Scholars and Researchers

April 2017

TRIP recipients, CLASS research fellows and university leaders gather after the TRIP exposition on April 19. From left: Professor Leonard Garrison, Associate Professor Miranda Wilson, Associate Professor Stacey Camp, CLASS Dean Andrew Kersten, Vice President for Research and Economic Development Janet Nelson, Associate Professor Kenton Bird, Associate Professor Leontina Hormel and Professor Dale Graden.

From the Vice President

At the University of Idaho, we often talk about ourselves as a national research university. As well as supporting the traditional STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), it is critical for us to embrace a much broader view of the research enterprise, one that encompasses scholarly activities and creative work of all kinds.

As the university’s research leader, I’m dedicated to making significant investments in these areas. Earlier this month, College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences Dean Andrew Kersten and I announced the new Transformative Research Investment and Partnership (TRIP), a joint venture between the college and my office.

This partnership supports six U of I researchers in the School of Journalism and Mass Media, the Lionel Hampton School of Music, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (now the Department of Culture, Society and Justice) and the Department of History. To learn about each project, I encourage you to visit the TRIP website.

On April 19, UI faculty members, staff, students and our guests from the Regents of the Idaho State Board of Education gathered in the Integrated Research and Innovation Center (IRIC) and learned about TRIP researchers’ fascinating projects. I challenged the researchers to present in a modified Pecha Kucha style, showing 10 slides for 20 seconds each. In a bit more than three minutes each, they (along with two 2017 CLASS Research Fellows) introduced us to their projects and to the expanded work made possible by TRIP. English graduate students from Diane Kelly-Riley’s composition theory course on multimodality worked with several TRIP faculty recipients on their fast-paced slide technique for the exposition.

It was a fun event — I can’t say that I’ve ever learned about Bach, the Korean War and rural American poverty in one sitting before. That’s just a slice of the incredible diversity of CLASS research.

It was also an important event, as it represented the robust, world-class scholarship done here at UI. The showcased presentations revealed the valuable contributions the social sciences, humanities and performing arts make to our communities, our country and our cultures. I am proud to help celebrate, enhance and accelerate our work and our reach in bringing the latest results of our endeavors.

I plan for TRIP to be the first among many investments the Office of Research and Economic Development makes in our research, scholarship and creative activities at UI. For example, ORED just announced the new Equipment and Infrastructure Support (EIS) Awards that are intended to enhance the university’s research, scholarship and creative activity by providing support for equipment purchases, upgrades and repairs related to research and creative activity infrastructure. I look forward to finding new ways to support our innovative researchers in all disciplines.

Go Vandals!

Janet E. Nelson
Vice President
Research and Economic Development