Providence, R.I.--Eighteen Providence College faculty members recently were awarded $82,498 in grant money by the College's Committee on Aid to Faculty Research (CAFR) to support their research pursuits during the 2009-10 academic year.

The competitive grants, which range in amount from $12,187 to $1,014, were given to faculty in 12 academic disciplines. They cover a diversity of research projects ranging from the Jerusalem Temple, to the impact of the 20th century American clarinet and piano repertoire on the Far East, to an evaluation of the only known dinosaur-age fossil locality in Central America.

The largest grant went to Dr. Christopher M. Bloom, assistant professor of psychology, whose project title is "The Experiential Avoidance Model of Non-Suicidal Self Injury Examined."

The goal of the CAFR is to enhance the academic quality of the College by supporting the scholarly activities of its faculty. Since its inception more than 30 years ago, the committee has awarded more than $1.4 million to faculty members.

The chair of this year's CAFR is Dr. Pamela D. Sherer, associate professor of management. The other committee members are Mary G. Farrell, professor of theatre arts; Dr. Susan K. McCarthy, associate professor of political science; Dr. Margaret K. Reid, associate professor of English; and Dr. Charles R. Toth, associate professor of biology.

Grant recipients, project titles, and fund awards are as follows:

• Dr. Christopher M. Bloom, assistant professor of psychology, "The Experiential Avoidance Model of Non-Suicidal Self Injury Examined," $12,187;
• Dr. Joan R. Branham, associate professor of art history, "Imagining the Jerusalem Temple in Art and Religious History," $8,762;
• Rev. Edward L. Cleary, O.P., professor of political science, "Catholicism Without Priests," $1,770;
• Chard deNiord, associate professor of English, "Back Out of All This Now, Interviews with Eight Senior American Poets: Maxine Kumin, Gerald Stern, Jack Gilbert, Galway Kinnell, Richard Wilbur, John Ashbery, Donald Hall, Philip Levine," $3,300;
• Norman P. Desmarais, professor and acquisitions librarian, "Revolutionary War Diaries," $2,325;
• Dr. Catherine E. Gordon-Seifert, associate professor of music, "The Spirit Transformed: Converting Women through French Sacred Song (1655-1700)," $4,023;
• Dr. Aurelie A. Hagstrom, associate professor of theology, "Mariology: An Inter-Disciplinary Retrieval of Traditional Dogma," $4,000;
• Dr. Karen A. Holland, assistant professor of history, "The Sidney Women in Ireland, 1556-1594," $4,375;
• Dr. Deborah J. Johnson, professor of art history, "Rrose Selavy in Context: An American Jewish Artist and Marcel Duchamp," $4,403;
• Dr. Julia S. Jordan-Zachery, assistant professor of political science, "Learning from the Doers: Women of Color Community-Based Organizations' Response to HIV/AIDS," $4,397;
• Dr. Sang Woo Kang, assistant professor of music, "Exploration of 20th Century American Clarinet and Piano Repertoire and Its Lasting Impact on the Far East," $6,648;
• Dr. Christopher M. Laperle, assistant professor of chemistry, "Investigation of Solvent Induced Structural Dynamics of Organometallic Catalysts," $7,300
• Dr. Stephen J. Mecca, professor of physics, and Dr. Robert G. LaMontagne, assistant professor of physics, "Estuarian Dynamics of Town Pond," $6,376;
• Dr. Edgar Mejía, assistant professor of Spanish, "A Critical Edition of Viaje a Texas en 1827 (Voyage to Texas in 1827) by Manuel Mier y Teran (Mexico 1789-1832)," $1,014;
• Dr. Thomas F. Strasser, assistant professor of art history, "The Plakias Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Survey, 2009," $6,604;
• Eric Sung, assistant professor of photography, "Rebirth of the Past: Photographic Survey of the Architectural Fragments of the Past in the Modern Life," $3,953; and
• Dr. Craig B. Wood, professor of biology, "Return with Students to Cloud Forest Small-Mammal Studies in Honduras, and Evaluation of the Only Known Dinosaur-Age Fossil Locality in Central America," $1,060.

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