Three BSOS Faculty Receive $10K Research Awards

The University of Maryland’s Office of the Provost and Office of the Vice President for Research recently announced the ten recipients of the 2025 Independent Scholarship, Research, and Creativity Awards (ISRCA), which provide each recipient with up to $10,000 in grant funding to support their research endeavors and associated expenses.

Launched in 2019, the ISRCA program aims to advance the professional development of faculty engaged in scholarly and creative work. Eligible projects may utilize historical, humanistic, interpretive, or ethnographic approaches; explore aesthetic, ethical, and/or cultural values and their roles in society; conduct critical or rhetorical analysis; engage in archival and/or field research; and develop or produce creative works. Awardees are selected based on peer review of the quality of the proposed project, the degree to which the project will lead to the applicant’s professional advancement, and the potential academic and societal impact of the project.

Three BSOS faculty members are among the 2025 awardees:

George Hambrecht

Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology
Project Title: Ballistic Middens - Investigating the Norse Middens of South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
Project Description: This project will focus on an archaeological sampling of middens on South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, filling a crucial gap in our understanding of Norse expansion and long-term human-environment interactions in the North Atlantic region and expanding our understanding of long-term human-marine interactions in the region.

Marcus Johnson

Assistant Professor in the Department of Government and Politics
Project Title: Racialized Democracy: The Electoral Politics of Race in Latin America
Project Description: This project will result in the completion of a book manuscript titled, Racialized Democracy: The Electoral Politics of Race in Latin America, which examines race and Latin American political behavior.

Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels

Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology
Project Title: The Canary in the Vineyard: Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss in Italian Viniculture
Project Description: Viniculture offers a “canary in the coal mine” case for witnessing the coming impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss to agricultural production, given the particular sensitivity of wine grapes to temperature fluctuations. This project studies wine grape cultivation in three areas of Italy, exploring the social value placed on biodiversity, and what is lost with biodiversity loss.

View the Full 2025 ISRCA Recipient List

Portions of this article were originally published by Silvana Montañola on the Division of Research's website. The main photo of George Hambrecht jotting down notes in a field school at the Outer Hebrides is courtesy of Nataline Beckley.

Published on Tue, Jan 28, 2025 - 12:00PM