CASAA Awards Its AY24-25 Faculty and Staff Research Microgrants

Each academic year, the Center for Antiracist Scholarship, Advocacy, and Action (CASAA) awards faculty and staff microgrants to support the development of antiracist and social justice projects aligned with the mission of the Center. These microgrant awards-up to $1500.00 for individual projects and up to $3000.00 for collaborative projects-have been a cornerstone of CASAA's work since the Center was established in November 2021, as they provide faculty and staff invaluable financial resources and research support for work that will invariably contribute to racism and antiracism studies but also to the incredibly transformative work taking place in classrooms all across the University. This year, the CASAA Leadership Team is pleased to announce five CASAA microgrant awards and one extension grant (a supplement to a previously awarded microgrant) for faculty and staff of different disciplines. Our recipients are:

Dr. Frederic Breidenbach, Dr. Evan Cohen, Dr. Jessica Denniston, Dr. Kathleen Fortier, Dr. Ann Harrington, and Dr. Julie Skrzat-faculty in the Department of Physical Therapy and members of the Department's AEDI Task Force-were awarded a $1500.00 microgrant to support their project. Despite efforts to emphasize the interconnections between physical therapy and access, equity, diversity, and inclusion (AEDI) in their courses through didactic education on health inequities and social determinants of health, faculty noticed that twenty to thirty percent of students (in their course evaluations) remained undecided about whether their courses addressed AEDI or combating anti-Black racism while thirty-five to fifty percent did not believe the question applied to the course. Eager to address these concerns and update their course content, the Task Force will produce a curriculum map of key topics such as global health and health inequities. Funds will be used to map the curriculum and to conduct a literature search to identify and to address existing content gaps. To read more about this microgrant project, click here.

Dr. Michael Morrow, Professor in the Graduate Program in Counseling, received a $1500.00 microgrant to support scholarship centered on parental involvement and empowerment in child psychotherapy. Psychotherapies, he contends, are largely rooted in individualist worldviews that prioritize one-to-one work between clients and clinicians and that commonly neglect the many roles that others play in clients' lives. In order to propose a family-centered, evidence-based, as well as culturally responsive framework, he will produce a qualitative study that interviews clinicians to gain insight into when and how they decide to involve parents in the treatment of their children. Funds for this project will primarily be used to compensate research participants. Dr. Morrow will also use funds to attend the Qualitative Research Summer Intensive hosted by the Odum Institute and to purchase other scholarly research materials on qualitative research methods and analysis. To read more about this microgrant project, click here.

Dr. Michelle Reale, Professor in the Landman Library and Director of the CASAA Communities of Practice, was awarded a $1500.00 microgrant for her project, "Italian Attitudes of Racism and Difference and Their Effect on the Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Population in Ortigia, Sicily." The project aims to probe "how racial attitudes and the lack of citizenship affect the quality of life for refugees in Sicily" and the daily challenges they face due to individual and systemic racism. After all, the refugee and asylum-seeking population in Sicily have been considered by many Italians l'excommunitario, denoting someone who is either "outside of the community" or "not welcome in the community." Funds will be used toward cultural mediator/translator fees for the interviews Dr. Reale plans to conduct in addition to meals, transportation costs, and scholarly resources to support her study. To read more about this microgrant project, click here.

Dr. Jennifer Riggan, Professor in the Department of Historical and Political Studies, and Simone Miller, Graduate Student in the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program, received a $3000.00 microgrant for their project. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Alebachew Kemisso Haybano at Addis Ababa University and will shed light on an underrecognized and often ignored humanitarian situation as well as the ways that Eritrean refugees have been and continue to be marginalized by humanitarian organizations and in the media that reports on such emergencies. Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia have been blamed for inflation, violence, and governance problems while facing mistreatment and abuse, even having their prima facie status removed. More data is needed to understand the traumas that they have faced since the 2020 civil war in Northern Ethiopia. Funds will be used to support transportation costs to Ethiopia and other anticipated travel expenses. To read more about this microgrant project, click here.

Dr. Keisha Robinson, Social Action and Justice Education (SAJE) Fellowship Program Mentorship Director and Adjunct Professor, was awarded a $500.00 extension grant (building off an AY23-24 CASAA microgrant) to support her ongoing research and programming for the Scholar 2 Scholar Mentorship Initiative. The project emphasizes strong mentorship as critical to diversifying the education workforce and increasing representation of BIPOC educators in the field. This is vital, as only seventeen percent of public school teachers in 2020-2021 were Hispanic, Black, or Asian American. Culturally competent and responsive mentoring can play a critical role in improving these numbers moving forward. Funds will be used to attend/present at the seventeenth annual Mentoring Institute Conference in Albuquerque, NM, and to support campus Scholar 2 Scholar events. To read more about this microgrant project, click here.

Dr. Ellen Skilton, Professor in the School of Education as well as Faculty Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring, received a $3000.00 microgrant in support of her project tentatively titled, "Preparing for Repair: Embedding Restorative Practices in Antiracist Teacher Education." This project is a collaborative effort with the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) that seeks to embed restorative circles as both a University-level and a PreK-12 pedagogical practice with recognition that honesty and repair after harm are still muscles that are in development for many as individuals and in the structures created on Arcadia's campus. Funds will be used for consultations with IIRP staff, participation in IIRP Advanced Circle Training and the University of San Diego's training for Restorative Justice in Higher Education, and key resources for students in her Social Studies Literacies and Teaching English Learners courses this academic year. To read more about this microgrant project, click here.

To reflect on the outcomes of the project and provide the Arcadia University community insight into the overarching importance of antiracist and social justice experiential learning, microgrant recipients will deliver a presentation as part of the CASAA Race Matters Forum within the next year that will be open to the public and made available for future review on the CASAA website. Stay tuned for additional updates on these innovative microgrant projects-in-progress and on the important antiracist work taking place inside and outside of the academic classroom.
To learn more about the Center for Antiracist Scholarship, Advocacy, and Action (CASAA) and the ongoing work in which we are engaged, please visit us online at www.arcadia.edu/CASAA and/or stop by the Center at 2035 Church Road (across the street from Taylor Hall).