2020 Request for Proposals (PDF)
The Request for Proposals document provides complete information on the Racial Justice and Equity Research Fund initiative, including proposal requirements, submission deadline, etc.
The University of South Carolina is committed to ending racial injustice, racism and discrimination while promoting racial equity and racial justice throughout society. The Office of the Vice President for Research, working in collaboration with the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, are proud to support the Racial Justice and Equity Research Fund to support research that centers on race, racial justice and racial equity.
By empowering our world-class faculty with Racial Justice and Equity Research funding to support their racial justice and equity research projects, the University of South Carolina aims to promote real and lasting racial justice in our local community, our state and our nation.
This 2020 research initiative provides funding for activities including, but not limited to:
Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PIs
Project Title
Project Abstract
Keywords
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PI: Armstead, Cheryl, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
Co-PI: Chen Liang, Health Services Policy & Management, Arnold School of Public HealthToward Validating a Tool to Measure Distrust of COVID-19 Inoculation Programs Among
African Americans
This project will address racial disparities in COVID-19 mitigation, while being highly
responsive to the UofSC’ commitment to health equities and social justice. There is
no empirical tool to document AAs’ collective voices regarding distrust of impending
accelerated COVID-19 inoculation programs. The project focuses on exploratory and
confirmatory validation of culturally-informed psychometric tool to: 1) analyze social
media and incorporate community feedback to perform qualitative item development,
2) to understand the determinants of accelerated vaccination programs, and 3) document
and disseminate data regarding AA to the scientific community and AA community stakeholders
as an empirical contribution to action research. Project outcomes will result in a
validated, easy to administer tool to characterize AA distrust of inoculation programs.
By coalescing teams of faculty and community stakeholders to guide validation, we
will contribute to the understanding of vaccine program uptake distrust among AAs
and other demographic groups. It will be directly applicable to research, social justice
advocacy, and intervention development. The project is highly congruent with funding
COVID-19 initiatives by external grantors.
round 2, round two
PI: Barra, Monica, School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, College of Arts and Sciences
Co-PIs: Dean Hardy, School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, College of Arts and Sciences
Carolina Center for Environmental Justice Seed Grant
The U.S. South has long been the epicenter of movements for environmental justice
and scholarly inquiry into the causes and impacts of the disproportionate environmental
harms faced by black, brown, and indigenous communities, yet these efforts are not
centralized. We propose a one-year study to leverages resources at UofSC to develop
a strategic plan for establishing the Carolina Center for Environmental Justice (CCEJ).
CCEJ would serve as a hub to connect faculty and students from across UofSC programs
and campuses to support research and education that examines environmental inequalities
through the lens of racial equity.
round 2, round two
PI: Browne, Teri, College of Social Work
Co-PI: Jason Cummings, Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences
The Role of Racism, Racial Prejudice, and Discrimination in South Carolina Kidney
Transplant Disparities
In South Carolina, Black patients are almost half as likely as White patients to receive
a kidney transplant, the best treatment for End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD). ESKD
is a public health crisis, costing Medicare $500.5 billion annually. No previous research
has focused on Black ESKD patients' experiences with racism, racial prejudice, and
discrimination and their impact on kidney transplant parity. This community-engaged
qualitative research project will address this gap in the literature to promote real
and lasting racial justice in our local community, our state, and our nation related
to kidney transplant racial equity.
round 2, round two
PI: Donaldson, Bobby, Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences
Our Story Matters: A Civil Rights History Podcast
The Center for Civil Rights History and Research proposes a work of public history
to draw together multiple forms of primary sources and conduct new original research
through oral histories to create an audio podcast show—Our Story Matters. The podcast
is designed to inform state and national public narratives about racial justice through
engaging episodes about South Carolinians who made important, and sometimes decisive,
contributions in voting, transportation, education, housing, and labor rights, and
protest against racial violence. The podcast format will help the Center expand education
for K-12 and university students, stimulate public conversations, and shape policy
discussions.
round 2, round two
PI: Foster, Kirk, College of Social Work
Co-PI: Joel Samuels, School of Law
Bridging the Divide Between African Americans and Law Enforcement: Root Causes and
Successful Initiatives
Police misconduct in America is a significant public health crisis. People of color
account for more than 60 percent of unarmed victims in police shootings and African
American men are three times as likely to be killed in police shootings as whites.
