The faculty development programs offer an opportunity for faculty members to grow professionally, to remain current with developments in their disciplines, and to infuse these experiences into the classroom to enhance student learning. As illustrated below, NKU’s faculty development programs have enabled our faculty members to undertake important work in their fields, often including students in their research, and have brought renown to the university.
SABBATICAL LEAVES are granted by the University to promote the professional growth and effectiveness of the faculty. Sabbatical leaves are granted to enable recipients, based on merit, to devote additional time to scholarly activity and research, advanced study, or artistic performance—all in pursuit of academic objectives. Tenured, full-time faculty, and department chairs are eligible to apply for sabbatical leave.
SUMMER FELLOWSHIPS provide funds to support professional development during the summer months. Examples of types of activities that may be applicable include: improving teaching skills; research; scholarly writing; creative or artistic projects; preliminary studies and literature searches; and attending seminars or courses related to one’s field or professional work. Full-time tenure-track or tenured faculty may apply for a faculty summer fellowship. Each faculty member awarded a fellowship for summer 2019 received an award of $6,000.
PROJECT GRANTS provide funds to pay expenses, purchase equipment, and to cover other financial needs for sabbatical leaves, faculty summer fellowships, and for other instructional, scholarly, and creative activities where financial support is not available through department budgets. Full-time tenure-track or tenured faculty may apply for a faculty project grant not to exceed $6,000. In 2018-19, 22 faculty members completed project grants.
The projects below were undertaken from Fall 2018 through Summer 2019.
Charles Acosta
Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Tropical marine ecology research and outreach in Belize
In Spring semester of 2019, I went on sabbatical leave to continue collaborative research and education outreach in Belize. I have conducted research in Belize with undergraduate students and professional collaborators for the past two decades. We have worked on a number of research projects focusing on the ecology and conservation of coastal marine ecosystems and natural resources. Most recently, we compiled comparative data on economically valuable fishery species in similar environments in protected marine reserves and nearby fishing grounds. Cohorts of students from NKU worked with high school and college students in Belize during summers conducting comprehensive ecological surveys in remote coastal locations. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation’s International Research Experience for Students (IRES) program from 2015 to 2018. The sabbatical leave provided me the opportunity to complete data analysis and manuscript preparation. One paper was published in Gulf and Caribbean Research in May, and another has been submitted for review. During my sabbatical, I also took the opportunity to collaborate with faculty at the University of Belize (UB) on curriculum development. I used our real-world field data to construct quantitative exercises for undergraduate and graduate students studying marine ecology and conservation of natural resources. This collection of statistical and mathematical exercises is packaged for use by instructors at UB, as well as in my own NKU courses. The accumulation of data now has applications in research and management as well as educational outreach.
Joe Cobbs
Associate Professor of Sports Business and Event Management
Department of Marketing, Sports Business and Construction Management
Extending Rivalry Research Beyond North America
The concept of rivalry is universal, yet comparative analyses of rivalries across cultures are practically non-existent. Rivalry is important to study because of its propensity to produce both positive and negative outcomes within and beyond sports. My sabbatical and associated project grant facilitated an extended stay of over two months in Australia and New Zealand, where I was able to absorb the sporting culture and commerce firsthand, while also visiting universities and conversing with faculty, students, sports fans and administrators. Until this sabbatical project, I had been successful in presenting and publishing research that analyzed rivalry in North America. As a direct result of this project, I have been able to collect qualitative and quantitative data on sports fans’ and administrators’ perspectives of rivalry in Australia and India. So far, this effort has led to a conference presentation at the World Association for Sport Management in Santiago, Chile. The data collection is ongoing in additional countries and once completed, this international project will result in multiple journal manuscripts. Furthermore, the sabbatical leave provided the space to complete the final two (of nine total) manuscripts based on the comprehensive rivalry data collection in the US and Canada. These two papers were both accepted and are now in-press at highly respected journals. Finally, the project also produced a wealth of additional course content for SPB 200: Rivalry and Ritual in International Sport, which is a class I developed and lead each semester within NKU’s Foundation of Knowledge requirements (i.e., GenEd).
Teressa Elliott
Professor of Law
Chase College of Law
Veterans Treatment Court and Mental Health Court of Campbell County, KY
My sabbatical gave me time to work with the local Veterans Treatment Court (VTC) and Mental Health Court (MHC) here in Campbell County, Kentucky. As an attorney, I was happy to be able to do work that improved our local courts. Working with a small committee, I developed and wrote a 501(c)(3) application for the VTC Mentor Program which was later submitted for approval. This application was submitted to enable the program to receive non-profit status, and thus be in a better position financially. To submit with that application, I wrote Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws for the VTC. I also revised the VTC Local Rules and Procedures, and I wrote a Policies and Procedures Manual for the MHC. Finally, I co-wrote articles for publication in Lex Loci about both courts. This publication is produced by our local bar association. District Judge Karen Thomas has told me she is submitting this work, as appropriate, to the Kentucky Supreme Court for approval. Judge Thomas also told me that once the VTC Rules are approved, they will be the first VTC Rules approved in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Sue Griebling
Associate Professor
College of Education
The Value of Inquiry Based Learning: Understanding Students (with and without Special Needs) Response to Using the Project Approach in a Sixth-Grade Classroom
During my sabbatical I worked with data from a three year study of a teacher and his students using inquiry learning for the first time. My sabbatical proposal consisted of three goals. The first goal was to analyze student interview data students from all three years of the study. This goal was met. I was able to identify patterns and themes from this data and prepare a manuscript based on this research. My second goal was to analyze teacher observations of behavior change in students with special needs during the use of inquiry learning. This analysis was completed and a professional manuscript was prepared describing these findings. This manuscript was submitted to the Middle School Journal, a peer reviewed journal, on December 2, 2018. The third goal was to prepare two conference presentation proposals. These were also completed. Conference proposals were submitted to Center for Scholastic Inquiry Academic Research Conference and the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. In addition to the goals I had for this sabbatical I was also able to work on an additional research project. This project is for a kindergarten transition program for school districts in Northern Kentucky. We collect data for the program each year. During my sabbatical I analyzed two sections of program data for 2018. I also revised and submitted an academic manuscript based on two years of this program to the School Community Journal.
Zachary Hart
Professor of Public Relations
Department of Communication
Sensemaking among parents of children with disabilities
During the Spring 2019 semester, I was very fortunate to be awarded a return to faculty leave after serving as Department of Communication chair from 2010-11; 2012-18. During the Fall 2018 semester, I also was fortunate to be awarded a research sabbatical. In terms of sabbatical related work, also funded by a university faculty project grant, I was able to complete the following activities:
1. Monday, February 11: Focus group at Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati
2. Monday, February 18: Focus group at NKU
3. Transcription of all focus group interviews completed by end of February
4. Preliminary analysis of themes from focus group interviews completed during March and April
5. Meeting with Dr. Monica Schneider, a Miami University political science professor, who is conducting research on the political identity of parents of children with disabilities
6. Preliminary draft of theory article based on literature review completed in May; now preparing for publication submission
7. Began preliminary work on data article based on results from sabbatical study
8. Submission of abstract to present sabbatical work at the 2019 NKU Spotlight on Scholarship
9. Poster presentation of preliminary results from sabbatical study at the DC Health Communication Conference (Thursday, April 25-Saturday, April 27)
Young S. Kim
Professor of Finance
Department of Economics and Finance
Corporate finance, agency theory, corporate governance, and diversification
During my sabbatical leave in Fall semester 2018, I published a peer reviewed journal article listed in Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), which is an indication of a high quality journal in the social science area. My current major research interests are in the area of corporate finance, including the topics of agency theory, corporate governance, and diversification. I initiated several working papers and presented papers at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea. In addition, I presented another working paper, “Real Activity Management in the Presence of Labor Unions,” at the 26th Eurasian Business Economics Society (EBES) on Oct 24-26 in Prague, Czech Republic. This paper is currently under review at the Journal of Corporate Finance. I also visited Sogang University in Seoul, Korea to exchange research interests with colleagues and shared the student exchange program.
