Second Installment of Extramural Grant Writing Workshops to Focus on Social Sciences

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will host the second installment of a series of workshops dedicated to the art of nationally competitive grant writing. Strategic Thinking: Social Sciences Grant Writing Workshop will be held from 3-5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, in Old Main room 523. It will feature scholars from social science disciplines who have extensive experience in garnering federal and foundation support for their research.  

“Strategic Thinking is motivated by Fulbright College's new research initiative, which is centered squarely on the hyper-competitive world of external funding,” said Lynda Coon, associate dean of Fulbright College and workshop organizer. “Our social scientists have brought in extramural dollars at a dizzying rate. They are poised to move onward and upward in this scholarly endeavor and will welcome more and more colleagues into their ranks.”

The workshop follows the first workshop in the series, which was held Tuesday, Sept. 16, and focused on the arts and humanities. The workshops are designed to benefit faculty at every level, from recent graduates to advanced researchers. The faculty-to-faculty mentoring is designed to provide a sense of community and comfort within the meeting. 

“The workshop was helpful,” said Crystal McBrayer, visiting assistant professor of art who attended the September workshop on arts and humanities. “When you receive guidance from people who can be very candid with you it’s enjoyable, and it helps break the ice on a lot of things.”  

 “The social science workshop's focus on collaborative grant writing projects in the social sciences marks it off as singular at the University of Arkansas,” Coon said. “We are bringing together three fantastic scholars who are committed to team-building in the social sciences as well as mentoring younger faculty on how to navigate the complex world of winning extramural funding from the government and from prestigious foundations.”

Strategic Thinking will showcase Fulbright College faculty members Ana Bridges, Kameri Christy and Brent Smith. Together, these three social scientists have won millions of dollars in extramural funding.  Their research methods have a far reach, embracing disparate disciplines such as legal theory, child advocacy, sexuality studies, political theory, economics and social justice.

Ana Bridges conducts research in interpersonal relationships and sexual violence and in health disparities for underserved populations, especially Latino immigrants.  She has received extramural grant funding in both topic areas and has published more than forty articles and book chapters. In the past seven years, Bridges has been awarded over $385,000 in extramural research and training grants from agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, and the Verizon Foundation and has served as a consultant or co-investigator for other federally funded grants. She has also been the primary mentor to undergraduate and graduate student fellows (over $30,000 from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education and the American Psychological Association). She has been at the University of Arkansas for seven years, since earning a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Rhode Island.

Kameri Christy is professor and associate director for the School of Social Work. Throughout her career, she has worked with marginalized and oppressed children, youth, adults, families and communities in the areas of trauma, economic development and social justice, and resiliency. She has been conducting quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation from a feminist, empowerment perspective for 11 years. She has managed grants from state and private foundations totaling more than $1.6 million, and she served as a consultant on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant of $1.8 million.  She has more than 20 publications in peer-reviewed journals, has presented at national and international conferences, serves as an external grant reviewer for the Hong Kong Grants Council and has served as an evaluation consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families and the Urban Institute. She has been invited to policy think-tank sessions with the Ford Foundation, the Urban Institute, the Insight Center for Community Economic Development and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. She was also one of only six invited presenters at an event convened at the U.S. Department of Treasury sponsored by the U.S. Social Security Administration, the Office of the Vice-President of the United States and the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Brent Smith chairs the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and directs the Terrorism Research Center in Fulbright College.  His research throughout his career has focused on social movements, and in the last twenty years, he has concentrated on violent social movements espousing terrorism.  He founded the American Terrorism Study in 1987.  Since arriving at the University of Arkansas in 2003, Smith has been awarded nearly $6 million in competitive federal funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Department of Defense.   He is the principal investigator on two National Institute of Justice grants and three U.S. Department of Homeland Security grants.

Along with the previously mentioned funding sources, social scientists in Fulbright College have won external funding from the American Council of Learned Societies, American Psychological Association, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, Pew Charitable Trust, Rockefeller Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

To register for Strategic Thinking, contact Dawn Fisher at dfisher@uark.edu or call (479) 575-4804. Registration closes at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, and seating is limited to 40 participants.