June 1, 2012

Rewarding UC Daviss work at the forefront of humanities research and teaching, faculty and graduate students have received a round of more than $150,000 in grants for 2012-13 from the University of California. The grants will enrich studies and outreach in areas ranging from human rights to digital tools for education.

This recognition of the work of UC faculty and graduate students shows the range and vitality of the humanities at UC Davis, said Jessie Ann Owens, professor of musicology and dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies at UC Davis.

The UC Presidents Faculty Research Fellowship in the Humanities, which comes with a $40,000 grant, went to Colin Milburn, an associate professor of English, for Mondo Nano: Fun and Games in the World of Digital Matter. Milburns research focuses on the cultural relations between literature, science, and technology.

Another grant, for $34,000, went to Keith Watenpaugh, an associate professor and director of the UC Davis Human Rights Initiative, for the creation of a UC multi-campus research group on human rights and the humanities. The grant was awarded by the UC Humanities Network. The new research group will be led by Watenpaugh and Alison Brysk, a professor of Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara. The project, titled Re-envisioning the Human: Human Rights and Humanitarianism across the Humanities and Social Sciences: The UC Human Rights Collaboration, will coordinate research on human rights among various UC campuses to enrich human rights research and study across disciplines, Watenpaugh said.

Christina Cogdell, associate professor of design at UC Davis, received renewed funding of $10,000 from the UC Humanities Network for a multicampus research group, the Consortium on California Architecture and Design. The research group is studying the influence of design on culture and the role of California as a site for innovative design. More information on the project is available at: http://www.californiadesign.ucdavis.edu

Social Media, Insecure Work and New Conceptions of Labor Solidarity will be the focus of another new UC Davis-led working group, funded by $25,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the UC Humanities Network on Humanities and [the Changing Conceptions of Work. This grant was awarded to two associate professors at UC Davis: Chris Benner, from the Department of Community & Human Development and Jesse Drew, from the technocultural studies program. Among other efforts, their working group will host a public forum and blog on the changing nature of work.More information on this grant is available at http://www.humanitiesandwork.org

The following UC Davis projects also received awards from the UC Humanities Research Institute:

These projects, led by UC Davis faculty and graduate students, received awards through the UC California Studies Consortium, which aims to bring together scholars to look at comprehensive critical mappings and re-mappings of California and its cultures. (www.californiastudies.org)

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has more than 32,000 students, more than 2,500 faculty and more than 21,000 staff, an annual research budget that exceeds $684 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

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UC Davis work in humanities receives $150,000 in UC-wide grants