Douglas S. Krull
Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychological Science
Religious/Supernatural Attribution
I received a sabbatical for the Fall 2018 semester. The primary goal of the sabbatical was to explore research in religious/supernatural attribution and to begin to conduct studies in this area. Attribution is primarily the study of causal judgments, and so research in religious/supernatural attribution explores judgments about the influence of religious/supernatural beings (e.g., God) or forces (e.g., fate). Research suggests that these types of judgments can have important consequences. For example, a person might believe that God will help him/her through a negative event (e.g., serious illness), which might produce more effective coping and greater psychological health. Conversely, a person might blame God for negative events, which might produce unfavorable psychological outcomes. During the sabbatical and the winter break I explored the literature, designed a variety of research projects, obtained IRB approval, collected data from NKU students and from groups outside NKU, analyzed the results, and submitted four abstracts to conferences, of which three were accepted. In addition, I’m continuing to collect data in some projects this semester. Overall, I think the sabbatical was both restorative and successful and I’m thankful for the opportunity. I hope to continue to use what I’ve learned to advance scholarship, to develop research collaborations with students and colleagues, and to enhance my teaching.
Kajsa Larson
Professor of Spanish
Department of World Languages and Literature
Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project Impact and Foreign Language Teaching Conferences
During my Fall 2018 sabbatical, I worked on academic projects related to my field, Spanish, and to the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project, for which I am faculty coordinator. I presented at the American Council on the Teaching of the Foreign Languages conference and submitted a full-length article of this research to Foreign Language Annals. I also submitted a co-authored piece that was accepted for publication in the Journal of Language Teaching and Research. I attended a two-day syllabus-writing workshop hosted by the Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cine Españoles Siglo XXI, of which I am member. Related to the Mayerson Project, I reviewed, revised, and partially drafted a third edition of the Mayerson faculty handbook that has a national distribution. It is currently being reviewed by the Scripps Howard Center. In collaboration with NKU’s Burkhardt Consulting Center, I have been preparing data for a future article that will measure the academic success, defined by persistence and graduation rate, of NKU students who enrolled in at least one Mayerson class between Fall 2014 and Fall 2018. I also sent a proposed article abstract to M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture about the link between NKU’s Mayerson Project and the Scripps Howard initiative, Project 505. If invited to submit a full manuscript, this will be the second time that a case study about Project 505 will be under consideration in a peer-reviewed academic journal.
Mark Leeman
Associate Professor of Communication Studies
Department of Communication
Neighborhood change in Walnut Hills: Understandings and Organizing
Mark Leeman and R. H. Sweeten
This report is the result of a multi-year ethnographic filed study of an “inner core” Cincinnati, Ohio neighborhood undergoing radical change. We investigated the sensemaking of residents and also the creative alternative organizing of a grass-roots organization striving to build community among now-diverse groups of people living together in a neighborhood that just a few years ago was nearly all African American, and dominated by poverty. Through the lenses of communication and organizing theory we tell the story of a long-term action research project designed to both facilitate and understand dialogic processes between long-time residents and their new and more affluent neighbors. An interpretive methods approach, utilizing ethnographic participant observation and qualitative interviewing, was taken to study residents’ experiences and also to look into the rationales, tensions, strategies, and dynamic organizing of Walnut Hills Activist Development, a non-profit formed and run by a team purposely diverse resident activists attempting to build community across the radical differences that now characterize the neighborhood. A “hybrid” organizational structure was found to have emerged as this group seeks to understand and address the wide gaps in residents’ lived experiences in this, now, “hybrid” district. How can Walnut Hills better “work” for all residents? These neighbors, this organization, and this research all hope to understand that better. Through a focus on communication and organizing, this report hopes to inform the shifting sociosymbolic fields found in Walnut Hills, which seem comparable to many other changing urban locales across the nation.
Denise J. Luethge
Professor
Department of Management
Global study of vehicle purchasing choices and motives
This Spring 2019 sabbatical project is a continuing global study investigating motives of young drivers worldwide. Past research has shown that young drivers are not only postponing vehicle purchase, but some are avoiding purchase altogether for a number of reasons. For those who choose to purchase a vehicle, their choice of vehicle and their reasons for purchase vary widely. Results of this research have significant implications for automotive manufacturers as well as automotive suppliers, both in terms of future markets and production ramifications.
Data were collected in Belgium, Brazil, Japan and the US in Spring 2015, and data collection was completed in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in December 2016. In Fall 2018, data were collected in England. The sabbatical represented a continuation of this research by refining the survey instrument and collecting data in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Data were collected in these two regions in January and February 2019 and March 2019, respectively. Preliminary results indicate that differences exist between the two Irish populations in terms of their motives for purchasing, or not purchasing, a car. Future analyses will examine difference between UK citizens in Northern Ireland versus England as well as among all three groups. In addition, comparisons of Irish and Northern Irish young drivers with their American and Belgian counterparts will be examined in the future.
Ellen Maddin
Associate Professor
College of Education
Using Digital Storytelling to Understand Teachers' Perspectives on Technology Integration
Digital stories are short audio-visual vignettes told from the first-person point of view. The genre has received recognition for its capacity to bring the voices of ordinary and marginalized groups into the public sphere. Digital stories are both narrative and informative; creative and documentary. This qualitative research study uses digital storytelling to examine the nuances and complexities of teaching with technology as viewed from the perspectives of ten high school teachers, representing various disciplines, in two suburban school districts in Kentucky and Ohio. After conducting video interviews with each participant, I transcribed the audio and then coded and analyzed the transcripts for themes and collective issues. With permission from the teachers in the study, I used excerpts from the video interviews to create a collection of digital stories that captured their experiences and viewpoints about integrating technology. Collaborative web-based software allowed teachers to participate in the development of their digital stories. The project resulted in three products: a research manuscript, a collection of digital stories, and an outline for a new graduate course. The project provides insights into the barriers and supporting conditions that influence teachers’ uses of technology for instruction. Study findings illuminate school-wide and classroom strategies that facilitate effective use of instructional technology. The project benefits the educational community by allowing the voices of teachers to be heard. This work will lead to future collaborations through a special topics graduate level course offered during the summer of 2020.
Kirsten Schwarz
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Mapping environmental injustice: how urban tree canopy, city form, and context shape environmental justice outcomes
As an urban ecologist studying the nexus of environment, equity, and health, understanding the spatial distribution of urban tree canopy (UTC) and the resulting environmental justice (EJ) outcomes has been a research focus of mine since starting at NKU. My sabbatical work focused on four overarching goals centered on bolstering my collaborative research on UTC and EJ and deepening my knowledge of relevant geospatial analyses. Specifically, I continued to collaborate with colleagues at USEPA and Ball State University on examining the effect of city mode (growing, stable, and shrinking) on UTC and EJ outcomes in Toledo, OH. The collaboration and scope has expanded to include collaborators from the USGS Forest Service and the quality of UTC and perceived benefits. As a visiting scholar with the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, hosted by colleague, Dr. Weiqi Zhou, I expanded my international collaborations on UTC and EJ and advanced my knowledge of cutting-edge geospatial analyses. All of these activities have supported my ongoing work on community-led green infrastructure design in Newport as a means to addressing environmental inequity. I presented this research at several professional conferences (American Geophysical Union, American Association of Geographers, and the Ecological Society of America) and well as several invited lectures (University of Dayton, Eastern Illinois University, Confluence Connects, UCLA, Eastern Kentucky University).
David Thompson
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Continuing Research into the Environmental Physiology and Toxicology of Waterborne Metals and Organic Pollutants
My sabbatical served as a great opportunity for me to continue my research in fish physiology and aquatic toxicology. I worked on three separate projects during this time. I traveled to the Keys Marine Laboratory in the Florida Keys to support my research on zinc metabolism in squirrelfish. Squirrelfish constitute a fantastic system to study zinc metabolism, because females accumulate more hepatic zinc than any other studied vertebrate, including male squirrelfish. Results from this work suggest that female squirrelfish accomplish this during periods of reproductive activity by preferentially increasing the expression of cellular zinc transporters, possibly under hormonal control. I spent two months at the University of Alberta, home to a world-class aquatics facility, assessing the toxicity of the agricultural herbicide atrazine. Studies of waterborne atrazine exposure in fish have indicated that the effects are often species-specific, and little is known about the potential impacts of atrazine on rainbow trout. With this research I examined the effects of technical and commercial formulations of atrazine on oxidative stress in this commercially relevant species of fish. I also traveled to the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on Vancouver Island for a research project examining calcium handling in hagfish. Hagfish are unique among vertebrates in that they keep their body concentrations of sodium and chloride matched to those of their seawater environment, but maintain calcium concentrations at around half of that in seawater. Findings from this work will facilitate future studies to examine the endocrine control of calcium metabolism and the evolution of calcium transport pathways in this important model species.
Traian Marius Truta
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
Big Data Challenges: Social Networks and NoSQL Databases
My sabbatical work during the Spring 2019 semester had two components: research in social networks and study of NoSQL databases.
