NWC faculty awarded scholarship grants

Eleven Northwestern College professors will conduct research and pursue further study this summer with funding from the Northwestern College Scholarship Grants program.

Seven will receive grants of up to $2,250 for their projects; four will be given up to $5,000 for collaborative research with students. The money is designed to encourage the production of scholarly work for publication and distribution beyond Northwestern’s campus.

Grant winners collaborating with students include chemistry professors Dr. David Arnett and Dr. Karissa Carlson and biology professors Dr. Sara Tolsma and Dr. Todd Tracy.

Arnett and Carlson will continue their research that uses fluorescent measurement to better understand how a signaling protein activates an enzyme involved in the dilation of blood vessels. Klint Knutson, a junior biology health professions major from Magnolia, Minn., will assist them.

Alison Schutt, a sophomore biology health professions major from Alton, Iowa, will serve as the student research assistant for Tolsma, who is studying the genetic relationships between mayfly populations on Santa Cruz Island and the California mainland.

Tracy will continue his research on the impact of the invasive European buckthorn and red cedar on local forests and grassland ecosystems. He will work with Jordan Reinders, a 2015 Northwestern biology graduate from Orange City, and Emily Stricklin, a senior ecological science major from Sioux Falls, S.D.

Education professor Dr. Laura Edwards Ucar will analyze and summarize ethnographic data she collected as part of her study that addresses the complexities regarding opportunities for young children to learn in and out of formal school in rural Tanzania.

Dr. Chris Hausmann, sociology, will use social movement theory and fieldwork data collected by students to study how people negotiate moral claims in their everyday lives.

April Hubbard, theatre, will research and adapt a two-person version of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” for future performances at Northwestern and regional festivals. Robert Hubbard, another member of the college’s theatre faculty, will write an essay summarizing the results of his research of two contrasting Shakespearean solo shows.

Pianist Dr. Juyeon Kang, music, will join the Summer Institute for Piano and Strings at Idaho State University as a guest artist, performing French music by Debussy and Faure as well as teaching eighth- through 12th-grade students.

English professor and author Dr. Sam Martin will work on a first draft of “Elijah Wears Cokebottle Glasses,” a memoir account of his time in the Canadian province of Newfoundland.

And art professor Emily Stokes will visit several regional landmarks as inspiration for work she will be creating for a fall show at Illinois Wesleyan University.