Every year, the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry awards faculty members at United Methodist-related universities in Texas with research grants made possible through the Sam Taylor Fellowship Fund.

The fund came to fruition after the late Sam Taylor created a will that set aside funds specifically for furthering the education of faculty members at United Methodist-affiliated colleges and schools in the Lone Star State. The grants awarded allow faculty to pursue graduate study or postgraduate research.

This year, seven Southwestern University faculty members won a grant ranging from $1,100-$2,000.  Each went through a competitive application process and were hand selected by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

Congratulations to the 2016 recipients:

• Dr. Steven Alexander, “Creating a Wave-Powered Robot,” $1,200

• Dr. David Asbury, “Research at the Library of Congress and the University of South Carolina Related to the Correspondence of Andrés Segovia and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,” $1,100

• Dr. Erika Berroth, “Learning Arabic to Teach the Syrian Refugee Crisis: Inclusiveness and Diversity in the German Classroom,” $1,750

• Dr. Patrick Hajovsky, “Examining Excavated Aztec Sculptures and Offerings in the Templo Mayor Museum and Museo Nacional de Antropología,” $1,220

• Dr. Aaron Prevots, “Gestures Toward the Sacred: Guillevic, Vargaftig, Tellerman, Michel,” $1,500

• Dr. Valerie Renegar, “Beyond the “Wicked Stepmother”: Representations of Stepmothers in Popular Culture,” $1,830

• Dr. Katy Ross, “Immigration in Spain: The Cultural Effects of Otherness,” $1,500