Research. Today, online social networks create a medium in which news production and sharing is available to the general public, not only to established news agencies. As a result, fake news is now created / distributed for various purposes and its use and availability have become mainstream. Thus, it is important to study how fake news spreads through online social networks. To this end goal, I first studied the reliability of Twitter data and determined a series of limitations of the Free Twitter Streaming API (application programming interface) that allows us to collect this data. Second, I investigated vaccine and global warming related news on Twitter in order to understand the spreading on false information on those two topics. In numbers, I coauthored two peer-reviewed papers on this topic and one more research paper on a different topic. I continue working with four undergraduate students and I hope to publish two more research papers in the next 6-12 months. In this research work, I collaborated with the six NKU undergraduate students and three NKU faculty.
NoSQL Databases. I used NoSQL databases in one of the research subprojects. The Twitter data is stored as a MongoDB document for easier processing and analysis. In addition, I used other NoSQL databases (Cassandra, Redis, and Neo4J) and created a tentative syllabus for a potential advanced CIT class on this topic.
Judy Voelker
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Philosophy
The Thailand Archaeometallurgy Project: Holistic Approaches to Characterizing Metallurgy’s Societal Impact in Prehistoric Southeast Asia
Dr. Judy Voelker spent a productive sabbatical working on the final review of small finds artifacts from three archaeological sites excavated in central Thailand by the Thailand Archaeometallurgy Project (TAP). These excavations yielded a variety of artifacts that have been divided into groups for analysis; the “small finds” dataset consists of artifacts that include adzes and axes, ceramic spindle whorls and figurines, stone tools and the preforms they were ground from, anvils, and various other ceramic and stone artifacts; approximately 3000 artifacts comprise the small finds dataset. A relational database of project artifacts was created; this new open source database provides context, metric data and other descriptive information as well as photo images and drawings of each object. The analysis of this data provided the basis for an accepted paper at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meetings and also an invitation to participate/publish a related article as part of a special issue on New Interpretations in Mainland Southeast Asian Archaeology in the peer-reviewed journal: Archaeological Research in Asia.
During my sabbatical, time was also spent in Southeast Asia; this gave me an opportunity to visit archaeological sites and museums to study ceramic collections and meet with colleagues from the region. Additionally, I was asked by the NKU Center for Global Engagement & International Affairs to assist in the recruitment of potential students while in Hanoi, Vietnam. I gladly made 2 presentations to local gifted and talented high school students and also presented a lecture to college students at Hanoi University.
The research, travel, and opportunities described above were possible because of this sabbatical. It has enhanced my professional growth and development while also providing an opportunity for me to organize research data into a publishable format.
Jeff Ward
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
Language-Oriented Programming with Racket
During spring 2019, I used the Racket programming language to work through two rather challenging books: The Little Prover by Daniel P. Friedman and Carl Eastlund (MIT Press 2015) and The Little Typer by Daniel P. Friedman and David Thrane Christiansen (MIT Press 2018). These books cover recent research topics on automated theorem proving and on using advanced type systems to ensure code correctness. I also finished supervising an honor’s capstone project by NKU senior Alex Owens entitled, “Puzzler, A Programming Language for 2D Puzzle Games,” wherein Alex used Racket to implement a game scripting language. During summer 2019, I worked through an online textbook called Beautiful Racket, which teaches how to use Racket to create domain-specific languages (DSLs). In July, I attended Racket Week 2019 at the University of Utah, where I took five days of courses on DSL creation with Racket, and attended the two-day RacketCon. In fall 2019, I am applying what I learned by incorporating DSL creation with Racket as a central feature of the CSC 685 Logic and Computation course that I am teaching. In spring 2020, I will use Racket as the platform for implementing a framework that I call Contract Diplomacy, which will be a scriptable computer version of the Diplomacy board game. In contract to Diplomacy, Contract Diplomacy will allow a game author to create varied strategic scenarios where players can negotiate computer-enforced contracts with other (human or artificial) players. I will base the negotiation and contract system on Linear Temporal Logic, which is one of the logics that we study in CSC 685, while implementing the negotiation and contract languages in Racket. I aim to use Contract Diplomacy as a platform for researching and popularizing Language-Oriented Programming.
Alyssa Appelman
Assistant Professor of Communication
Department of Communication
Numerical divide: Perceptual effects of math mistakes in news articles
How do readers respond to math mistakes in news articles? With my 2019 NKU Faculty Summer Fellowship, I conducted an online experiment to test the effects of math mistakes in news content on readers’ perceptions. I started with an annotated bibliography of research related to the prevalence of numbers (and math mistakes) in news content, the rise of data journalism, journalists’ perceptions of numbers in the newsroom, and the effects of math mistakes in news articles. I then set up and conducted my experiment. Participants (N = 55) read a news article in one of four conditions: one with no numbers, one with correct numbers, one with some math mistakes, and one with many math mistakes. The added mistakes included incorrect calculations, missing context, and misinterpretation. Participants then answered questions about credibility and quality perceptions of the media content and the source, as well as questions meant to measure their math concern, math confidence, and math knowledge. This fall, I will analyze the data to determine whether their perceptions differed based on the version of the article they read, as well as whether other factors moderated those differences. For example, maybe math errors only harmed credibility for readers who are great at math, or maybe people who care a lot about math disliked articles that didn’t include numbers. This project fits into my greater body of research on journalistic message credibility and the effects of journalistic norms and practices.
Anthony Chavez
Professor of Law
Chase College of Law
Carbon Capture Policies and Stimulating Innovation
To stay below the 2°C temperature rise target of the Paris Climate Agreement, scientists project that society will need to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Utilization of this sequestered carbon in manufacturing and other processes would encourage development of carbon capture technologies. Carbon utilization, however, is itself at initial stages. Thus, we need to develop policies to incentivize carbon utilization research to discover new uses of carbon and lower the costs of these processes.
Generally, governments have used a number of approaches to stimulate innovation. These have primarily consisted of patents, grants, prizes, and tax incentives. The NKU fellowship enabled me to analyze these policies, determine their applicability to carbon utilization technologies, develop a proposal for applying them, and present these findings at two recent carbon management conferences.
Grants and prizes are best suited to circumstances when the government can value innovations since they require an authority to set an amount for the compensation. Patents and tax incentives, conversely, work most effectively when private parties and markets are most capable of determining the value of a new product or process. Combinations or hybrids of these policies, however, may work best. For instance, even though prizes and patents promise payoffs for successful innovators, start-ups or low-capitalized inventors may be precluded from competing for these incentives without grants or tax credits to reduce their costs. Patents, on the other hand, may be poorly suited to climate change inventions, since they provide exclusivity for a longer period of time (20 years) then society may be able to wait for their availability. Accordingly, the length of patent terms could be reduced while taxes are lowered on the related income as compensation for the reduced exclusivity period.
This fellowship funded presentations of these findings at the 2019 Carbon Management Technology Conference, Houston, Texas, and the International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilization in Aachen, Germany. I am also completing an article that more fully presents these results.
Nicole Dillard
Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
Evaluation and Implementation of Intersectional Qualitative Research Methods
As written in the initial proposal, the fellowship project aim was to evaluate and implement an Intersectional Qualitative Research methods approach to the applicant’s research design and future curriculum. This project goal was successful.
Regarding the project’s three objectives:
1. The applicant successfully organized and analyzed data using the Intersectional approach learned during at the CRI at the University of Maryland;
2. While the goal was to prepare the data for one publication, the applicant was successful in preparing two manuscripts (one book chapter and one journal submission) to be prepared for conference presentation in Spring 2020 that documents not only the data content itself, but also explores the IQRMI approach and evaluative findings. The book chapter has been accepted for publication, while the journal is still under review.
3. While the applicant has not yet developed a faculty workshop per se, she has introduced and familiarized faculty within her department on the value added by introducing a qualitative intersectional research approach into their research and curriculum. These discussions have resulted in the applicant facilitating guest lectures on qualitative research methods, and intersectional data analysis into the Research Methods and Data Analysis courses within the MPA program. Additionally, a new vision is supported by the Chair and Dean that includes a plan for incorporating qualitative methods, including intersectional analysis into future research methods curriculum within the MPA and OL programs.
Steven Gores
Professor of English
Department of English
The Life of William T.H. Howe
This fellowship allowed me to follow up on my sabbatical work of Fall semester 2015 and an earlier fellowship awarded in 2016. All three awards have permitted me to research and write the life of William T. H. Howe, the greatest Cincinnati book collector and literary patron during the first half of the 20th century. Howe headed the American Book Company (1931-1939), with offices on Cincinnati’s Lytle Square, and he chose to live in a stately home in southern Campbell County, Kentucky.