We use social network approaches, community-based model building, and focus groups
to examine how community activists build effective networks to reform policing and
to explicate the mechanisms necessary to build bridges between police and African
Americans. This work will strengthen the capacity of communities to effect police
reform by engaging diverse stakeholders to mitigate this epidemic of violence.
round 2, round two
PI: Garner, David, School of Music
Hearing Data on Racial Health Disparities in the US, the South, and South Carolina:
A New Music Composition and Commissioning Project
I propose a project in three parts that explores racial equity and justice through
the creative arts. Building on previous work on turning data sets into music, I propose
(1) a new composition that creates sonic representations of data on racial disparities
in health, including the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, and wealth and produce a recording
and video, (2) commissioning two BIPOC composers to also write new works around these
themes, and (3) a series of four lectures and discussions in departments across the
university on the new compositions and a history of protest music by Black classical
composers.
round 2, round two
PI: Przybysz, Jane, McKissick Museum, College of Arts and Sciences
Co-PIs:
-Stephen Criswell, Department of Humanities, USC Lancaster
-Courtney Lewis, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences
Indigenous Discovery Tour of UofSC's Historic Horseshoe
McKissick proposes to document how people for whom Horseshoe buildings are named advanced
policies that shaped, and continue to impact, Southeastern Native Americans' experiences.
McKissick will collaborate with USC Anthropology faculty and students, USC-Lancaster
Native American Studies Center faculty and students, and DeLesslin George-Warren—a
Catawba Indian Nation citizen who recently created a similar American Indian policies
tour of Presidents' portraits at the Smithsonian National Gallery in Washington, DC.
The results of this initial research will be used to script a multimedia Native American
tour of the Horseshoe to be launched by December 2021 as a restorative justice intervention.
round 2, round two
PI: Swan, Suzanne, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
Understanding Racial Inequities in Healthcare Experiences and Outcomes of COVID-19
Research problem. Black and Latinx Americans are more likely to contract COVID-19, and suffer greater
health and financial consequences, than Whites. This study will elucidate the factors
that lead to poorer health and financial consequences of COVID-19 for Black and Latinx
Americans living in the Southeast. Significance. While health disparities are a longstanding problem, the exact mechanisms driving
disparities in COVID-19 are not yet known. Approach and Methods. A survey will be conducted with COVID-19 survivors in the Southeast. Broader Social
Impact. Uncovering the mechanisms underlying health disparities in COVID-19 may point
to solutions to reduce health disparities more generally.
round 2, round two
PI: Weik, Terrance, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences
Reparations & Lowcountry Racial Landscapes
This archaeological project is one of the first to situate the history of African
American reparations within knowledge of racist geographies emerging before, during,
after a key period of compensatory justicemaking that unfolded on Hilton Head Island,
SC. The goal of this project is to explore ways racism, Black countermeasures, and
reparatory actions reshaped places, social practices, and human relations from 1800-2000.
A univariate spatial pattern analysis of ancient and modern maps, archival sources,
and landscape features is proposed that employs Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
This project will help challenge the ongoing processes of land dispossession that
have been erasing Black communities and recreational places from a nationally known
tourist destination.
round 2, round two
PI: Wynter-Hoyte, Kamania, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education, College of Education
Co-PIs:
-Gloria Boutte, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education, College of Education
-Eliza Braden, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education, College of Education
-Susi Long, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education, College of Education
-Meir Muller, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education, College of Education
Countering Anti-Blackness Starts with Our Youngest Children
Grounded in the belief that teaching anti-racism means developing abilities to identify
racial injustice and building knowledge of Black humanity, thirty family members (two
per teacher) will be involved in the study through participation in classroom projects
with their children. Black genius, beauty, heritage, oppression, and resistance (rectifying
mistaught histories of precolonial and contemporary Africa and African Americans),
it is critical that is a long-term educational experience. This study is guided by
a Black Emancipatory theoretical framework. Interview data will be audio- recorded
and transcribed and coded alongside other data (lesson plans, photos, reflections,
and artifacts). Through a program of study centered around an exploration of historical
and contemporary issues of race and racism as well as the joys and brilliance of Blackness,
the goal of this study is to develop a model to equip teachers and preservice teachers
to re-envision equity and impact institutional systems of the future as they raise
new generations to embrace Blackness, understand inequity, and know how to stand against
it.
round 2, round two
PI: Xu, Yanfeng, College of Social Work
Co-PI: Theresa Harrison, Carolina Family Engagement Center, College of Education
Examining Black-White Disparities and Identifying Empowerment Solutions among Custodial
Grandparent-Headed Families During COVID-19 in South Carolina: A Mixed-Methods Community-Based
Study
With support from the Racial Justice and Equity Research Fund, we will conduct a mixed-methods
community-based research study in South Carolina to examine White-Black disparities
among custodial grandparent-headed families during COVID-19 and identify empowerment
solutions to promote racial justice and equity at the system and policy level. To
the best of our knowledge, this study will be the first to examine racial disparities
in custodial grandparents and their grandchildren in the face of COVID-19. The results
of this study will be used to advocate for custodial grandparents, particularly grandparents
of color, to increase resources and supports in South Carolina.
