Past Research Themes
In 2020, ISLA established yearly grant competitions that focus on particular research themes of timely importance to society. This competition is open to students enrolled in Ph.D., DMA, and MFA programs as well as all regular faculty members with a primary appointment in the College of Arts and Letters. This page contains information about our previous themes, including the people and projects that were funded.
Research Theme for AY 2022-2023: The Connected World
The ongoing pandemic, climate change, and global ramifications of the war in Ukraine have brought the interconnectedness of our world into stark relief. Yet, at a moment when our shared destiny has become radically apparent and technology connects humanity in unprecedented ways, various interrelated crises still threaten to rupture the connections holding our society together. This year, ISLA aims to foster deep analysis of the interconnectedness of social, cultural, political, and economic life around the globe.
Graduate Student Projects
Miguel Blacutt, Psychology, The Global Suicide Crisis: Assessing Individual- and Country-Level Predictors of Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors
Kevin Bustamante, Political Science, Merze Tate and the Promise of Antiracist Realism
Melissa Coles, History, Layered Holiness at Indigenous-Catholic Pilgrimage Sites: El Santuario de Chimayo and Lac Ste. Anne
Eduardo Dawson, History, African Conversions: The Catholic Experience of Blacks in Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century Cartagena and Lima
Rasheed Ibrahim, Political Science, Foreign Actors and Globalization in Africa: A Study of Youth Perceptions
Inha Park, Romance Languages and Literatures, Forging Coree in Northern Italy: Italian Poetics of Korea in the Cold War
Jacob Swisher, History, Precious Things: A Planetary History of an Early American Borderland
Faculty Projects
Scott Barton, Africana Studies, Feeding the Gods and the People: Sacred Nagô Culinary Culture in Northeastern Brazil
Gerald Haeffel, Psychology, Measuring Cognitive Risk for Depression in North America, Europe, and Africa
Victoria Tin-bor Hui, Political Science, Narrative Justice for Hong Kong When All is Lost
Chante Mouton Kinyon, English, The Transatlantic Gesture: The Irish and African American Cultural Exchange
Michael Schreffler, Art, Art History, and Design, Architecture of the Spanish World
Elyse Speaks, Art, Art History, and Design, Interconnections: Contemporary Art and the Everyday
Research Theme for AY 2021-2022: A Time to Heal
The COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 US presidential election, horrific recent acts of violence against BIPOC and other marginalized groups, and the pall of climate change have brought striking physical, emotional, and mental pain to the lives of millions of people. How shall we respond to this pain? In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis stated “There are only two kinds of people: those who care for someone who is hurting and those who pass by; those who bend down to help and those who look the other way and hurry off” and he then pointed asked “Will we bend down to touch and heal the wounds of others?” His question is a pointed call to healing to which we must all rise but, healing is rarely a straightforward process. ISLA seeks to facilitate scholarly engagement with the question of what it means to heal, and how healing occurs across individuals, cultures, geographies, and periods of time.
Graduate Student Projects
Natalia Salamanca Balen -- Hope and Healing: Initial Analysis of a New Integrative Theory of Hope
Anna Gabur -- Empathy: A Sociological Approach
Helal Khan -- Peace While in a Pandemic: Healing and Well-being Activities by Rohingya Refugees during the COVID 19 Pandemic in the US Midwest
Alyssa Paylor -- Who Needs to Heal? Reconciliation in Contexts of Oppression and Violence
Jacob Turner -- How Citizens meet the State: Origins of Institutional Trust in South Bend, IN
Faculty Projects
Alex Chavez -- Sonorous Present
Melissa Miller -- Doctors as Storytellers: Narrative Medicine during the Russian Revolution
Emilia Justyna Powell -- Islam in Small Communities
Luis Schiumerini -- Class and Affective Polarization
Aidan Seale-Feldman -- Is Another Psychiatry Possible? Healing and the Politics of Psychedelic Medicine
Sophie White -- “His Master’s Grace”: Extrajudicial Violence, Punishment, and Mercy in French Slave Societies
Research Theme for AY 2020-2021: Race and Ethnicity in the United States
The global COVID pandemic, disturbing instances of police violence, political polarization, and protests across the country and around the world brought discussions of racism and racial/ethnic inequality into the national conversation in a way not seen since the civil rights era. Informed by Notre Dame’s mission to be a powerful force for good, ISLA sought to facilitate student and faculty engagement with questions raised by these events and the longer histories that inform them by sponsoring new scholarship that explored race and ethnicity in the United States. Such work is vital to developing a deeper understanding of our society and how we can make it more just.
Graduate Student Projects
Roger Cadena, Sociology — #HispanicsforTrump: Identity, Racialization, and the Paradox of Hispanic Republicans?
Hades Chavanne, English — The Nikole Hannah-Jones Community Resource Library
Melissa Coles, History — Segmenting Landscape: Indigenous and Catholic Spaces, 1930-1954
Sara Judy, English — “We assume a sovereignty ourselves”: Reimagining the Prophet in Gwendolyn Brooks’ Protest Poetry
Oliver Ortega, English — Critical Representations of Education and the American Dream in Latinx Literature
Monica Perez, Psychology — Past, Present, and Future: An Examination of Stress, Coping, and Well-Being across Generations of Latinas with Doctoral Degrees
Faculty Projects
Clinton Carlson, Art, Art History, and Design — Community Activated Design: Fostering Sustainable, Adaptable, and Community-led Restorative Justice Practices
Tracie Canada, Anthropology — Integrating Tobacco Road Football, 1965-1975
Ying Cheng, Psychology — Testing Experiences of Students and Instructors during COVID-19: Issues of Equity, Validity, and Mode Effects of Online and Remote Testing
Korey Garibaldi, American Studies and Emily Wang, German and Russian Languages and Literatures — Reconsidering Race in the Age of Pushkin: Bridging American and Russian Studies
Gerald Haeffel, Psychology — Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression in Black Americans
Anton Juan, Film, Television, and Theatre — Blues for Mrs.
Daniel Schlosberg, Music — Recording Project with Violinist Caitlin Edwards
Sophie White, American Studies — Hearing Slave Voices in Early America: A Digital Humanities Project