My biographical manuscript on W. T. H. Howe has been greatly enlarged by my summer work to incorporate all of the material that I have studied during the time of my fellowship and earlier award periods. Due to my efforts during the sabbatical, the manuscript is now nearly 350 pages and it has been expanded from eleven to thirteen chapters. The two new chapters are “British Invasion,” concerning Howe’s friendship with many lesser known English authors, and “Cincinnati Poetry Culture,” which discusses Howe’s support of Gypsy Magazine (1925-1937). Discovered as I began my summer’s writing work, Howe’s attempt to spur local poetry through Gypsy was a complete surprise. I am still working on this chapter, trying to process what I have learned. The other surprise I had was being contacted by a relative of W. T. H. Howe, who shared with me a lengthy summary of his sisters’ diary. This came out of the blue, and it was useful in helping me add detail to the opening chapter, “Early Life.”
At this point, the manuscript is nearing completion, and it is close to ready for marketing to publishers as an historical biography with connections to both business and literature.
Allyson Graf
Assistant Professor of Psychological Science
Department of Psychological Science
Community-Based Partnerships: Professional Development as a Bridge to Teaching, Scholarship, and Service Opportunities in the Local Aging Community
My summer fellowship was spent building connections within NKU, the community, and my discipline to set a course for enriched teaching, scholarship, and service. As a new faculty member who engages in community-based research, this was a crucial step for advancing the goals I hold for my students’ learning, my career, and our community. My first goal was professional development at a national conference in my field. I attended the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting and met with potential research collaborators. I also attended talks on pedagogical practices and secured resources to be shared in my department. My second goal was to identify opportunities for service learning and research collaboration with organizations serving older adults locally. I confirmed 17 age-related collaborative partners in the community, an increase from four that I had secured in my first year at NKU. My third goal was to develop training models for students who would be entering into long-term commitments with these aging-related organizations or who might feel awkward about engaging with older adults in general. These modules include: Aging Myths & Ageism, Communicating with Older Adults, and Professional Conduct within an Aging Population. These will be made available to the campus community through the NKU Aging Resource Center on Canvas following pilot testing. Lastly, a final goal of the fellowship was to identify potential assessment tools to measure change in attitudes, knowledge, and other variables for students working with older adults. This progress contributed to advancing a related project grant study.
C. Collin Herb
Assistant Professor of Athletic Training
School of Kinesiology, Counseling and Rehabilitation Services
Lower Extremity Biomechanics in Patients with Chronic Ankle Instability
The purpose of this summer fellowship application was to develop and establish the motion capture system located within the Human Performance Laboratory as a useful research tool and learning opportunity for our students at NKU. In order to accomplish this, I had two specific goals: 1) start a research study and 2) write a standard operating procedures manual (SOP). These goals have both been accomplished. An IRB approved research study (IRB# 602) was started to analyzed the biomechanics of a novel jump landing task in patients with chronic ankle instability. So far, 6 subjects have been recruited, consented and data has been collected and processing begun. The study is powered for 15 subjects per group and I anticipate completion by November of 2019. Due to the nature of this system, I will be able to analyze the kinetics and kinematics of the hips, knee and ankles in 3 dimensions as well as the ground reaction forces. This data will be used as a continuation of my research and will contribute to peer-review manuscripts and presentations at conferences. An SOP manual has been written and piloted with a kinesiology faculty member. This system will be used in KIN 360-Biomechanics this fall by this faculty member. Additionally, the lab has already allowed for processing of previously collected data that will be presented in the form of 2 poster presentations at the International Ankle Symposium in October 2019 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Tonya Krouse
Professor of English
Department of English
Aesthetics and Obscenity
This Summer Fellowship enabled the development of an exciting new course to be offered through the Northern Kentucky University Honors College—HNR 321 Global Citizen in Society: Aesthetics and Obscenity—that I will offer in Spring 2020. Not only did I read widely and deeply across aesthetic theory, art history, women’s and gender studies, literary studies, philosophy, legal studies, and media studies, but I also used the summer to consult with NKU colleagues, including Jennifer Kinsley (Chase College of Law), Rudy Garns (Philosophy/Integrative Studies), and Kimberly Allen-Kattus (Art History). I sketched the draft of the course syllabus and assignments for the course, as well as began planning co-curricular and experiential opportunities that will link with the course. The debates, controversies, and ethical questions that shape this course have particular relevance in the greater Cincinnati area, given the famous prosecution of Larry Flynt for obscenity in 1976 and of Robert Mapplethorpe for obscenity in 1990.
The second part of my summer fellowship project was to connect to my scholarship on D.H. Lawrence. While I was able to complete reading connected to this project, a publication opportunity in another of my research areas fell into my lap, which I could not pass up, as did an opportunity to create a substantial community engagement opportunity for students in my fall Honors course. I switched gears to work on these projects, and I will return to my book project on D.H. Lawrence next summer.
Marc Leone
Associate Professor of Visual Arts
School of the Arts
Instructional Videos on Artistic Anatomy
My Summer Fellowship project focused on making instructional videos on artistic anatomy for artists so that our SOTA Visual Art students (and any other students nationally and internationally) can have access to a comprehensive database for learning and practicing the most difficult aspects of figure drawing. Nine important areas of artistic anatomy are illustrated in depth covering both bones and muscle anatomy of the Head/Neck; Torso; Pelvis; Upper and Lower Leg; Foot; Upper and Lower Arm; and Hand. I made 60 videos covering over 74 hours of content from my instructional drawings, narrated, edited, uploaded, and released to The Drawing Database, an international public service art/drawing education project I founded in 2016.
Shahid Noor
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
Towards Building a Lightweight and Efficient Computing Infrastructure for Educational Systems by Integrating the Docker/Container in the Internet of Things (IoT)-based Cloud Platform
We designed a conceptual architecture of our proposed system. We also divided the work into three subtasks. Our first task was to create a standard layout of the docker image for classroom in schools or colleges. We reviewed some existing models used by software firms and partially designed our model. Based on the outcome, we have started writing a research paper and are planning to complete the paper by this year. Our next task is to design efficient protocols for scheduling containers, orchestration, and cluster management for classes of different sizes and levels. We have explored the seven most popular technologies for VM scheduling and orchestration. Finally, we will research on the design of novel algorithms and techniques for quality of service improvement and image version control and monitoring for large size of classes. We analyzed Kubernetes priority-based model and plan to design a vertical and horizontal scaling for maintaining the quality of service in our system. We also researched on the version control for the container images. To explore the feasibility of deploying containers in an IoT-enabled class system, we performed some initial experiments and observe the overall CPU and memory utilization of containers and container processing time with the sample benchmarks tasks provided in Sysbench repository for containers. Finally, we are almost at the end of writing an NSF proposal based on the current findings and future research.
Julie Olberding
Associate Professor of Public Administration
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice & Organizational Leadership
Converting Public Administration and Student Philanthropy Research into Scholarly Journal Articles
The Summer Fellowship supported the advancement of my research programs in public administration and student philanthropy. Specifically, it enabled me to prepare three manuscripts and submit them to peer-reviewed academic journals. One manuscript, which involved the work of two Master of Public Administration (MPA) students, explores local governments’ use of citizen engagement strategies – both traditional and technological – with attention to changes over the past 15 years. We submitted this manuscript to a journal focused on connecting the research and practice of public affairs. For the second manuscript, I worked with Dr. Megan Downing, assistant professor in NKU’s Organizational Leadership program, to study the expansion of student philanthropy into fully online classes. Formulating the concepts of “electronic student philanthropy” and “e-student philanthropy,” we analyzed data from hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students in online leadership classes. We submitted this manuscript to a journal dedicated to improving nonprofit education and leadership. The third manuscript examines the impacts of student philanthropy on social work students, particularly their interest in and preparation for careers in human service organizations. I developed this manuscript in partnership with Dr. Suk-hee Kim, assistant professor in NKU’s Master of Social Work (MSW) program, since this topic intersects our disciplines of social work and nonprofit management. We submitted the manuscript to a leading journal dedicated to research and practice in human service organizations. Based on extensive feedback from reviewers, we made revisions and resubmitted the manuscript, and we are optimistic it will be accepted for publication in the near future.
