Grants in Action

Celebrating Scholarship

Vassar Grants in Action highlights and celebrates the grant funding, principal investigators, and project leadership that enrich faculty research and scholarship, institutional programs and priorities, and the student experience at Vassar.

Professor Emeritus Charles Steinhorn Receives New Carnegie Foundation Grant

Charles Steinhorn, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, has secured a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York in continued support of the STEM Teaching Experiences for Undergraduates (TEU) program site in New York City, developed in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and Barnard College.

Most-watched documentary on German TV written by Professor of History, Maria Höhn

Filmed in part on Vassar’s campus and featuring Höhn herself as a narrator, Sigrid Faltin’s 2021 production was the most-watched documentary on German Public TV (ARD) last year and will be honored in Berlin with the RIAS TV-Award in June 2022.

Joseph Nevins researches ties between the United Fruit Company and Boston

Joseph Nevins, Professor of Geography, is an awardee of the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium (NERFC) for 2022. Professor Nevins’s fellowship will allow for eight weeks of archival research this summer on the ties between the United Fruit Company and Boston, where the corporation was founded and headquartered.

Paula Bren with short brown hair, black glasses, and gold earrings, smiling softly while wearing a dark gray top against a neutral background.

Professor Bren is the author of “The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free.”

Paulina Bren has written a “captivating portrait” (The Wall Street Journal), both “poignant and intriguing” (The New Republic): from award-winning author Paulina Bren comes the remarkable history of New York’s most famous residential hotel and the women who stayed there, including Grace Kelly, Sylvia Plath, and Joan Didion.

Professor Amitava Kumar is the author of The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal.

Professor Kumar’s The Blue Book is a mix of original artwork and journal entries reflecting on the COVID pandemic as it unfolded.

Professors of Earth Science acquire grant for SEM microscope and EDS spectrometer

Professors of Earth Science Laura Haynes, Kirsten Menking, and Jeffrey Walker received a National Science Foundation Earth Sciences Instrumentation and Facilities (EAR/IF) grant to acquire a Tabletop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer (EDS).

Vassar Receives International Rescue Committee (IRC) Grant

Andrew Meade, Director of International Services and Assistant Dean of Student Growth & Engagement, and Wendy Maragh Taylor, Associate Dean of the College for Student Growth & Engagement, received U.S. Department of State Afghan Placement and Assistance (APA) program funding through an International Rescue Committee (IRC) grant.

Pictured: Taneisha N. Means. Portrait of a person standing in front of a building.

Professor Means Receives Research Grant from the New Perspectives in Studies of American Governance Program

Taneisha Means, Assistant Professor of Political Science on the Class of 1951 Chair, received a research grant from the New Perspectives in Studies of American Governance program, a partnership between American University, Purdue University and the Hewlett Foundation’s US Democracy program.

Dean Porcello and Professor Patch co-author Re-Making Sound

Thomas Porcello, Professor of Anthropology and Dean of Studies, and Justin Patch, Associate Professor of Music, are co-authors of Re-Making Sound: An Experiential Approach to Sound Studies, newly published by Bloomsbury Academic. Re-Making Sound guides readers through multiple ways of conceptualizing sound and its links to social phenomena.