CLAS RESEARCH RESOURCE November 2020
SUPPORTING THE RESEARCH JOURNEY: A WELCOME FROM JOSHUA WEINER The path to a scholarly career is long and daunting, but ultimately rewarding. My Dean’s Office colleagues and I are eager to support researchers at every level —undergrads, grad students, postdocs and fellows, and faculty of all ranks — each step of the way. People have a proclivity for round numbers. There are many theories as to why—both psychological (they are easy to compare and understand) and anatomical (we have 10 fingers on which to count)— but it is not always very rational. Though societies have used number systems based on 60 (residual in our seconds, minutes, and degrees) and 12 (eggs and donuts—and you can count manually this way too, if you use your thumb as a pointer and count the 3 visible segments of your remaining 4 fingers on a hand), our society is most obsessed with 10’s. I’m certainly not immune, and thus I’ve been reflecting on how this even-numbered year of 2020 has seen me turn 50 while marking 30 years in scientific research. As I was writing this, as luck would have it, social media showed me this rather apropos quote of the day, from Muhammad Ali: “A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” I’m relieved to find that I can pass
The Greatest’s test, as my varied research experiences have taught me many things that inform my work now in the Dean’s Office. I can still remember long weekends testing subjects on memory tasks for my undergraduate honors thesis research in cognitive psychology, and the excitement I felt when I could finally analyze the data and confirm my first hypotheses. I also recall lab courses in which my group and I had to battle crashing Commodore computers (outdated even then) during late-night sessions collecting EEG data from each other. From this I got my first sense of just how hard one must work to acquire new knowledge. This is key to the experiential learning that we, as the largest college of a major research university, bring to our undergraduate students as they go beyond easy answers to seek novel insights. A good example is provided by an off-cycle proposal for Student Technology Fee support that my office granted this month to the Department of Biology. There, students in a year-long course series will sequence and assemble entire genomes of lesser-known organisms, a long-term project that will not only teach them important lab skills but will also generate publications disseminating new knowledge to the field.
and I knew that my success in publishing and acquiring funding was up to me. This is pressure enough in the best of times, but we in the Dean’s Office are acutely aware that research disruptions from the global pandemic and concurrent social unrest are contributing to the stress our probationary faculty feel. With my fellow associate deans, I’ve been working on suggestions and best practices for mentoring our assistant professors and ensuring that their contract extension and promotion and tenure reviews fairly reflect the increased challenges they have had to face. We’ve also just sent out 12 award letters for our Dean’s Micro-Grants aimed at helping probationary faculty move forward in a difficult time.
Moving through the ranks of associate to full professor, I slowly started to lift my head up from my desk and take a look around me. I served on more collegiate and university committees, learned a lot about teamwork and consensusbuilding, and got more and more excited by the breadth and quality of the scholarship within CLAS; it was this, more than anything, that led me to my present position. I also took advantage of a CDA to live for several months in Switzerland, working on a new project with collaborators there, an amazing experience that my family still daydreams about five years later. It was thus satisfying As a graduate student, I will admit that I sometimes doubted to read through the many CDA proposals submitted by my career choice and wondered whether I was up to the task our faculty this year, and to see so many fresh ideas and of completing a Ph.D. thesis over more than five years. I’m interesting projects that will increase the renown of our sure there are some who sailed through graduate school college and institution. Results of the review process will without a moment’s lack of confidence, but I now know that my go out soon. experience was far from unique. One major confidence builder was the support I was able to earn from the NSF and NIH in My round-number reflections highlight why I enjoy my the form of pre-doctoral fellowships. Writing these honed my work in the Dean’s Office so much: every day is different, critical thinking skills and the positive comments of reviewers and