Congratulations to the four faculty opportunity award recipients from Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences! Chapman University’s Faculty Opportunity Fund is a competitive merit-based internal funding opportunity for faculty to apply for up to $15,000 to conduct research or creative activity. These projects are intended to support Chapman University faculty in the development of new and innovative research, scholarship, and creative activity. Below is a summary of each of the funded projects.

Policy, retail environments, and vaping among CA middle and high school students
Amount Awarded: $14,805 (Deferred 6/1/2021-5/31/2022)
Dr. Georgiana Bostean, Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Health, and Policy

Collaborators: Dr. Jennifer Unger (Professor of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California), Dr. Jason Douglas (Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, Chapman University), Dr. Erik Linstead (Associate Professor of Computer Science, Chapman University)

Dr. Bostean’s project examines the influence of local tobacco and cannabis control policies, such as zoning and retailer licensing requirements, and retail environments on adolescent vaping. Despite continued declines in youth cigarette smoking, adolescent vaping is on the rise, with over 1/4 of US high school students being current users in 2019. Dr. Bostean’s study will be among the first comprehensive statewide studies to combine local policy data with geocoded locations for three types of retailers (tobacco retailers, vape shops, and cannabis dispensaries) to assess how varying strength of local tobacco and cannabis control policies and retailer density around schools are associated with youth vaping (of nicotine, cannabis, or concurrent use of both). Findings will provide crucial evidence policymakers need to implement effective policies to reduce and prevent youth vaping.

Research Support for Second Monograph: Landlocked Imaginations
Amount Awarded: $9,150 (6/15/2020-5/31/2021)
Dr. Rei Magosaki, Associate Professor of English

Dr. Magosaki’s project focuses on literatures of displacement and relocation related to Japanese American Internment and Native American Reservations. Drawing from existing scholarly works in both Asian American Studies and Native American Studies, Dr. Magosaki’s monograph will engage with primary works including archival sources of historical documentation, unpublished material, literary representations (novels, poems, memoir, drama, essays), and other relevant artistic cultural expressions (art installations, photography). This discussion will be addressed with the knowledge and understanding of spatial connections between all ten internment sites and Native American reservations. The project argues for due attention to neglected sites within the historiography of the federal prison system in the US while entering into a discourse of modernity and the ongoing theoretical debates about the role of aesthetics in the 21st century.

Bakry: Sudan’s Thirty-Year-Long Year
Amount Awarded: $15,000 (6/15/2020-5/31/2021)
Dr. Crystal Murphy, Associate Professor of Political Science

Collaborators: Sally Rubin, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts; Brittany Estrada, producer

Dr. Murphy’s Faculty Opportunity Fund grant will be used to complete a documentary that she filmed in Sudan during Interterm 2020 about the transition out of dictatorship that is currently unfolding. Through intimate and harrowing personal accounts of the architects of Sudan’s newfound freedom, viewers of the film will witness, analyze, and historically contextualize Sudan’s real-time political transformation and hopefully, its peaceful future. This film is important to the general public as well as to the field of political science due to its unprecedented access to key figures, original footage of contemporary political actions in Sudan, and high-level historical-political analysis of key debates through an accessible story. The outcome of this project is a feature-length documentary film for a global audience.

Geoglyphs of the Anthropocene
Amount Awarded: $14,996 (Deferred to 6/1/2021-5/31/2022)
Professor Julie Shafer, Associate Professor of Art

Collaborators: Christine Lee, Scientist/Project Manager, The Terrestrial Hydrology Group, Nasa, JPL; Andy Hodson, Professor, Glaciology, The University Centre in Svalbard; Lise Øvreås Adjunct Professor, Microbiology The University Centre in Svalbard; Marya Alford Research Assistant MFA, University of Southern California; Ryan Clemens, Junior Student, Chapman University, Dodge College of Film and Media, Film Production | Cinematography Emphasis; Morgan Grimes, Junior Student, Chapman University, Art Major, Wilkinson College

Geoglyphs of the Anthropocene is a collaborative research-based art project which documents the climate crisis in the Arctic Circle. Professor Shafer will research, document, and make visible greenhouse gasses being emitted in record-breaking amounts in the Arctic. Using drones outfitted with infrared and thermal cameras, Professor Shafer will photograph active and abandoned Russian coal mines, thawing permafrost, and fissures in the ice sheets. Infrared and thermal imaging record wavelengths that are beyond the visible spectrum, and translate that information to the visible spectrum; these images are called false-color composites. Visual images have the power to draw people in and create a sense of awe at the beauty and destruction held in the landscapes we inhabit and change, making the climate crisis visible – not just statistical.

We look forward to seeing the outcome of these projects, which will elevate the national visibility and reputation of our entire college, and demonstrate the timeless value and importance of the arts, humanities, and social sciences to better understand our past, present, and future.