20 years from now it will be as absurd to ask about history and not ask what the children are doing as it is now to ask about history and not ask what the women or the poor are doing," said Sánchez-Eppler. "We are leaving out an enormous part of the social world."
History, American Studies
Professor Kevin Sweeney
Professor of History and American Studies Kevin Sweeney expects to use his grant to pay for illustrations in his upcoming book "Captive Histories: Captivity Narratives and Native Stories of the 1704 Deerfield Raid," which he edited with Professor Evan Haefeli of Tufts University.
"This is a collection of original accounts of a raid on Deerfield, Mass. in 1704," said Sweeney. "We hope the resulting book will be used in courses in possibly early American literature, history, Native American studies. ... We think it will also be of interest to people who are just interested in this kind of event."
The collection departs from previous studies by not analyzing the works in isolation through including various perspectives such as those of French-Canadians who were also involved in the attack. The year 2004 marked the 300th anniversary of the raid.