each provides at least one opportunity to apply my confirmed that I was on the right track in my research. Coming varied experiences and perspectives to help further the full-circle, on December 10, I will be moderating a panel put research mission of our college’s undergraduates, graduate on by the OVPR’s Research Development Office entitled Inside students, postdocs, and faculty. Round number milestones the NIH Study Section: A Discussion/Q&A with 5 Experienced aside, 2020 has been a challenging year to say the least. I Reviewers. There, I’ll share some insights I’ve gained as a suspect I’m not alone in looking forward with hope and reviewer of graduate and postdoctoral fellowship applications embracing the decidedly odd-numbered 2021, divisible by as well standard R01’s. Keep an eye out for that announcement nothing particularly appealing (1, 43, 47, and itself, for the if you are an NIH grant-seeker. record). My colleagues and I will do our best to make the next year a strong one for our college; if we can help you, Joining our college as an assistant professor in 2004 was the don’t hesitate to contact me (joshua-weiner@uiowa.edu). greatest thrill of my career. For the first time, I had complete independence in following my research interests. At the same time, I could almost hear that tenure clock ticking
CLAS RESEARCH AND INFRASTRUCTURE UNITS: Associate Dean for Research CLAS Technology Services Space, Facilities, and Equipment Grant Support Office Office of Sustainability and the Environment
FROM GRANT ASSISTANCE TO DATA COLLECTION, THE IOWA SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH CENTER CAN HELP YOUR RESEARCH SUCCEED This month, we are featuring another one of our key partners, the Iowa Social Science Research Center (ISRC). The ISRC, housed in the Public Policy Center and supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research and CLAS, is a critical resource that supports interdisciplinary social science research across campus. The unit offers grant development support, data collection and management services, transcription services, as well as consulting and workshops on survey development and social science research methods. Fred Boehmke, Professor of Political Science, directs the center and brings expertise in social science research methodology and political polling. He conducts research on the diffusion of public policies across American states and on the consequences of direct democracy on state politics. He recently received a National Science Foundation RAPID grant to study the diffusion of state policy responses to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
The ISRC also offers a variety of workshops on statistical software programs and other resources that support social science research. The workshops are offered free of charge, and more than 800 registrants participated in the past year. Staff also provide free one-hour consultations on a wide variety of data collection, data analysis, and software questions. Please visit the ISRC website to learn more about how they can support your research efforts. Kristi Fitzpatrick Director, Grant Support Office College of Liberal Arts and Sciences kristi-fitzpatrick@uiowa.edu 319-467-0296
The CLAS Grant Support Office works closely with the grant team at the Iowa Social Science Research Center: Kris Ackerson, Grant Development Manager, and Kate Gloer, Research Program Manager.
In addition to grant support, the ISRC offers a variety of data collection and transcription services, including a wide variety of survey data collection modes (e.g., phone, mail, web, in person), focus group facilitation, consultation on survey project design and instruments, and data entry and transcription.
Under their leadership, ISRC supported a record number of grant applications in AY 20—81 proposals for a total of $19 million—and supported 93 researchers from 18 units across campus, including the social science departments in CLAS.
The ISRC employs a talented staff who collectively have decades of experience in managing survey and transcription projects. In addition, they offer a robust training program for their student employees who gain specialized knowledge and real-world research experience. In the past year, the ISRC completed 10,000 interviews for UI researchers and supported 11,000 hours of student employment.
The $6.7 million awarded for those ISRC-supported efforts is more than the four previous years combined, in part due to their efforts to promote funding opportunities and offering activities aimed at supporting grant-seeking. These activities include the creation of a new grant writing group that brought faculty from different departments together to dedicate time to grant writing.