E. Kobena Osam
Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice & Organizational Leadership
An Integrative Literature Review on Employee Engagement in Higher Education
The purpose of this study was to collect and synthesize empirical research on faculty and staff engagement in higher education institutions. Within the past decade, employee engagement has become a workplace phenomenon of interest to management scholars and practitioners. During this period, several hundreds of research articles have been produced that discuss what employee engagement is, how to measure it, and its utility to both employer and employee. Unfortunately, the vast majority of this work is limited to for profit industries, with very little information about engagement in institutions of higher education. Accordingly, the purpose of this report was to provide an updated source of information on the study of engagement tin higher education. Using Torraco’s (2005) framework for integrative literature reviews, I conducted a structured search of engagement literature that yielded 22 relevant empirical studies. I then reviewed each of these articles and synthesized the information that culminated in the manuscript: An Integrative Review on Engagement in Higher Education. The main finding from this study is that there is a discrepancy between the narrative on faculty and staff and engagement, and raw data from this population that needs to be addressed. The narratives suggest that low engagement is a prevalent problem in higher education; however, mean scores from the studies reviewed indicate that faculty and staff have average to high levels of engagement. The manuscript is currently being finalized ahead of submission to the Academy of Human Resource Development Conference (deadline September 3, 2019). I hope to incorporate feedback from my peers at this conference and then submit it to Review of Educational Research, a blind peer review Journal that publishes conceptual articles on higher education.
David Raska
Associate Professor of Marketing
Department of Marketing, Economics, and Construction Management
Improving Student Retention and On-Time Graduation through Developing Character Strengths and Career-Readiness
The latest research suggests that one of the most important predictors of student retention and on-time graduation that is controlled by the faculty is student engagement. The purpose of the present pedagogical research project was to empirically test the effect of a breakthrough approach to teaching undergraduate courses and their impact on collegiate experiences designed to develop students’ character strengths (i.e., grit, self-control, gratitude, curiosity) and career readiness competencies (e.g., critical thinking, communication, career management) on student engagement. The results of this project were used to (a) our President about innovative, breakthrough, and scalable strategies for improving student engagement and success after graduation and (b) provide foundations for a scholarly manuscript that will inform academic community about innovative faculty-driven interventions for improving student engagement.
Tracy Songer
Assistant Professor of Communication
Department of Communication
The many voices of Gary Burbank: A daughter’s story about her dad who changed radio
This summer proved to be very productive thanks to the fellowship awarded by the benefits committee. As many creative projects go, what I applied for and what I ended up with aren’t exactly what I had anticipated. I am pleased to say though that this summer’s fellowship was spent digitizing and archiving reel to reel audio tape, shooting several interviews and capturing spontaneous footage on several trips with my father went off as planned. However, it is hard to get much work done on your creative project when your creative subject was focused on releasing his first ever audio podcast. While shooting for the documentary and going through archival footage, we ended up focusing on the release of 8 podcasts, each one hour in length, proposed to launch in December of 2019. After doing some informal research listening to countless “funny” podcasts, it’s clear that his sketch, satirical comedy is both timeless and needed. The documentary has a solid conclusion and the anticipated release date is on track for the spring of 2021. I truly believe that this story will entertain anyone in the Cincinnati area and nationally who listened to Gary Burbank and the many voices and personas that he takes brings to his listeners. My unique perspective as his daughter proves that those voices didn’t stop at home or after he retired. In fact, I’m not sure that any of his stories are true, but they sure are fun to listen to.
Katherina Nikzad-Terhune
Assistant Professor of Social Work
School of Social Work
Examining the Trauma Experiences of Dementia Caregivers
The Summer Faculty Fellowship allowed for the development of various elements of a new research study to explore the trauma experiences of dementia caregivers from two evaluative perspectives. Results from this study will help fill a gap in the dementia caregiving literature that has focused considerably less on the trauma experiences of caregivers compared to other commonly assessed endpoints (e.g., depression, caregiver burden). Results will also contribute to the trauma-informed care literature by providing valuable information specific to dementia caregivers. The work accomplished during the time frame of the Summer Faculty Fellowship included structuring a theoretical paper pertaining to trauma and caregiving that will serve as a foundational precursor to the data being collected for subsequent papers on the trauma experiences of dementia caregivers. Additionally, quantitative and qualitative measures were developed to utilize in the research study. These measures received peer-reviewed feedback from several professionals with expertise in this area of study. Data collection and analysis will occur during the fall 2019 semester. Additionally, during this time period, revisions were made to two manuscripts, both of which are now in full print in two different peer-reviewed journals (The Journal of Gerontological Social Work and Gerontology and Geriatrics Education). An abstract was written, submitted for review, and accepted for presentation at NKU’s Spotlight on Scholarship event (taking place in October 2019). Furthermore, an abstract was submitted, peer reviewed, and accepted for presentation at the annual Gerontological Society of America conference in Austin, TX in November 2019.
Robert Wilcox
Professor of History
Department of History and Geography
Agricultural Nationalism or “Imperial” Science? “El Sabio” Moisés S. Bertoni and Paraguayan Agricultural Development
My 2019 Summer Fellowship was combined with a Project Grant that facilitated my participation at an international conference in Brazil in July. Most of my time was spent in Asunción, Paraguay, where I researched the impact of Moisés S. Bertoni on agricultural science in the country, an important element in Paraguay’s economic development during the time period and beyond. Over the course of roughly three months of research and writing I visited several libraries and archives and read numerous writings by Bertoni that provided valuable information advancing my research. Besides Bertoni’s publications, which often were self-published and thus scattered among the archives, I also was able to begin the laborious task of going through his many letters and other communications found in the National Archive of Asunción (ANA). While I couldn’t go through everything over the summer, those I was able to access show a thoughtful, prolific and sometimes frustrated scientist who communicated with colleagues around the world. My intention was to evaluate how much Bertoni’s work was a product of European agricultural science or the result of autochthonous awareness and his own experience, and while more research is needed, I have reached the conclusion that he was a contradiction in following modern science of the day while also adopting indigenous knowledges and his own trial and error. This was reflected in the paper I delivered to the 3rd World Congress of Environmental History in Florianópolis, Brazil from July 22-26, 2019, entitled “Agricultural Nationalism or ‘Imperial’ Science? ‘El Sabio’ Moisés S. Bertoni and Paraguayan Agricultural Development”.
Lauren Williamson
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Establishment of a Research Lab
The faculty summer fellowship provided me the time to supervise six undergraduate students from NKU and establish my research lab at the university. We cared for lab organisms, including rats and beetles, and set up a rat breeding colony. We also processed tissue and collected data on microglial morphology after inflammation for an ongoing project. I mentored two Honors College capstone students, and they made significant progress on their capstone projects in my lab. It was a privilege to accomplish so much as a researcher and be funded throughout the summer.
Darrin Wilson
Assistant Professor of Public Administration
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice & Organizational Leadership
Local Economic Diversity and Fiscal Health of Local Governments
The study looked at the relationship between economic diversity and fiscal health of county governments between 2006-2011. The hypothesis is that county governments with a more diverse economic base will be in better fiscal health than counties with a less diverse economic base when we account for population size, political ideology, and general economic conditions.
Using financial data I collected from the Government Finance Officers’ Association, I calculated a fiscal health score, based on Brown’s Ten-Point Test (Brown, 1993), for 340 counties in the United States. Additionally, I calculated a Herfindahl-Hirschman Index score for each county based on the annual wage data for eleven top NAICS industries. Finally, I also collected the annual unemployment rate, Presidential voting percentages, annual estimated population, and the type of primary taxation used by the county government. In total, there were six variables used for 340 counties, over a course of six years, resulting in 12,240 individual data points.
According to the analysis, economic diversity had no statistical significance on the fiscal health of the county governments. The manuscript was written during the fellowship and is currently under review at Review of Regional Studies.
Justin Yates
Associate Professor of Psychological Science
Department of Psychological Science
The role of the glutamate NMDA receptor in risky decision making
We wanted to further determine the role of the glutamate NMDA receptor in risky decision making. We conducted a pilot experiment in which we tested 12 male Sprague Dawley rats in the risky decision task (RDT). In the RDT, animals chose between a small, safe reward and a large, risky reward. In this case, the risk associated with the large reward was a mild foot shock. In the RDT, the probability of receiving a foot shock increased across the session (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%). Because we are interested in determining how the NMDA receptor alters risky choice, we wanted to use a shock intensity that did not produce ceiling or floor effects on responding. In other words, we did not want to use a shock intensity that was too low, such that animals always chose the large reward. Conversely, we did not want to use a shock intensity that was too high, such that animals always chose the small, safe reward. To do this, we adjusted the shock intensity for each individual subject. We have recently begun injecting some of the subjects with the NMDA receptor drug MK-801. Depending on the results we obtain with MK-801, we may inject animals with the drug Ro 63-1908. We hope to submit a manuscript containing these data by the end of the Fall 2019 semester.
