John Costello has received funding from the NSF! This collaborative project with RWU and U. of South Florida features several undergrad students, and explores the mechanisms behind the success of ctenophores, key marine predators known for their ability to capture evasive prey.

FINAL CALL for PC’s 2025 Summer Research & Creative Grants through Ctr4EngagedLearning ! Deadline is April 21 at 11:59 p.m. Encourage students to apply! More information can be found here: engaged-learning.providence.edu/research/summe…

Adelaide Clark and James Bailey are the 2025-2026 Provost Faculty Fellowship Recipients! Funded by the SPaRC office, these fellowships support research during the academic year—one for a pre-tenured faculty member and one for a tenured faculty member. Congrats to both!

Today, April 23, SPaRC attended the 16th Annual Celebration of Student Scholarship and Creativity in Moore Hall. The event showcases incredible student projects, highlighting years of hard work and research. Congratulations to all presenters—well done!

SPaRC attended PC Galleries’ Sandplay Exhibition, a collab by Mirthe Berentsen & Martín La Roche exploring how objects shape memories. At the opening, Martin showcased his Museum in a Hat, founded 2017, by selecting pieces, then revealing & sharing their stories with the crowd.

Yesterday, 4/28, was the start of a 3-day NCURA Region I Meeting held in Manchester, NH. This meeting includes a variety of presentations and workshops related to sponsored research. The SPaRC team is in attendance, and both Kris and Dalila presented sessions.

Ruth Ben-Artzi, Associate Professor of Political Science, recently returned from a research trip to Portugal supported by the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation. She said the experience exceeded her expectations in both learning and building future academic connections

Join us for a Summer Writing Retreat on June 4, 2025 from 9 AM-4 PM at The Writing Center! This event allows faculty to work on scholarly projects, pursue grants, collaborate, and get help with drafting, editing, and refining. Registration link: shorturl.at/ZDCAz

With support from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, Jeffrey Johnson, Professor of History, traveled to Qatar and Oman in March 2024. Museum visits enriched his teaching at PC, adding global perspectives to courses on Western Civ, Public History, and Historical Memory.

Hannah Gavin has received a RI-INBRE grant for her project on phage-host interactions! She’ll mentor undergrads in lab and bioinformatics to study how phage genes determine phage host range and how they contribute to bacteriostatic or bactericidal activity. Congrats, Dr. Gavin!

Congrats to Dr. Robert Hasson, Assistant Professor of Social Work, for receiving funding from RI-INBRE! This ongoing study from 2022 explores the relationship between mental health and environmental factors for children who experience forced migration and are resettled in the US.

Dr. Stack has received RI-INBRE funding! His group studies how gut microbes digest drugs, affecting their safety and efficacy. The project will characterize drug-modifying enzymes quantitatively as correlations are found by quantifying gene abundance linked to drug metabolism.

Happy summer, everyone! Our summer hours are Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, and Fridays from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM. These hours will be in effect through Friday, 8/22. To get in contact with us, please email [email protected]

Dr. Brandon Martinez has received a travel fellowship from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation for his project on religion and Japanese culture! His research will enhance his Religion and American Culture course and support the development of a new East Asian Religions class

Dr. Molly Driessen has received a travel fellowship from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation! She will travel to Norway, Sweden and Finland to enhance her teaching, pedagogy, and course syllabi focused on two undergraduate social work courses at PC.

Reporting live from the 2025 Summer Writing Retreat, co-hosted by SPaRC and The Writing Center. Faculty have been spending the day delving into scholarly projects and had the opportunity to participate in a midday yoga break! Thanks to all who’ve attended!

PC has received an NIH grant to acquire a Nikon CSU-W1 spinning disk confocal microscope system to support diverse biomedical research. Congrats to Dr. Miller, PI of the grant, and the 9 other PC faculty from the biology, psychology, and chemistry & biochemistry departments!

With support from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, Dr. Trina Vithayathil spent 10 days in Southeast Asia and 2 weeks in the Caribbean studying the South Asian Diaspora. Her research enriched two PC courses and inspired a new one debuting in 2026.

With support from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, Ann Shafer spent 5 weeks in Tunisia and Sicily documenting historic sites and meeting preservation experts. She has integrated her research into her teaching, enriching classes with photos, videos, and insights.

With support from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, Dr. Eva Wheeler traveled to Cabo Verde for 4 weeks. She explored language as a conduit of culture and identity in the Cape Verdean archipelago, which enriched her teaching and scholarship in Black Studies at PC.