USE SITENOW TO EASILY BUILD A NEW WEBSITE FOR YOUR LAB OR STUDIO CLAS Web Services is transitioning lab and studio websites to the central SiteNow platform. The new lab sites will share the same branding and professional look as other University of Iowa websites, while offering you the freedom to build and maintain it. Assistant Professor Thomas Folland of the Department of Physics and Astronomy is one of the first in CLAS to use SiteNow to develop a website for his Quantum Nanophotonic Materials Lab. Parts of the site are still under construction, but if you check it out at folland.lab.uiowa.edu, I think you’ll see that it looks great and works well for the user. The SiteNow service is a free website-creation platform built specifically for the University of Iowa community. Visit https://sitenow.uiowa.edu to sign up, or contact Mark Bennett or Mark Fullenkamp in the CLAS Web Services office if you need assistance. Departmental websites will continue to be built and supported by CLAS Web Services. But if you are looking for an attractive website for your personal research lab or arts studio work, SiteNow empowers you to build a high-quality website right away. It includes reliable web hosting, top security, and a dedicated support team here at the University of Iowa. It is available to
all current University of Iowa faculty and affiliates. In addition to research lab and studio sites, it can also be used to build sites for conferences, student organizations, and other needs. SiteNow is built using Drupal, an open source content management system. The base SiteNow platform is provided as-is and free of charge; extra design and support are not included with the free service, but when it is time to grow, you can work with the central development team to customize the website to fit your needs.
Mark Fullenkamp Director, CLAS Web Services
WHILE YOU WERE OUT . . . Over the last six months, while many of us spent most of our time working from home, the campus has been changing in many ways, requiring moves and departmental relocations. One of the most impactful campus projects underway is the razing of Seashore Hall. Just as summer started, abatement crews began working inside the building removing asbestos and preparing it for demolition. Over the course of the next six months, major demolition activities will begin with the removal of the center section. By the end of the academic year, Seashore will be but a campus memory; in its place, an open green space that will open up the pedestrian corridor between Iowa Avenue and Jefferson Street. And what happened to the occupants of Seashore? With the opening of the Psychological and Brain Sciences Building, all of the department’s research activities moved out of Seashore and into the new building and Spence Labs. The Department of Sociology and Criminology moved to newly renovated space on the fourth floor of North Hall. Eventually, Sociology and Criminology is expected to move to
Former Communications Center space
the Pentacrest, following the phased modernization of Pentacrest buildings. Lastly, English as a Second Language consolidated its faculty into newly renovated space adjacent to its departmental office in the University Capitol Centre. Also missing from campus is the Communications Center. Located on Madison Avenue north of Lindquist Center, it began as the home of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In recent years, the building served as temporary swing space and housed the Division of Interdisciplinary Programs, CLAS Strategic Communications and a campus computer testing center. The Division of Interdisciplinary Programs moved to the lower level of Phillips Hall; CLAS Strategic Communications to Jefferson Building; and computer testing is now done in Chemistry Building and Phillips Hall. Currently a vacant lot, the Communications Center site will be an open green space upon completion of utility work in the area. Eugene Buck Director of Facilties
Design for green space in former Seashore Hall space
FEATURED FUNDING PROGRAM
The Law & Science Program considers proposals that address social scientific studies of law and law-like systems of rules, as well as studies of how science and technology are applied in legal contexts. Deadlines: January 15, 2021 and August 2, 2021
National Science Foundation – Social and Economic Sciences (SES)
The National Science Foundation’s Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES), housed within the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE), supports projects that explore individual, social and organizational behavior through support for disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, as well developing and sustaining social science infrastructure. SES offers programs in several areas of study, including: The Sociology program supports basic research on all forms of human social organization--societies, institutions, groups and demography--and processes of individual and institutional change. Deadlines: January 15, 2021 and August 16, 2021 The Economics program supports research designed to improve the understanding of the processes and institutions of the U.S. economy and of the world system of which it is a part. Deadlines: January 18, 2021 and August 18, 2021 The Decision, Risk and Management Sciences program supports scientific research that increases the understanding and effectiveness of decision making by individuals, groups, organizations, and society. Deadlines: January 18, 2021 and August 18, 2021
The Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics (MMS) Program is an interdisciplinary program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences that supports the development of innovative analytical and statistical methods and models for those sciences. Deadlines: January 28, 2021 and August 26, 2021
The Security and Preparedness (SAP) Program supports basic scientific research that advances knowledge and understanding of issues broadly related to global and national security. Deadlines: January 15, 2021 and August 16, 2021 If you are interested in pursuing National Science Foundation funding in the social sciences or other discipline, I encourage you to check out the Virtual NSF Grants Conference being held during the weeks of November 16 and November 30. The conference will touch on new programs, future directions, the merit review process, proposal preparation and more. Please see the website for the most up-to-date information and registration details. And as always, please contact your Grant Support Office staff member with questions regarding any of your grant-related needs.
