Research Funding

College of Arts & Letters faculty members submitted proposals and secured a variety of grants and funding over the course of 2024–25 despite a challenging grant environment in higher education. These grants include external and internal MSU funding opportunities supporting projects that impact local, state, national, and international communities.

In this Section:

Research Funding Overview

List of External Funders, 2024–25:

ORCID Global Participation Fund, University of Southern California’s Pullias Center for Higher Education, Mellon Foundation, IREX, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, Schmidt Family Foundation, Arts Council of Greater Lansing, Texas Tech University: The Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association, FHI360, IIE

Grants and Contracts Received

• Kinitra Brooks (ENG), PI, with Susana Morris, Georgia Institute of Technology: Mellon Foundation, “The Earthseed Project: An Afrofuturist Research Program,” total award $575,000; subaward to MSU, $236,390. Start Date: December 2024. End Date: November 2027.
• Sarah Bruno (ENG), PI: Mellon Foundation, “Taller Entre Aguas (TEA): Flowing Across Memory,” $861,000. Start Date: April 2025. End Date: August 2028.
• Salah Hassan (ENG, GSAH), PI: IREX, “Mandela Washington Fellows Institute,” $216,469. Start Date: April 2025. End Date: September 2025.
• Salah Hassan (ENG, GSAH), PI, National Endowment for the Humanities, “Aesthetics of Solidarity by Arab American and Arab Diaspora Artists in the US, 1948-Present,” $50,000. Start Date: October 2024. End Date: April 2025.
• Upenyu Magee (PHL, IUTP), PI: Alliance for African Partnership, “Ubuntu and AI: Integrating African Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Emerging Technologies,” $75,000. Start Date:
• Chet McLeskey (TDI), PI, and Michael O’Rourke (PHL, TDI), Co-PI:National Science Foundation, Division of Acquisition & Cooperative Support, “Growing Convergence Research,” $299,902. Contract #49100424C0021. Start Date: February 2024. End Date: February 2026.
• Marisa Rinkus (TDI),PI: Schmidt Family Foundation, “DEI Support to Conduct a DOERs Leadership Summit,” $75,000. Start Date: November 2024. End Date: November 2025.
• Marisa Rinkus (TDI), PI, and Michael O’Rourke (PHL, TDI), Co-PI: National Science Foundation, Office of International Science and Engineering, “Building capacity, community, and knowledge for international network-to-network research collaboration,” $933,987. Award #2430616. Start Date: September 2024. End Date: August 2027.
• Marisa Rinkus (TDI), PI, and Michael O’Rourke (PHL, TDI), Co-PI: National Science Foundation, Office of International Science and Engineering, “Community building and team science support for the Global Centers Program,” $624,599. Award #2419639. Start Date: April 2024. End Date: March 2027.
• Trixie Smith (WRAC),PI:Arts Council of Greater Lansing Young Creatives Grant, “Afterschool Writing Programs with Bath Elementary and Pattengill STEM Magnet School,” $1,500.
• Betsy Sneller (LiLaC), PI: National Science Foundation, CAREER Grant, $646,809. Start Date: September 2025. End Date: December 2030.
• Bruna Sommer-Farias (CeLTA), PI, with Kristin Michelson, Texas Tech University: The Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL), “Teaching toward multiliteracies in world language courses, 2024-2026,” $18,000.
• Imari Cheyne Tetu (WRAC), PI: Association of Computing Machinery International Conference on Design of Communication, SIGDOC Career Advancement Research Grant, $1,200.
• Koen Van Gorp (CeLTA), PI: National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association, “Building Bridges and Catalyzing Change: Establishing a Collaborative Research-Practice Network to Enhance Task-Based Language Teaching in North America,” $10,000. Start Date: December 2024. End Date: January 2026.