Joe Cobbs
Associate Professor of Sports Business and Event Management
Department of Marketing, Sports Business, and Construction Management
Extending Rivalry Research Beyond North America
The concept of rivalry is universal, yet comparative analyses of rivalries across cultures are practically non-existent. Rivalry is important to study because of its propensity to produce both positive and negative outcomes within and beyond sports. My sabbatical and associated project grant facilitated an extended stay of over two months in Australia and New Zealand, where I was able to absorb the sporting culture and commerce firsthand, while also visiting universities and conversing with faculty, students, sports fans and administrators. Until this sabbatical project, I had been successful in presenting and publishing research that analyzed rivalry in North America. As a direct result of this project, I have been able to collect qualitative and quantitative data on sports fans’ and administrators’ perspectives of rivalry in Australia and India. So far, this effort has led to a conference presentation at the World Association for Sport Management in Santiago, Chile. The data collection is ongoing in additional countries and once completed, this international project will result in multiple journal manuscripts. Furthermore, the sabbatical leave provided the space to complete the final two (of nine total) manuscripts based on the comprehensive rivalry data collection in the US and Canada. These two papers were both accepted and are now in-press at highly respected journals. Finally, the project also produced a wealth of additional course content for SPB 200: Rivalry and Ritual in International Sport, which is a class I developed and lead each semester within NKU’s Foundation of Knowledge requirements (i.e., GenEd).
Trent Garrison
Assistant Professor of Environmental Geology
Department of Physics, Geology, and Engineering Technology
Measuring groundwater travel time more accurately
Dye traces are often performed to identify sinkhole-to-spring connections, delineate groundwater basins, detect leaks, as well as to measure the direction of groundwater travel. Calculating precise dye travel time is only sometimes achieved, due to the limitations of sampling devices. In this study, a new device is introduced to detect more accurate times of travel. As a precursor to this study, in the fall of 2015, a dye trace was performed during high flow conditions in the Middle Ordovician karst of Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky in order to measure ground water time of travel between the Campbell House Sinkhole, McConnell Springs, and Preston’s Cave Spring. Using traditional sampling methods at 3 hour intervals, dye appeared in the samples collected 6 hours after injection, and peaked 3 hours later. The purpose of this project is to replicate that study in similar flow conditions using a newly available infrared probe. This probe is capable of collecting in-situ measurements of dye presence, as well as temperature measurements, at one-minute intervals. The paper that is in review will discuss efficacy of the device in more detail, but, in short, the probe performed according to specifications after some troubleshooting. Dye appeared 3.0 hours after deployment on June 18th, decreased, then peaked at 1,200ppb on June 19th, yielding a first-arrival time of travel of 17.88 cm/sec (2,112 ft/hr). A more accurate picture of dye traveling through the system is gleaned from sampling at these intervals.
Wei Hao
Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
Building Better Mobile Apps Using the Cloud
Mobile devices are changing the way people live, the way people work, the way people learn, and the way people play. However mobile devices have substantially less hardware resources than a traditional computer. They have low computing capacity, limited storage capacity, low network bandwidth and limited battery life. Cloud computing is an emerging computation paradigm and powerful hardware resources are available in the cloud. Computation offloading from mobile devices to the cloud would address the issue of limited capabilities of mobile devices. Computation offloading can result in: (1) lower mobile device CPU utilization; (2) fewer network requests; (3) more available storage space; (4) longer battery life of mobile device; (5) more responsive mobile user interface. I worked with three NKU students (2 undergraduate students and 1 graduate student) on this project. We proposed a new framework to facilitate computation offloading from the mobile device to the cloud. We used Amazon cloud technologies, such as serverless computing and edge computing, and implemented the framework in the Amazon cloud. We conducted our tests on both Android devices and iOS devices. The test results show that the cloud can improve mobile app performance and save energy for mobile devices. Based on the project findings, three students presented the following three posters at NKU’s Celebration of Student Research and Heather Bullen Summer Research Celebration in 2019. I believe the new knowledge will help me develop new topics and assignments for my cloud computing courses to keep them cutting-edge.
Zachary Hart
Professor of Public Relations
Department of Communication
Sensemaking among parents of children with disabilities
During the Spring 2019 semester, I was very fortunate to be awarded a return to faculty leave after serving as Department of Communication chair from 2010-11; 2012-18. During the Fall 2018 semester, I also was fortunate to be awarded a research sabbatical. In terms of sabbatical related work, also funded by a university faculty project grant, I was able to complete the following activities:
1. Monday, February 11: Focus group at Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati
2. Monday, February 18: Focus group at NKU
3. Transcription of all focus group interviews completed by end of February
4. Preliminary analysis of themes from focus group interviews completed during March and April
5. Meeting with Dr. Monica Schneider, a Miami University political science professor, who is conducting research on the political identity of parents of children with disabilities
6. Preliminary draft of theory article based on literature review completed in May; now preparing for publication submission
7. Began preliminary work on data article based on results from sabbatical study
8. Submission of abstract to present sabbatical work at the 2019 NKU Spotlight on Scholarship
9. Poster presentation of preliminary results from sabbatical study at the DC Health Communication Conference (Thursday, April 25-Saturday, April 27)
Jessica Kratzer
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
Department of Communication
The Use of Humor to Communicate About Postpartum Problems
The goal proposed for this project was to explore how women use humor to communicate about their postpartum physical and mental problems. Expanding our knowledge of how women start conversations about taboo topics related to postpartum problems may help reduce the stigma related to these issues. I explored the type of humor used and why women choose to use humor as a way to communicate about their postpartum problems. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze transcripts of participant interviews. Three major themes emerged: the use of meta-humor, relief humor, and using humor to talk about dark thoughts/experiences.
There were three important outcomes of this project. First, I recruited 25 women to discuss their postpartum physical and mental problems. These women were very open about their experiences related to both their physical and/or mental postpartum problems. I completed a full paper that will be submitted to the Central States Communication Association annual convention for presentation in April 2020. New information related to using humor as a mechanism for talking about post-partum problems was discovered through this project, which has yet to be published in any literature reviewed for this project.
Tonya Krouse and Tamara F. O'Callaghan
Professors of English
Department of English
Introducing English Studies: Editing, Indexing, and Ancillary Materials
The Faculty Project Grant for Introducing English Studies: Editing, Indexing, and Ancillary Materials, which covered the period of May 2018 to July 2019, enabled coauthors Dr. Tonya Krouse and Dr. Tamara F. O’Callaghan to hire three undergraduate students — Danielle Heiert, Enrica Jackson, and Rachel Sizemore — to assist in the revision, copyediting, and proofreading of the textbook Introducing English Studies (forthcoming from Bloomsbury Publishing in January 2020). The generosity of the Faculty Project Grant facilitated the creation of an accessible, discipline-shaping intervention in the way that professors teach and students learn the broad range of practices, concerns, controversies, and fields of knowledge included in English Studies. The textbook is the first of its kind and has no direct competition in the English textbook market. It includes the following chapters: History of the English Language; Linguistics; Literature; Cinema, Popular Culture, and New Media; Rhetoric and Composition; Creative Writing; Professional Writing and Technical Communication; Critical Theory; English Education; and English Studies in the Digital Age. Goals for this project grant included delivery of the final, revised and edited manuscript, including glossary and index, to Bloomsbury Publishing; completing ancillary materials for the textbook’s website; providing undergraduates with résumé-building, applied work experience using the professional skills of English Studies. All goals were achieved.
Marc Leone
Associate Professor of Visual Arts
School of the Arts - Visual Arts Program
Greater Speed in Rendering Drawing Instruction Videos
The goal of this project was to provide superior speed in editing and rendering of high definition 4K instructional drawing videos with the purchase of an iMac Pro. I am happy to report that this was accomplished. A great amount of time is wasted monitoring the rendering process as current technology renders slowly (5hrs to 6hrs for every 1hr to 2hrs of video footage). The average duration of one of my videos is 1 hour 25 minutes and rendering lasts from five to six hours. Faster and more efficient rendering will lead to greater productivity and more ease in creating longer, richer, and deeper content. The iMac Pro was the missing puzzle piece I needed. It renders videos quickly, smoothly and with great efficiency. Crucially, the criteria used to evaluate this project was to clearly understand that the iMac Pro will free up vast amounts of time to be spent in more efficient, creative, and instructional pursuits. Thus, time will equal greater depth and growth of the Drawing Database. Three areas of context that can be used to assess this project (purchase and use of tool): • Time Savings-By how much can I be freed from monitoring the rendering of a video? Four to 5 hours per video? • Productivity-By how much more can I be productive in terms of creating deeper, richer content for the videos, while not having to monitor rendering? • Growth-By how much more can time savings and productivity increase greater viewership, subscribers, and retention of both? In all cases of the determined criteria, the iMac Pro exceeded expectations.