Identifying and Capturing Research Funding Kristi Fitzpatrick, director of the CLAS Grant Support Office, and colleagues from the OVPR Research Development Office co-hosted a virtual session titled, Identifying and Capturing Research Funding. Here’s a recording of the presentation (you’ll need to log in with your HawkID and password). Watch video . . .
MEET THE RESEARCHER: ANA MERINO What is the focus of your work?
I am very versatile as a writer and as a comic scholar. I believe in creativity and research and I been developing both passions. Among my published works are books of poetry, plays, novels, and academic books on comic criticism. At this moment I am working on the project of a long novel that will combine historical research and fiction. In my research, I am focusing on the creative process of writing literature and of creating comics as well as on the ways that societies interact with popular culture and literature to understand their own contradictions and diverse ideologies.
Tell us about the broad impact it has/could have.
Creativity and imagination are key for understanding the human condition, fostering reconciliation, and advancing societies. It is the sense of creative knowledge that allows us to explain our complexities over hundreds of years and to improve and grow in the future. Writers represent a powerful and energetic voice in diverse societies that are in need of social commitment, empathy, and compassion. As part of my creative experience, I truly enjoy the opportunity to teach various types of workshops on creative writing and to open dialogues with different literary expressions. I believe that creative literacy is very important and that writers engaging with communities can have far-reaching effects.
What excites you about the environment in CLAS?
Amazing experiences and collaborations with incredible colleagues. I came to Iowa to create, develop and direct the Spanish MFA and it happened with the constant support of CLAS. Now we have a wonderful program with incredible alumni that are writing great books.
I have co-organized conferences and exhibits on comics with colleagues from the Departments of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and Cinematic Arts. I even collaborated with the Department of Theatre Arts, acting in one of their pieces for the New Play Festival back in 2018. In 2017, I put together a play in Spanish with great colleagues from the Dance Department and other members of the community. I have also been collaborating with the Iowa Youth Writing Project since its foundation, because it was in parallel with my department’s Spanish Creative Literacy Project. The environment in CLAS offers a space for creativity and lots of inspiring interactions.
What are your hobbies and pursuits outside of work?
I love to talk with friends and share good moments with them. To go to see plays and concerts. I also enjoy reading lots of comics and books of poetry. I like to travel and wonder in different places and look for inspiration. I have a passion for historical sites and archives to have a better understanding of our present, keeping in mind our past. And I also enjoy doing creative literacy workshops with children in the community.
Favorite things to do in IC?
I have the privilege of being on the Board of Directors of the Riverside Theater and that is an amazing experience. I love to help them with their programming and always do everything that I can to support the amazing team at Iowa City’s only professional theater. Iowa City has two wonderful places for an avid reader like me: Daydreams Comics, our beloved comic store, and Prairie Lights, our superb bookstore, both places in the heart of our charming downtown. But, if I have
a difficult day, I like to go to the Museum of Natural History in the Pentacrest, meditate under the skeleton of the 47-foot Atlantic whale, or contemplate the Laysan Island Cyclorama. The amazing collection of taxidermy in the museum gives a sense of time with the long perspective of species evolving over millennia.
Ana Merino is Professor of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and a 2016 Collegiate Scholar. Winner of the 2020 Nadal Award for her novel El mapa de los afectos (The Map of the Affections), she developed the Spanish MFA program at the UI, and was its director from its foundation in March 2011 until December 2018. She has published nine books of poems and is the winner of the Fray Luis de León Award and the Adonais Award for her poetry. She is also the author of a youth novel, children’s books, and four plays. Merino has written extensive criticism on comics and graphic novels. She has two academic books and a monograph. Merino has won the Diario de Avisos prize for her short articles on comics for the literary magazine Leer and has won an Accésit of the Carmen de Burgos Award for one of her journalistic pieces for El País. She has curated four comic book exhibitions.
