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LGBT Seed Grant Awards
University of Illinois at Chicago awards six grants for LGBT Research
Chicago, IL, April 8, 2009—The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Issues announces the second round of LGBT Seed Grant Awards sponsored by the David Bohnett Foundation. According to Dr. Francesca Gaiba, chair of the review committee, "LGBT research in the humanities, social sciences and the health sciences is critically needed, both to increase the quantity and quality of data collected among these populations, and to continue the theoretical revolution that queer theory has engendered in academia. UIC's faculty and researchers are at the forefront of this research, and these awards sustain this groundbreaking research at a time when research funds in general are shrinking."
In June 2008, the David Bohnett Foundation, a Los Angeles-based foundation with a mission to improve society through social activism, awarded the UIC Chancellor's Committee on the Status of LGBT Issues $20,000 to start a seed fund for faculty and students working to advance LGBT research at UIC. The Chancellor's Committee, with the assistance of the Bohnett Foundation, works to foster an institutional environment that supports individual and collaborative research on LGBT people and issues by funding members of the UIC community in three grant areas: graduate students and post-doctoral scholars engaging in small-scale research projects; faculty members who seek support for pilot programs with a substantial likelihood of external funding; and faculty undertaking innovative and significant LGBT research that can be completed with a limited budget.
The CCSLGBTI received many applications from a wide range of disciplines in the second round of funding requests. The interdisciplinary review committee funded two student and three faculty projects, awarding just over $14,000. The recipients were:
- Christine Holland, a PhD candidate in the Psychology Department, who is investigating the effects of child sexual abuse and post traumatic stress disorder on the adult functioning of males
- Mona Noriega, a PhD candidate in Public Administration, who is examining problem definition and agenda setting relating to LGBT aging issues
- Assistant Professor Colleen Corte, a faculty member in the College of Nursing, for a pilot feasibility project to investigate the relationships between self-identities and risk behaviors in LGBT adolescents
- Research Assistant Professor Peter Ji, from the Psychology Department, to investigate the appropriateness of using the LGBT Ally Identity Development Scale with diverse populations
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Brian Mustanski, Director of the IMPACT LGBT Health and Development Program and Assistant Professor in Psychiatry, to study the development of sexual orientation as well as the feasibility
to effectively retain an LGBT youth sample into emerging adulthood - Associate Professor James Swartz, a faculty member in the Jane Addams School of Social Work, to develop enhanced HIV prevention services for gay and other men who have sex with men and who abuse methamphetamines and other drugs
The Seed Grant Committee anticipates applying for more funds to supplement future competitions for this program. Through these seed grants, the Chancellor's Committee hopes to advance needed LGBT research with national impact. As the work of UIC's faculty and students has repeatedly demonstrated, research findings can inform policymaking and the creation of health programs that can be used to improve the lives of LGBT people.
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