Nine researchers earn Arts and Humanities grants
The funding provides support for studies about ancient Turkey, Spanish dialects, PFAS exposure and more.
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities have awarded grants to nine UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members.
The grants will be used to pursue scholarly, creative or artistic pursuits and research projects. As part of the University’s strategic plan and the campus-wide pilot funding portfolio, they further Carolina’s position as a leader in foundational research, creative practice and the translation of research into social settings.
Here are this year’s winners:
Benjamin Arbuckle, professor in the anthropology department, College of Arts and Sciences
Arbuckle’s team will begin an archaeological project exploring the deep histories of urbanism and animals in the ancient Near East, specifically Turkey.
Emily Baragwanath, professor in the classics department, College of Arts and Sciences
The grant will support a 2025 gathering in Greece for Baragwanath and other colleagues around the world who study the issues surrounding politics and religion in relation to Socrates and his trial.
Lucia Binotti, professor in the Romance studies department, College of Arts and Sciences
Binotti’s team will study the dialectal superdiversity in the Tetuán district of Madrid, emphasizing the coexistence of numerous Spanish dialects from Central and South America and the formation of a “pan-Spanish Koine.”
Scott Kirsch, professor in the geography and environment department, College of Arts and Sciences
Kirsch will study what we can learn from Kress buildings – produced in the early- to mid-20th century to house the S.H. Kress & Company’s thriving 5-10-25 cent stores – about changing infrastructures of consumption in U.S. cities.
LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant, professor in the African, African American and diaspora studies department, College of Arts and Sciences
Manigault-Bryant’s project will visually document several consecrated locations in Anguilla, which is best known for its tourist economy and is home to nearly 50 churches, cemeteries and other sacred sites.
William Payne, assistant professor in the School of Information and Library Science
Payne’s team will collaborate to develop and evaluate tactile graphics – raised line prints – for teaching music concepts to visually impaired learners and find ways for music educators to incorporate them into their practice.
David Pier, associate professor in the African, African American and diaspora studies department, College of Arts and Sciences
Pier will write a book to illuminate a rustic conservatism and populism specific to Uganda and the ethnic Buganda region, arising out of that area’s precolonial, colonial and postcolonial history.
Courtney Rivard, assistant professor in the English and comparative literature department, College of Arts and Sciences
Rivard’s team will create an oral history archive that documents how North Carolinians understand PFAS exposure, how they connect PFAS to their local environment and community, and what motivates individuals to take action in response to these exposures.
Yurika Tamura, assistant professor in the Asian and Middle Eastern studies department, College of Arts and Sciences
Tamura will write a book investigating environmental art scenes in the aftermath of the Fukushima triple disaster of 2011 and Japan’s release of radioactive wastewater into the ocean.