CLAS RESEARCH ROUNDUP Send us your research news
Jacki Rand’s research, Exploring the echo teaching illuminate Native chamber: Ekdale receives history $1M grant to study social media algorithms, extremism Dance Gala stays in motion on virtual stage Pregnancy 24/7: Kara Monica Correia connects Whitaker awarded $3.5 million to study impact generations of UI design of sedentary behavior on at Figge Art Museum pregnancy exhibition Caroline Tolbert and UI Ph.D. alum publish book on accessible voting laws
Keum Suk Gendry-Kim named winner of the 2020 Krause Essay Prize
Gary Pierce awarded NIH grant to study isolated systolic hypertension Iowa Journalism Professor Melissa Tully receives grant to study health misinformation in Africa Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz book wins prestigious award from National Communication Association
Learn about stuttering and people who stutter from the nation’s leading experts Office of Sustainability announces funding for research projects The Milky Way galaxy has a clumpy halo
CAROLINE TOLBERT AND UI PH.D. ALUM PUBLISH BOOK ON ACCESSIBLE VOTING LAWS Tolbert, professor of political science and University Distinguished Professor, and Michael Ritter (PhD 2017) study the importance of mail-in and early voting, voter-registration laws, What happens when the “mailbox becomes the ballot box”? University of Iowa Professor of Political Science Caroline Tolbert and Michael Ritter, assistant professor of political science at Washington State University, give research-based answers in an important new study. In their recently published book, Accessible Elections: How State Governments Can Help Americans Vote, Tolbert and Ritter delve into mail-in and early voting, same-day and automatic voter registration, and quality election administration. Ripped-from-the-headlines topics include wait times, counting ballots, polling hours and locations, provisional ballots, and other issues familiar to anyone who has followed the 2020 election. The book, published by Oxford University Press, explores decades of experimentation in the 50 states about how to update and modernize elections, and comes as the 2020 election unfolds amid unprecedented circumstances during the COVID-19 crisis.
“This is a unique election,” said Tolbert. “We’re trying to hold it in the middle of a pandemic. We haven’t done that for 100 years. They’re predicting massive voter turnout because people’s lives are really uprooted.” Because of the coronavirus pandemic, only six states do not allow people to vote by mail this year, which is the closest the country has come to nationwide mail voting. Consequently, a major difference in this election from most previous ones is that the U.S. may not know which candidates won on Election Day, November 3, because some states will still need to count the mail-in ballots that arrive after election day. “States like Oregon, Colorado, California, and several others have used mail-in voting systems for 10 years,” Tolbert said. “In each case, the state saved tons of money, there were no cases of fraud, and often times there was evidence of increased voter turnout.” “According to census data, only 14 percent of all votes in the U.S. were cast by alternative methods such as mail-in or early voting in 2002. That same number was nearly 40 percent in 2018. And it will be even more in 2020,” Tolbert said.
States vary in mail-in ballot accessibility, with some only offering it to people who have an excuse for not voting in person, others allowing voters to request a mail-in ballot if they want one (such as in Iowa), and still others automatically mailing all residents a ballot. Similarly, some states allow voters to register the same day that they vote, but in others, voters must be registered in advance. Tolbert said same-day registration is important for election accessibility because it collapses the two steps of registering to vote and casting a ballot into one, and benefits young people or people who don’t follow politics. “Additionally,” Tolbert said, “the new frontier is automatic voter registration. This means that anyone who interacts with the government in any way—whether to get a driver’s license, or something else—will be automatically registered to vote unless they opt out.” Tolbert said that one motivation behind writing Accessible Elections was how little evidence there was to determine whether mail-in voting, same-day registration, and other voting laws made a difference in increasing turnout. This study looked at the probability of people voting based on where they live or if they’ve voted in the past, controlling for other factors. Based on those data, the authors found that making voting easier does increase turnout—in states with well-run elections in the first place. In a state that does a poor job of conducting elections, mail-in voting doesn’t increase voter turnout. In a state that’s good at administering elections, however, turnout is much higher with same-day registration and mail-in ballots.