Bridget Nichols
Associate Professor of Marketing and Sports Business
Aron Levin
Professor of Marketing
Department of Marketing, Sports Business & Event Management, and Construction Management
Using Eye Tracking Technology to Examine the Effects of Front of Package (FOP) Nutrition Information on Perceptions of Food Healthiness and Taste – A Study of the Millennial Consumer
Completed Project Goals
The purpose of this project was to investigate how millennial-aged consumers interpret front of package (FOP) nutrition information. The project activities included purchasing and training on eye-tracking/heart rate monitor software & hardware, study design and planning, participant recruitment, and data analysis. The project grant funding primarily supported the purchase of the eye-tracking equipment (GP3 150Hz HD; $4,500) and participant incentives ($10 per completed session). The project concluded with an online sample of over 200 consumers (pre-test and manipulation checks) and a student-sample of about 85.
From this data, we conducted a rigorous study using the eye tracker and heart rate monitor, whereby we tested whether or not adding a positive nutrient to the required “nutrients to limit” (negative nutrients) would influence perceptions of food taste, food healthiness, and purchase interest – while indicating how much visual attention is paid to the nutrient information. The main goals achieved to date are 1) a white paper has been written with the preliminary findings and 2) a conference paper is currently being drafted with a submission planned for January 2020 to the American Marketing Association’s Summer Educator’s conference (the most prestigious marketing conference). We are collecting additional data and conducting further analysis in order to complete the journal submission draft.
Ellen Maddin
Associate Professor of Educational Technology
Department of Teacher Education
Using Digital Storytelling to Understand Teachers’ Perspectives on Technology Integration
This project grant allowed me to purchase digital recording equipment for a qualitative research study that examined barriers and supports for teaching with technology as viewed from the perspectives of ten high school teachers representing various disciplines in two suburban school districts in Kentucky and Ohio. The deliverables for the project grant were the video interview guide, the study IRB proposal, and the digital stories created through the research project. Additionally, the project grant allowed me to enhance my skill in videography and digital storytelling through participation in a self-paced MOOC, Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling. With permission from study participants, I used excerpts from the video interviews to create a collection of digital stories that captured teachers’ experiences and viewpoints about integrating technology. Collaborative web-based software allowed participants to co-develop their digital stories. The digital stories I produced as a result of this project provide insight into the barriers and supporting conditions that influence teachers’ uses of technology for instruction. The project benefits the educational community by allowing the voices of teachers to be heard. This work will lead to future collaborations through a special topics course on digital storytelling to be offered during the summer of 2020.
Kevin Meunte
Professor of Art
School of the Arts – Visual Arts Program
A Figure Painting Workshop with Tony Ryder
Summer 2019
This was a two week figure painting workshop held at the Bay Area Classical Atelier with artist Tony Ryder. During this workshop, he would demonstrate each morning and we would paint in the afternoons. His process of painting is slow and methodical using tiny brushes to capture every nuance of the human form. We worked from life, painting a nude model with north light, and this is the longest pose I've ever painted. I learned more about my paints, colors and how to perceive how light falls on the figure. Since the workshop, I have made alterations to this painting technique to suit my own way of painting and am continuing to find a happy balance.
I also believe in being a life-long learner. As a student in the class, I tried to look at the workshop from the perspective of a student learning new things, and also how I would deliver the material if I was the instructor. I believe this type of participation in my own learning helps me be more empathetic to the diversity of learning styles in my own students as well as offering multiple/various ways of delivering course content in my own classes.
Cory Scheadler
Associate Professor of Exercise Science
School of Kinesiology, Counseling, and Rehabilitative Sciences
Perceived and Heart Rate-based Intensities during Self-paced Walking: Magnitudes and Comparison
The work completed as part of the Faculty Senate Benefits Committee Project Grant has included several important components. A significant amount of time was able to be put into completing participant recruitment and over ninety hours of data collection on an IRB approved human subjects research project. Thirty participants each completed three days of testing, each requiring physical activity and at least thirty minutes of their time. Funds were available to reimburse subjects in order to get a good population sample. Funds also allowed for necessary equipment to be purchased. Track walking data was analyzed, and software was updated to improve the response of a self-pacing treadmill to better support walking exercise. Data and statistical analysis of the treadmill and track walking was completed. One manuscript, titled Perceived and Heart Rate-based Intensities during Self-paced Walking: Magnitudes and Comparison, is completed and under review for publication in a scientific, peer-reviewed journal. Another manuscript, currently titled Self-paced Walking: Comparison of Track and Automated Treadmill Modalities, is still in preparation. Importantly, two undergraduates in the Kinesiology & Health Department were actively involved in the recruitment and data collection and data analysis. One of these students used data to complete her Honors Capstone project. The other student analyzed data and presented at the Celebration of Student Research and Creativity with a poster titled Analyzing the Accuracy of a 6 Minute Walk Test Equation. The project grant allowed me to execute the research project and begin dissemination of our findings which is important for myself and students as well.
Hans Schellhas
Associate Professor of Visual Arts
School of the Arts - Visual Arts Program
Post-Republik Short Film
Post-Republik is a 20-minute experimental art film that is innovative in exploring new approaches to traditional narrative-based film making. By integrating animated motion graphics into the storyline, this avant-garde work investigates how motion design can play a role as a visual theme, effect meaning and enhance the sensory experience. The creation of this film included more than 14 NKU students and alumni, whose contributions ranged from acting, set design, videography, field production, 3D modeling/animation, motion graphics and general post-production. Post-Republik was selected and/or won awards in numerous film festivals and art venues including STIFF (Seattle Transmedia and Independent Film Festival), 9th Arts Festival of Miami, Veritas Film Festival and won “Best Visual Effects” at the Berlin Underground Film Festival. Not only did this film expand mine and the student’s learning and technical boundaries, but it has contributed to expanding the methods and media used in the advanced-level motion design course. Furthermore, the accomplishments garnered from Post-Repubik’s film festival run bolsters the students’, as well as my own, professional achievements. Students have been able to incorporate the design work performed on this film into their professional portfolio to help them achieve paid internships and full-time positions in the visual communication design industry.
Emily Shifley
Assistant Professor of Biological Science
Department of Biological Sciences
The role of Iroquois genes during craniofacial development
I appreciate the support from the Faculty Senate Project Grant on my research titled “The role of Iroquois genes during craniofacial development.” There are a number of birth defects with craniofacial malformations that affect humans and we do not know the causes behind each of these different syndromes. My research lab uses Xenopus frogs as model organisms for vertebrate embryos to study developmental biology. Specifically we study a region of the embryo called the pharynx which gives rise to craniofacial features of the face and neck. We are interested in understanding how different genes help guide the proper development of these structures in the early embryo. We identified the Iroquois family of genes as potential regulators of the development of the pharynx and were able to show that these genes are necessary for proper development of the pharynx. When we removed the Iroquois genes from developing Xenopus embryos, we saw changes in gene expression and craniofacial defects in the resulting tadpoles. The completed goal of this project was to understand the role of the Iroquois genes, which adds to our knowledge about the genetic signaling cascades that control craniofacial development. In addition, we generated preliminary data which we used in a resubmission of an external grant to the NIH. A secondary goal was to involve undergraduates in research. Three NKU undergraduate students worked on this research project helping perform experiments, gaining useful research experiences in developmental biology techniques, and disseminating their results with poster presentations at scientific conferences.
