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Four awarded summer fellowships
February 2, 2004 | |||||
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KOKOMO, Ind.—IU Kokomo has awarded four 2004 Summer Faculty Fellowship Awards totaling $26,000 in support of faculty research. Awards of $7,000 went to Associate Professor of Sociology Ligaya McGovern, Ph.D., and Professor of Chemistry Kasem K. Kasem, Ph.D. Fellowships for $6,000 each were earned by Associate Professor of Sociology Nancy A. Greenwood, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor of Biology Michael Finkler, Ph.D. With the support of her fellowship, McGovern plans to complete a book-length manuscript examining the experiences of migrant Filipino domestic workers in five different countries. Tentatively titled Maid for Export: Globalization, Gender and Resistance, the book would focus on the policies and institutional practices of countries that export and import such labor, how these policies can exploit workers, and how workers respond. Faced with heavy foreign debt and unemployment, the Philippines have experienced “a massive labor outflow” in recent decades, according to McGovern. Female domestic workers in particular have been recruited to other countries. Over the past 10 years, McGovern has gathered data on the subject, including personal interviews with 182 immigrant domestic workers in Chicago; Vancouver, Canada; Rome, Italy; Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Her research was supported in part by two previous summer fellowships (1994 and 2000), two IU Kokomo Faculty grants (1995 and 2001), and a grant from the American Sociological Association. McGovern said three publishers have expressed interest in her manuscript. Representatives of non-governmental organizations who provide services to migrant workers have encouraged her to “complete the book soon,” she said, “so they can make use of it and disseminate it as part of their consciousness-raising” regarding labor issues. Kasem K. Kasem has earned three previous summer fellowships, in 1997, 1999 and 2001, all supporting his ongoing study of durable conductive materials for photoelectrochemical cells. (Solar-powered devices are one use for these cells.) Kasem’s 2004 research proposal is titled “Photoelectrochemical Studies on Thin Solid Films of Some Organic Polymers in Semiconductors’ Assemblies.” Although it has taken a while, Kasem is seeing “promising results” in his work. “Organic semiconductors are very new and have promising applications in modern technology,” he said. “In experimental scientific research, two years or even three years can go by before you see the light at the end of the tunnel. The results I am going to get from the 2004 summer fellowship work is going to support and enhance my proposal for a petroleum research fund, to be funded for three years.” First Contact: Research on Teaching and Learning in Introductory Sociology is the working title for a book Nancy A. Greenwood plans to write, with support from her summer fellowship and a previously granted sabbatical in spring semester 2004. In her fellowship application, Greenwood said the aim of First Contact was “to provide new insights about [sociology] curriculum design and to potentially change how sociology is viewed by students and the general public alike.” Rowman and Littlefield Publishers has contracted with Greenwood to publish the book in late 2004 or early 2005. Greenwood has received two previous summer fellowships, in 1994 and 2000. Michael Finkler also received his third summer fellowship for his 2004 project, “Sex-Related Differences in the Stored Energy Reserves of Spring-Breeding Ambystomid Salamanders.” For more than 10 years, Finkler has studied “energy expenditures” by turtles and salamanders in reproduction and how these energy costs might affect the survival of the animals’ offspring. Writing in support of Finkler’s 2004 research, Dr. Robert Brodman, chairman of biology and environmental science at Saint Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, stated that Finkler’s findings may uncover “an important factor that determines the size of terrestrial habitats needed to conserve sensitive populations.” Finkler earned summer fellowships in 2000 and 2002.
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