Grant News

DR. CYNTHIA BANSAK AWARDED IHS GRANT

 Professor of Economics Dr. Cynthia Bansak has been awarded grant funding from the Institute of Humane Studies for a 12-month research project entitled "Real Costs, Real Constraints: Local Cost-of-Living Variation, Inflation Burden, and the Limits on
Economic Freedom Across U.S. Metropolitan Areas." By disaggregating housing, energy, healthcare, and tax costs, this project will examine how local inflation burdens vary, whether regulations alter wage-price dynamics, and how regional cost differences affect labor mobility and opportunity.

DR. PRECIOUS HALL AWARDED NETVUE GRANT

Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Precious Hall received grant funding from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Vocation (NetVUE) to develop and offer a new course in fall 2027. Called “Politics as a Vocation,” the course design builds on Max Weber’s 1919 speech and challenges Political Science majors and minors to grapple with and cultivate their ethic of responsibility and the necessary balance between passion, responsibility, and proportion. Students will engage in analysis of various political leaders and will be brought face-to-face with their own development of being and ethos of leadership while being asked to identify their values and reflect of the responsibilities that come with calling and purpose. 

DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP TEAM RECEIVES NNYLN GRANT 

The ODY Digital Scholarship team led by Eric Williams-Bergen and Nicole Roche has received a new grant from the Northern New York Libraries Network (NNYLN) for the “Engaging Community through Documentary” project.  The project focuses on creating a scalable, sustainable model for documentary practice and community-engaged storytelling that strengthens the relationship between St. Lawrence's library, regional partners, and the broader North Country community. By leveraging the team's shared expertise in digital scholarship, digital preservation, and digital media production, the project will help faculty and students produce technically sound, socially responsible documentary work that meaningfully benefits North Country communities and generates content suitable for library archives.

ALDEN TRUST GRANT AWARD FUNDS CYBERSECURITY LAB RENOVATION 

Thanks to a recent $200,000 grant award from the George I. Alden Trust and project team led by Computer Science faculty members Ed Harcourt and  Kevin Angstadt, St. Lawrence University’s new Cybersecurity Major has a  newly renovated classroom-lab space in Bewkes Hall. Open to students in fall 2026, the Cybersecurity Lab offers students hands-on, experiential learning opportunities through simulations, collaborative projects, and real-world problem solving in one of today’s fastest-growing fields. Additional grant funding from the J.M. McDonald Foundation will support the purchase of new computing equipment for the space. 

DR. SHU JIANG, PSYCHOLOGY, AWARDED APS GRANT

Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Shu Jiang, has received a prestigious grant from the Association for Psychological Science for her innovative educational initiative, “Psychology Unbound.” Her project will address two persistent gaps in undergraduate psychology education: 1. Students often struggle to see themselves represented in the field; and 2. Many are unaware of the wide array of nonacademic career paths available to psychology majors. To bridge these gaps, “Psychology Unbound” will develop a permanent, open-access digital library of professionally produced video interviews featuring contemporary psychologists from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, subfields of psychology, and career sectors.  

FREEMAN FOUNDATION GRANTS SUPPORT FOURTH YEAR OF STUDENT INTERNSHIPS IN ASIA

Dr. Yanqiu Zheng, Associate Director of Asia and Pacific Programs, successfully led the Center for Intercultural & International Studies (CIIS) team in securing a fourth year of grant funding from the Freeman Foundation for student internships in Asia. In the summer of 2026, up to 10 St. Lawrence undergraduates will gain valuable international experience in fields ranging from marketing, communications, and AI data integration through their internship host sites in Vietnam and Thailand.