Five WVU faculty members have been named recipients of the University’s 2023-24 Big 12 Faculty Fellowship Program:
• Manal AlNatour, associate professor in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
• Olga Bruyaka, associate professor in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, Department of Management
• Katie Corcoran, associate professor in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
• Dylan Collins, associate professor in the College of Creative Arts, School of Art and Design
• Ashley Martucci, service associate professor in the College of Applied Human Sciences, School of Education
The Big 12 Faculty Fellowship Program is designed to stimulate scholarly initiatives through the creation of an academic community within the institutions in the Big 12 Athletic Conference.
The program offers WVU faculty members the opportunity to travel to member institutions to exchange ideas and research.
Faculty may work on collaborative research, consult with faculty and students, offer a series of lectures or symposia, acquire new skills or take advantage of a unique archive or laboratory facility.
For her Big 12 Fellowship, AlNatour will visit one of the premier libraries focused on Arabic and Middle Eastern studies. She is working with University of Texas at Austin’s renowned Middle Eastern scholar Professor Mounira Charrad and Professor Olla Najah Al-Shalchi, the Arabic Program coordinator in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies.
AlNatour will also meet with government agencies and associations that support Afghan refugees in Austin. Her project examines the effects the Afghan state’s collapse has had on women’s livelihoods, their strategies for navigating social spaces and resistance to Taliban oppression.
Bruyaka is working with strategic management scholars at Texas Tech University for her Big 12 Fellowship. She will be working on a collaborative research project with Professors Hans Hansen and Alanna Hirshman, as well as Shen Grady, a management PhD student.
Bruyaka and colleagues are working to understand firms’ strategic communication about their corporate social responsibility initiatives. In addition, she will be working with Hirshman on a joint research project focusing on how the media reacts to firms’ strategic communication about their CSR initiatives.
Corcoran’s community-engaged, health-related research focuses on a rare disease known as intestinal malrotation. She will work with assistant professor and epidemiologist Sydney Martinez at the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center.
Corcoran and Martinez will complete a strategic research grant plan and create the timeline for their project that has been recommended for National Science Foundation funding. They will also meet with the OUHSC Clinical Research Data Warehouse Team to discuss the creation of the first multi-institutional clinical registry for intestinal malrotation.
For his Big 12 Fellowship project, Collins is heading to the University of Oklahoma to participate as a visiting artist in the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance Confab hosted by the School of Visual Arts at the University of Oklahoma. In conjunction with Professor Leticia Bajuyo, Collins will work with student members and community members on a community-based iron pour.
This iron pour is the focal point of the MSA Confab and neatly integrates Collins’ research on public and community-based artwork and the intersection of fine art practices with emerging technologies.
Martucci will visit Iowa State University so she can engage in a workshop session of their Emerging Leaders Academy and interact with current participants and alumni from the program. She will meet with the ELA’s co-directors Katharine Hensley, faculty success coordinator in the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, and Tera Jordon, assistant provost for faculty development and associate professor in human development and family studies.
The ELA was established in 2009 as an academic-year initiative to better prepare faculty and professional and scientific staff who serve in leadership roles or aspire to hold leadership positions. It is expected that these experiences and face-to-face discussions will help move a similar program forward at West Virginia University and generate an Iowa State-WVU shared faculty development workshop with Big 12 partners.
Each award recipient will receive up to $2,500 to support their travel and research with Big 12 colleagues.