Three prolific Elon University faculty scholars will receive funding and course reassignments to assist with their ongoing research.
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Elon University professors Steve DeLoach, Cynthia Fair and Jeffrey C. Pugh have been selected as Senior Faculty Research Fellows for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years.
To support excellence in ongoing scholarly work, the university created in 2008 the Senior Faculty Research Fellowship award, a highly competitive program for faculty with a minimum of seven years in rank at Elon. The award comprises a two-course reassignment for two consecutive years, plus $2,000 per year in research funding, in support of a significant project or set of projects that advance an already well-established and promising research agenda.
DeLoach, a professor of economics, will use the award to advance two foci of his research agenda, one focused on reducing poverty in developing countries through microcredit and the second focused on understanding how workers allocate one key resource – time – networking and searching for new jobs. Previous research completed and published by DeLoach shows that microcredit improves child health, and a current paper in progress shows that adults invest more time into community participation when they have access to microcredit programs. DeLoach will continue this line of research to examine empirically the impact these programs have on the work and education of children. Following on another line of previous work that examined the job search time-allocation of unemployed workers, DeLoach will examine how currently-employed workers allocate time to network and search for new jobs. He will examine, for instance, how search intensity is affected by the difference between what one currently earns and the “market,” as well as how that intensity changes across the business cycle.
Fair, a professor of human service studies, will advance her research focused on adolescents and young adults (AYA) living with perinatally-acquired HIV infection (PHIV), and, indeed, her entire career’s focus on families and HIV. Fair’s project includes three related foci. The first follows on the research she recently completed during her sabbatical, wherein she conducted research on the fertility desires/intentions, childbearing motivations, and sexual reproductive health of AYA living with PHIV. Collaborating with a colleague at the University of Southern California, Fair will expand her research to include a Spanish-speaking population. In collaboration with another colleague at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, Fair will pursue externally funded research on the transition of AYA with PHIV from pediatric care to adult infectious disease care. Additionally, and as a result of her respected position within the field, Fair will be developing and editing a full-length special topic issue of Current HIV Research titled “HIV-Related Reproductive Issues Across the Lifespan.”
Pugh, Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of religious studies and previous recipient of the Daniels-Danieley (2000) and Distinguished Scholar (2010) awards, will use the Fellowship to complete research on and drafting of a heavily researched fictional novel, with a scholarly afterward. Stealing Zion: An Account of the Münster Debacle, 1533-36 is an important next step in Pugh’s effort to engage ever wider audiences in conversations about the way religion influences the social construction of reality across cultures and time. His most recent book, Devil’s Ink, has been the centerpiece of book clubs and discussion groups outside of academia.
Stealing Zion is designed to reach and even wider audience. The book gives a fictionalized account of the extraordinary 1534 takeover of the city of Münster, Germany, by revolutionary Anabaptists, the most radical section of the left wing of the Reformation. The Fellowship will afford Pugh the time to expand his research, for instance, into the ways economic structures were at play in the city and surrounding areas, as well as to complete drafting, revising, editing, and marketing of the book.
DeLoach, Fair, and Pugh will join the three current Senior Faculty Research Fellows (2012-14), Kevin Boyle, David Crowe and Megan Squire, and they follow the previous six Fellowship recipients Anne Bolin and Mary Jo Festle (2009-11), Clyde Ellis and Yoram Lubling (2010-12), and Laura Roselle and Joel Karty (2011-13).
A call for applications for Senior Faculty Research Fellowships is announced early each fall. All faculty with a minimum of seven years in rank at Elon, established records of scholarship, and robust project proposals with the potential to significantly advance their research agendas are encouraged to apply.