Jamey Strawn
Professor of Theatre and Dance
School of the Arts - Theatre and Dance Program
Orchestrating and Recording Sleeping Beauty
Along with Ken and Christine Jones, I was commissioned by the Cincinnati Children’s theatre to write a musical version of Sleeping Beauty for their 2018-2019 season. The purpose of this project grant was to create orchestrations and a recording of the music for the musical. I am pleased to report the success of the project. While the original plan was to generate orchestrations in the fall of 2018, I delayed writing orchestrations until after all story and music revisions we made during the rehearsal process. Finishing orchestrations just in time for the world premiere in April 2019, I then had a two week period to tweak the orchestrations while we were in production at the Taft. The production ran 17 performances and was seen by 20,000+ patrons. Immediately following the production, we recorded the cast and musicians at the CCM recording studio. The Studio Recording was completed in mid-May and will serve as a demo recording and optional accompaniment tracks for future productions of the musical. The cast and musicians included 3 current NKU students, 4 NKU alumni, and 3 High School Students that have since auditioned for the Theatre and Dance Program. For these students, the opportunity to experience and participate in the process of creating a studio recording is incredibly valuable and provides a vital example of experiential learning and partnering with a professional theatre company.
Christopher Strobel
Professor of Electronic Media and Broadcasting
Department of Communication
Video Examples for EMB 140
My 2018 summer fellowship and project grant provided the time and funding to create video examples for use in our EMB 140 Introduction to Media Aesthetics class. Envisioned as a tool to serve the lecture portion of our foundational course, the media created through the fellowship and grant consists of two conceptual pieces. The featured video, a short scene entitled Lemons, focuses upon three friends discussing a farcical encounter at a grocery store. This scene, shot and edited in a traditional cinema style, is augmented with alternative selections of footage that utilize aesthetic principles not included in the primary edit. It is the availability of these alternatives - angles, lens choices, framings, audio qualities, editing style, and camera support - that provides the opportunity for our students to visualize each as a legitimate choice in the mediated storytelling experience and then to evaluate the effectiveness of those options. Being able to experience the difference that each option provides should help to clarify the educational experience for our media production students as they begin their academic careers.
Erin Strome
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Detecting Phenotypic Changes Due to Mutations in the SAM1 and SAM2 genes
Cancer geneticists seek to identify all gene mutations that result in higher incidences of cancer. Broadly, genes are the carriers of our genetic information and the regions of our DNA that encode functional products. Mutations can cause complete loss or alteration of these functional products. Our lab has identified two genes called SAM1 and SAM2, which when mutated cause destabilization of the cell’s genome (its full set of genetic material). This destabilization is often a first step in cancer development. For cells to become cancerous they must find ways to avoid their normal instructions. When a cell’s genome is destabilized bits of information (DNA) can be gained or lost. It would be as if you are reading a set of instructions for furniture construction and several steps are missing or are included a second time. This destabilized set of instructions will most likely result in a destabilized piece of furniture and the same holds true for our cells. While we have determined that SAM1 and SAM2 mutations lead to destabilization, we do not know how. This project sought to investigate what is different in SAM1 and SAM2 mutant cells that may be causing this destabilization. We have now identified ~250 different conditions with altered growth of these mutants and this will aid in our full understanding of all the cellular changes present in these cells.
David Thompson
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Sex-Specific Gene Expression Associated with Zinc Metabolism in Squirrelfish
Squirrelfish constitute a fantastic system to study zinc metabolism because females accumulate zinc in their livers at concentrations greater than any other studied vertebrate, including male squirrelfish. This zinc hyperaccumulation appears to be initiated by the high capacity of female squirrelfish to absorb zinc in the intestine. Once the zinc reaches the liver it is shuttled to the eggs of the ovary to support embryonic development. Cellular zinc transport is primarily governed by the ZIP and ZnT families of zinc transporters, and so the goal of this project was to examine the hypothesis that zinc hyperaccumulation in female squirrelfish is accomplished via the differential expression of zinc transporters between the sexes due to reproductive status. Tissue samples from male and female squirrelfish collected in the Florida Keys were obtained during reproductively inactive (June) and active (November) periods to allow for comparisons of zinc transporter expression. Of note, ZIP4 expression was significantly increased in the intestines of reproductively active females. This is interesting as the ZIP4 transporter is necessary for intestinal zinc uptake in vertebrates. Also of note, ZnT2 and ZnT8 were upregulated in the livers of reproductively active females. ZnT2 and ZnT8 are well-known vesicular transporters, such as with the transport of zinc into insulin secretory vesicles. These results suggest that the capacity of female squirrelfish to preferentially uptake, hyperaccumulate, and transport zinc during reproduction occurs due to an increase in zinc transporter expression. It will be interesting to explore the possibility that the observed upregulation of Zn transporters in female squirrelfish is under hormonal control.
Mauricio Torres
Associate Professor of Engineering Technology
Morteza Sadat-Hossieny
Professor of Engineering Technology
Gang Sun
Assistant Professor of Engineering Technology
Department of Physics, Geology, and Engineering Technology
Installation of a Kawasaki ZB150 Industrial Robot
During the 2018-2019 AY, a project grant in the amount of $6,000.00 was awarded to faculty members of the Engineering technology programs to install and commission a Kawasaki ZB150 industrial robot donated by Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America during the Fall of 2016. An industrial robot is a programmable device used in industrial automation, capable of executing certain tasks through movement in three axes. Typical applications are assembling, welding, painting and material handling. Its ability to perform repetitive tasks consistently have freed human operators from tedious and often hazardous jobs. In today’s automated manufacturing environment, robots play important roles and are one of the key components of flexible manufacturing. Incorporating robotics in the curriculum as one of the fundamental aspects of an automated cell is a key subject in mechanical and manufacturing and/or mechatronics programs. This project would provide our students the opportunity to build and program a flexible manufacturing cell at NKU. Working on this project, students can program robots and interface them with other automated devices through the use of PLCs (Programmable Logic Controls) and/or microcontrollers. The project will also allow our MMET, EEET, and MET students to work together on a common project, similar to what is done in industry.
Robert Wilcox
Professor of History
Department of History and Geography
Agricultural Nationalism or Imperial Science?
My 2019 Project Grant was combined with a Summer Fellowship that allowed me to research in Asunción, Paraguay. The Project Grant facilitated my participation at an international conference in Brazil. In Paraguay, I researched the impact of Moisés S. Bertoni on agricultural science in the country, an important element in Paraguay’s economic development during the time period and beyond. Over the course of roughly three months of research and writing, I visited several libraries and archives and read numerous writings by Bertoni that provided valuable information advancing my research. Besides Bertoni’s publications, I also was able to begin the laborious task of going through his many letters and other communications found in the National Archive of Asunción (ANA). My intention was to evaluate how much of Bertoni’s work was a product of European agricultural science or the consequence of autochthonous experience and his own trial and error. The result was a paper entitled “Agricultural Nationalism or ‘Imperial’ Science? ‘El Sabio’ Moisés S. Bertoni and Paraguayan Agricultural Development” presented as part of the panel, Science, Biodiversity and Natural Resources: the agricultural frontier in the Americas, at the 3rd World Congress of Environmental History in Florianópolis, Brazil from July 22-26, 2019. The organizer of the panel, Sandro Dutra e Silva, has indicated that he hopes to publish our papers in a highly-respected Brazilian journal in the near future. I also chaired another panel on development in the Amazon from the 1960s, and during the congress was able to renew and make new contacts/friendships with scholars from around the world.
Justin Yates
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Understanding the neurobiology of substance use disorders
We determined if the drug Ro 63-1908 is capable of attenuating the conditioned rewarding effects of methamphetamine in male and/or female rats. We tested a total of 84 rats (male = 48; female = 36) in a 10-day conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. In CPP, animals learn to associate a specific environmental context with a stimulus (in this case, methamphetamine). Two different experiments were conducted. For each experiment, the general premise was the same. On the first session (pretest), all rats were allowed to explore all three compartments of the CPP apparatus. For eight sessions, rats received an injection of methamphetamine (1.0 mg/kg) before being placed in one of the CPP compartments. On alternating days, rats received an injection of saline before being placed in a different CPP compartment. On the final session (posttest), rats were allowed to explore all three compartments. In Experiment 1, rats received injections of Ro 63-1908 (0, 1.0, 3.0 mg/kg for males; 0, 3.0, 10.0 mg/kg for females) 30 minutes before receiving an injection of methamphetamine (1.0 mg/kg). On alternating days, rats received an injection of vehicle (1.0 ml/kg) before receiving an injection of saline (1.0 ml/kg). In Experiment 2, rats received an injection of Ro 63-1908 (0, 1.0, 3.0, 10.0 mg/kg for males; 0, 3.0, 10.0 mg/kg for females) 30 minutes before the posttest. Results showed that Ro 63-1908 (3.0 mg/kg) impaired the ability of males, but not females, to learn the association between methamphetamine and a distinct environmental context.