live in a state where they generally do a pretty good job conducting elections.” “We found that in some states, the laws help to increase turnout, and they also help to reduce inequality in who votes,” Tolbert said. “And we credit our success in determining that to having a better way to really measure what voting patterns look like, using national voter rolls of millions of people, with vote histories for the same individual over time.” Other findings in the book include that people with lower incomes are often nonvoters, but are more likely to vote if given the opportunity to do so by mail or to register at the polls and vote on the same day. Tolbert added that racial and ethnic minorities in general benefit from same-day registration, early voting, or simply living in a state that does a good job of administering elections. COVID-19 and changes in voting because of the pandemic have added “lighter fluid” to national interest in mail voting and early voting, Tolbert said, adding that she and Ritter wrote Accessible Elections in part for policymakers to read, so they can improve how the U.S. conducts elections. “The pandemic has not been fun for a lot of reasons, but good things can come out of the bad,” Tolbert said. “And it may be a tipping point that will help our nation to transition to a better way to conduct elections.”
“Same-day registration is really important,” Tolbert said. “It’s one “The news today is pretty negative,” Tolbert added. of the most important of all these laws, and it matters in midterm “And our book is really not negative. Our focus is on all and presidential elections. And another thing that matters is if you this progress that’s happening right under our noses, and how it actually works. So that theme of positivity and hope is our big message.” Caroline Tolbert, Distinguished University Professor, joined the UI Department of Political Science faculty in 2006, and was named Collegiate Scholar by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2009. A prolific author, her research explores voting, elections, and public opinion. She holds a joint appointment with the UI Public Policy Center.
Turn the page for a post-election follow-up conversation with Professor Tolbert
After this article was written (and after the 2020 elections), Associate Dean Joshua Weiner asked Professor Tolbert some follow-up questions. Here’s their conversation: Associate Dean Weiner: Now that the data are in, what percent of ballots cast in the 2020 election were mail-in? Was that about what you expected, or higher/ lower? Professor Tolbert: The 2020 milestone election saw nearly two-thirds of all votes cast early--a record 101 million--roughly one-third of which were in-person and two-thirds by mail. Despite the lack of federal legislation, in practice mail voting went nationwide, as the mailbox became the ballot box in the 2020 elections. We don’t have the final numbers yet on the percent of ballots cast in 2020 via mail (they are still being counted), but it appears to be more than four-in-ten ballots. This is significantly higher than in 2018 or in any previous US election. JW: Did we see a higher turnout in states that offered mail-in voting and/or same-day registration? CJT: The United States Election Project reports the highest voter turnout was in Minnesota, Maine, Colorado, and Iowa, where nearly 8 in 10 eligible adults voted. Voters in these states could vote by mail. All mail voting (no in-person voting) began in Oregon in the 2000 election; in 2020 their turnout rate was 75%.
Colorado also has all-mail elections. Some states with very large populations also use all-mail voting such as California--its turnout rate in 2020 was around 65%. In general, mail voting tends to go with states with higher voter turnout. JW: What, so far, has been the most surprising aspect of the voting data from last week? CJT: Historic voter turnout meant many new voters. Young people (ages 18-29) were decisive in the 2020 presidential election. While an estimated 46% of eligible young voters cast a ballot in 2016, similar to 2012, Tufts University’s CIRCLE estimates more than half of young people (53-56%) may end up voting in 2020. [Note: CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, is a non-partisan, independent research organization focused on youth civic engagement in the United States, based at Tufts University.] JW: Do you think the trend towards mail-in and other alternate methods of voting will continue to expand even after the pandemic is behind us? CJT: I am hopeful it will and make voting more accessible in all fifty states.