Category: Funding

IPEC Member Libby Meyer Awarded NEA Grant

The National Endowment for the Arts has approved Libby Meyer (VPA) for a grant in the amount of $20,000.

This grant will support a multidisciplinary arts series at the Rozsa Center. In total, the NEA will award 1,135 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $37 million as part of its second round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

Meyer’s work supports IPEC, the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture. She serves as an executive committee member of the institute. Her recent podcast episode with IPEC Presents can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

Spring 2024 IPEC Seed Grant Awards Announced

The Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture (IPEC) announces the Spring 2024 Research Seed Grant award recipients. Congratulations to each of the awardees.

The principal investigators of the awarded projects include:

Faculty Small Seed Research Grants:

  • Erika Vye (GLRC)
  • Mark Lounibos (HU)
  • Dana Van Kooy (HU)
  • Mary Cyr (VPA)
  • Chuck Wallace (CS)
  • Alexandra Morrison (HU)
  • Rich Canevez (HU)
  • Mark Rouleau (SS)

Graduate Student Research Grants:

  • Kyle Parker McGlynn, Ph.D. student — Industrial Heritage and Archaeology
  • Aritra Chakrabarty, Ph.D. student — Environmental and Energy Policy
  • Kendall Belopavlovich, Ph.D. candidate — Rhetoric, Theory and Culture
  • James Akinola, Ph.D. student — Rhetoric, Theory and Culture
  • Emma Johnson, Ph.D. student — Rhetoric, Theory and Culture
  • Rachael Hathcoat, M.S. student — Rhetoric, Theory and Culture

Reminder: Seed Funding Applications Close April 12

IPEC’s seed funding applications for both faculty and graduate students close on April 12, 2024.

Description: Small Grants are available to Michigan Tech Graduate Students to conduct preliminary research in areas that intersect with Policy, Ethics, and Culture, including but not limited to (1) Social Media and Society; (2) Human Machine Culture; (3) Justice and Security in Energy Transitions; (4) Ethics in STEM; and (5) Algorithmic Culture. Funds can be used for hourly pay, conference travel, or travel to collect data and access primary sources.

Contact: If you have any questions about whether or not your research project fits with IPEC’s research scope, reach out to IPEC’s Associate Director Soonkwan Hong at shong2@mtu.edu.

IPEC Seed Research Grant Application Now Open

We are excited to announce the opening of our Seed Research Grant Application for IPEC members!

Seed Grants are awarded to individuals and groups to conduct preliminary research that will lead to a larger external grant proposal. Proposals should be in the following research areas without any priority: (1) Social Media and Society; (2) Human Machine Culture; (3) Justice and Security in Energy Transitions; (4) Ethics in STEM; and (5) Algorithmic Culture

Evaluation criteria include (a) Potential for future/continuous external funding;  (b) Previous research experience and productivity; (c) Scholarly merit of the proposed research project; (d) Potential for extended/continuous research program; (e) Potential for future collaborative work.

Interested applicants shall submit their applications by Feb. 16, 2024. The maximum funding amount is $5,000 with an expected average of $2,500.

Awardees are expected to submit a report upon completion of the project.

Aritra Chakrabarty (SS) Receives IPEC Funding to Attend International Public Policy Association Conference

Aritra Chakrabarty (SS) received a $1000 grant through the IPEC small grant program to attend the International Public Policy Association Conference as an executive committee member of the newly formed Global South -Policy Process Research Network (GS-PPRN). Chakrabarty and the GS-PPRN executive team worked for over a year to provide a platform for Global South scholars working in the realm of public policy in different sectors. The conference was held in Toronto, Canada, June 26-27, 2023.

Libby Meyer Receives New Funding


Libby Meyer (VPA) is the principal investigator (PI) on a project that has received $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The funding will be used to bring Guerilla Opera to the McArdle Theater on Oct. 12-15 for five performances of Elena Ruehr’s new comic opera, “The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage,” based on the graphic novel of the same name by Sydney Padua.

The project is a collaboration with the Department of Computer Science; the College of Computing; the College of Sciences and Arts; and the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture. It is part of the celebration of 50 years of computer science at Michigan Tech.

Richard Canevez Receives New Funding

Richard Canevez (HU/IPEC), in collaboration with Lara Zwarun of the University of Missouri – St. Louis, has received a $6,625 research contract from the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society.

The project is titled “Commodification of Religious Iconography as Resistance in Saint Javelin.”

The project will explore the intersection of diasporic, religious and political identity among the Ukrainian communities in America and Canada as considered through the use of religious iconography as part of the commercialized aspects of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s escalated 2022 invasion.