Published November 26, 2024
BY DANIELLE LEGARE
GSE faculty recently awarded prestigious grants
Throughout 2024, GSE researchers have made significant progress in advancing educational research and practice by securing prestigious grant funding. Their grants underscore GSE’s reputation as a leader in innovation and scholarly excellence, supporting a wide range of projects that address critical issues in education. From transforming early literacy instruction with AI and bolstering teacher residency programs to exploring computational literacies and promoting social justice in computing, the grants fund impactful work that will drive the field forward.
X. Christine Wang has been awarded a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to establish the Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI. This center will focus on harnessing AI to transform early literacy instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse learners. GSE co-PIs are Christopher Hoadley, John Strong and Jaekyung Lee, and local partners include Buffalo Public Schools and Erie 1 BOCES.
In addition, Wang received a $34,878 grant from the National Science Foundation to support the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) 2024 Annual Meeting, specifically for the Doctoral Consortium and Early Career Workshop.
Amanda Winkelsas has secured a $4,190,612 grant from the U.S. Department of Education for the UB Teacher Residency Program.
Christopher Hoadley received a $999,998 grant from the National Science Foundation for his project, “Participating in Literacies and Computer Science: A Research-Practice Partnership to Explore New Computational Literacies.”
Erin Kearney has been awarded a $687,495 grant from the New York State Education Department for the Clinically Rich Intensive Teacher Institute, which is focused on bilingual education and English for speakers of other languages. Tim Monreal is a co-PI.
Africa Hands has secured a $493,910 grant from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program to study the unique challenges and cultural strengths of first-generation BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) professionals in the library and information science field.
Federica Bulgarelli has been awarded a $275,000 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to explore how infants process speech from older children and how it impacts their early language development.
In addition, Bulgarelli has also received a $10,000 Language Learning Early Career Research Grant for her project, “Searching for variability: The role of listener choice on learning new words.”
Amanda Nickerson has secured a $243,955 grant from the U.S. Department of\ Homeland Security for the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program and a $26,000 grant from the National Association of School Psychologists for evaluating the PREPaRE School Crisis Program.
Stephanie Fredrick and Amanda Nickerson have been awarded a $233,955 grant from the Department of Homeland Security for their project, “NAB IT! (Norms and Bystander Intervention Training).”
Christopher Proctor received a $150,000 grant from the Mozilla Foundation for his project, “The Impossible Is the Least We Can Demand: Computing and Social Justice.”
Tasha Austin has been awarded a $70,000 grant from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation for her project, “Culturelessness as a Conceptual Framework: Cultural Capital and Racialization in Novice Language Teacher Pedagogies.” In addition,
Austin has received a $47,124 grant from the Spencer Foundation for her project, “Excavating the Oral Histories of Black World Language Teachers.”
Timothy Monreal received a $70,000 grant from the National Academy of Education/ Spencer Foundation for his project, “Somos El Sur: Mapping the Collective Experiences and Dreams of Latinx Teachers Across the U.S. South.”
These newly awarded grants highlight the breadth and depth of research in GSE, demonstrating its role as a hub for innovative and impactful educational research.
“I am really excited to see so many GSE faculty securing extramural funding for their research projects. This is both a reflection of the strategic and scaffolded work of our Office of Research Activities, as well as the innovative and talented faculty represented within GSE,” said GSE Dean and Professor Suzanne Rosenblith.
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