round 2, round two
PI: Yeargin, Susan, Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health
Co-PIs:
-Shawn Arent, Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health
-Abbi Lane-Cordova, Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health
Characterization of the Management of Sickle Cell Trait Between HBCU and Non-HBCU
Athletic Departments and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Athletes with Sickle Cell
Trait
Sickle cell trait (SCT) disproportionately affects Black Americans and can be deadly
when athletes exercise intensely. Universities may differ in how they manage SCT risks
of student-athletes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, which may be more
severe in athletes with SCT. The proposed study will use a survey to identify differences
in studentathlete health and performance management practices between HBCU and non-HBCU
institutions. A case control study will compare CVD risk in athletes with SCT and
matched controls. Results will promote equity of health practices between institutions
and determine CVD risk in students with SCT to inform long-term health considerations.
round 2, round two
PI: Black, Derek, School of Law
The Racial Heritage of Current School Funding Practices
School districts serving the highest percentages of students of color receive $1,800
less per pupil than those serving the fewest students of color. (Education Trust, Funding Gaps: An Analysis of School Funding Equity Across the U.S. and Within Each
State 3 (2018).) Those funding gaps are a substantial factor in racial achievement gaps
between students. (Bruce D. Baker, Albert Shanker Institute, Does Money Matter in Education? (2d ed. 2016).) This project seeks to demonstrate that rather than neutral or inevitable,
the funding gaps are the result of constitutional changes implemented by segregationists
during the 1890s and 1900s and, thus, are subject to legal attack.
round 1, round one
PI: Freeman, Amie, University Libraries
Co-PIs:
- Andrea L'Hommedieu, University Libraries
- Stacy Winchester, University Libraries
- Kimberly Simmons, Anthropology
- Graham Duncan, South Caroliniana Library
Voices of South Carolina: Black Lives Matter
In response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police
Department, shortly after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor
in Kentucky, widespread demonstrations were organized to protest police brutality
against people of color and deep-rooted systemic racism in America. South Carolinians
spoke out against violence and injustice. This project will collect, archive and spotlight
SC experiences in the weeks following George Floyd's death. Additionally, the project
will explore factors that led to the most recent events and the impact of the protests.
Ultimately, a website will highlight protester stories in a digital environment available
to activists, historians, media and the public.
round 1, round one
PI: Isom Scott, Deena, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, College of Arts and Sciences
Co-PI: Tia Anderson, Tia, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, College of Arts and Sciences
Removing the Cloak of Whiteness: Status, Entitlement, Privilege and Crime in White
America
This project applies a critical whiteness studies lens to criminology. Drawing on
recent theoretical and empirical investigations, I propose a theoretical model that
outlines unique pathways to criminal behavior as well as privileged protections from
criminal justice system entanglement for White Americans. This model is empirically
assessed utilizing several secondary and primary data sources, including recent nationally
representative surveys and a targeted survey of White Americans. With the rapid rise
in hate crimes committed by Whites, this research has the potential to provide insight
into current social and political tensions and the relationships between race, gender,
discrimination, injustice and violence.
round 1, round one
PI: Jenkins-Henry, Toby, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education, College of Education
Racial Violence in Education: Mobile Exhibition Research Project
The Museum of Education proposes to mobilize the exhibit, Exploring Racial Violence
in Education, and establish travelling residencies at three local middle schools.
Data will be collected through interactive exercises embedded within the exhibit (mobile
ipad kiosks, smartphone activities using QR codes, written responses on graffiti boards).
These activities will examine student and teacher perceptions of how racism functions
in schools. This project can offer local and national insight on racism and help educational
leaders: (1) locate and confirm its presence (2) understand its personal impact; and
(3) develop interventions and policies to eradicate racism and heal racial trauma.
round 1, round one
PI: Martinez, David, Department of Educational Leadership and Policies, College of Education
Responding to Inequity: Informing Innovative School Finance Praxis in the Nuevo LatinX
Sur During COVID-19
The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic highlights the historical inequities within public
schooling. In South Carolina, a Nuevo LatinX Sur destination, these challenges are
exacerbated in districts serving higher proportions of LatinX students. To align effective
solutions, policymakers must seek nuanced insight from experts to ameliorate inequity,
namely educational leaders aware of local challenges. Through this qualitative study
we begin a new conversation in South Carolina concerning the care of students, as
we seek to develop a specific and actionable set of policy recommendations for a broader
social impact in education grounded in educational leadership insight.
round 1, round one
The Request for Proposals document provides complete information on the Racial Justice and Equity Research Fund initiative, including proposal requirements, submission deadline, etc.
The 2020 Terms and Conditions document for funding round one provides guidance for Racial Justice and Equity Research Fund recipients whose projects were funded in October 2020.
The 2020 Terms and Conditions document for funding round two provides guidance for Racial Justice and Equity Research Fund recipients whose projects were funded in December 2020.