Kristin Bloomer, Assistant Professor of Religion, has been awarded two grants for her research project “Possessed by Mary: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Marian Spirit Possession in Contemporary Tamil Nadu, S. India,” a book-length ethnography, grounded in the interpretive traditions of the history of religions, which follows the lives of three Roman Catholic women in south India – differing in caste, class, and geographic backgrounds – who claim to be possessed by Mary, the mother of Jesus. The book will offer new perspectives on Marian spirit possession, religious syncretism (especially of Christians and Hindus), and gender and power in contemporary Tamil Nadu, challenging the normative stereotypes promulgated in anthropology and the study of religions.

*The Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School will appoint Professor Bloomer as a research associate and visiting faculty member and provide $58,000 in stipend and expenses for work there during the 2012-2013 academic year. (Along with Associate Professor Lori Pearson, Assistant Professor Bloomer is the second Carleton faculty member to receive a fellowship from the Harvard Divinity School's Women’s Studies in Religion Program. The program chose five scholars from an international pool of candidates: two were from Carleton.)

*An American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship of $35,000 will support final research and writing in 2013.

Lori Pearson, Associate Professor of Religion, has been awarded a research associate and visiting faculty residency for 2012-13, in the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School. Support of $58,000 in stipend and expenses for the book project “Sexuality and Social Order” enables Professor Pearson to focus on Marianne Weber (wife of sociologist Max Weber) and explore the ways in which cultural and political debates about women’s rights informed early 20th-century theories of religion, social order, and secularization.

Along with Assistant Professor Kristin Bloomer, Associate Professor Pearson is the second Carleton faculty member to receive a fellowship from the Harvard Divinity School’s Women’s Studies in Religion Program. The program chose five scholars from an international pool of candidates: two were from Carleton.

In February 2012, Assistant Professor of Geology Sarah Titus received a prestigious CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a five-year research project on oceanic fault lines. The $418,891 grant will enable Titus to undertake field work at three unique locations where oceanic “transform faults” are exposed above sea level: New Caledonia (in the south Pacific), Cyprus, and Iceland. This field work will feed into an elaborate and groundbreaking effort to quantitatively model the faults.

Titus’ project is notable in its emphasis on student participation. The structure of her project, with multiple field sites, tools, and computational components, lends itself naturally to the involvement of up to 20 undergraduate researchers over the five-year period. Additionally, summer camps about the local geology will be run twice for girls of about 13-15 years old - the age at which research suggests girls lose interest in science as a possible career.

The NSF’s CAREER program supports exceptional junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent teaching, and the integration of teaching and research.

George Vrtis, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and History, and Chris Wells of Macalester College received a $102,522 grant from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund to support their research on Minnesota's environmental history. The grant will support a conference on the topic scheduled for June 2012 at the Minnesota Historical Society and the editing of a book based on the conference papers and other solicited essays.

Gao Hong Dice, Lecturer in Chinese Musical Instruments, received two grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

An Arts Tour Minnesota grant of $12,200 supports Hong’s performances – solo and with her group, Butterfly – of Chinese Music from the Ancient Past to Modern Times. She will also lecture in several classes at Concordia College, College of Saint Benedict, and Saint John's University.

The Folk and Traditional Arts grant of $24,700 supports Gao in preserving and sharing Chinese temple music through community outreach activities and stage performances at several venues in Northfield, Saint Paul, and Minneapolis. See more of Gao’s activities at her home page.

Maureen Jackson, ACLS New Faculty Fellow in Middle Eastern Languages, has received a Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica for the 2013 spring semester at Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies. The fellowship enables Professor Jackson to conduct and share research on the Center's 2012-2013 theme of “Music in Jewish Life.”

Marty Baylor, Assistant Professor of Physics, received funding from the University of Minnesota Material Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) to characterize a photosensitive polymer used in her opto-fluidics research. The funds from the Materials Research Facilities Network (MRFN, a nationwide partnership of NSF supported MRSEC centers) supported instrument usage fees and travel costs for Professor Baylor and a student researcher.

Cam Davidson, Professor of Geology, received funding from the NSF/Keck Geology Consortium, for collaborative work with John Garver at Union College and four undergraduate researchers. The project “South-Central Alaska- Tectonic evolution of the flysch of the Chugach terrane” supports field work in summer 2012, and is a continuation of their 2011 summer project.

Dani Kohen, Associate Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded a Petroleum Research Fund grant of $65,000 for her project “Atomistic Simulations of Small Molecules’ Behavior within A1 Substituted Zeolites.” Professor Kohen’s research aims to understand and characterize at the molecular level how carbon dioxide and other small gas molecules behave in pores of molecular sieves. The work, which involves undergraduate researchers, is centered on materials that might be used to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and on materials useful to other industrial processes. Learn more about Dani at her web page.

In September 2011 Nidanie Henderson was awarded $200,000 from the National Science Foundation Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Division for her project “RIG: Biochemical and structural studies of the Bcr multienzyme polypeptide.” Her research looks at the role of enzymatic protein kinases as regulators of cell signaling, and involves underrepresented undergraduate researchers.

In late summer 2011, Carleton’s Science Education Resource Center (SERC) received a $97,751 subaward from Highline Community College for the project “Collaborative Research: Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education at Two-Year Colleges through Workshops and Web Resources.”

Additionally SERC was awarded $41,388 in funding for a collaborative project with Purdue University “Collaborative Research: Cyber Enabled Data and Modeling Driven Curriculum Modules for Hydrology Education.”

Sarah Titus, Professor of Geology, was awarded a $74,502 grant from National Science Foundation EAR Tectonics division for her project “Differential geometry and statistics of deformation tensors.” With Basil Tikoff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor Titus will explore a new conceptual framework for the analysis of naturally occurring rock deformation. The project applies mathematical techniques of Lie groups and Lie algebras to a series of geological examples, with the aid of Josh Davis who is transitioning from pure math towards more applied science applications.