Georgia State University has announced the recipients of its fiscal year 2026 Internal Grant Awards, reaffirming its ongoing commitment to supporting the university’s research community.

A total of $307,300 in funding will go to 21 faculty members across 17 departments whose projects reflect the university’s broad strengths in research, scholarship and creative activity across disciplines. These competitive internal grants recognize and empower faculty at every stage of the research process, fostering innovation that drives academic excellence at Georgia State.

Winners include the following individuals in three overall grant categories:

Research Initiation Grants promote the research, scholarly and artistic activity of the faculty, and foster academic excellence within the university. Winners are:

• Brennan Chandler, Learning Sciences – Exploring the Role of Spelling in Word Learning Efficiency for Students with Dyslexia

• Denise Davidson, History – The Revolutionary Mediterranean: Traders, Diplomats, and the Power of Ideas, 1780–1820

• Zhicheng Jin, Chemistry – Advancing Local Anesthesia: Peptidic Tools for Transforming Ion Channel Blockers Into Long-Acting and On-Demand Solutions

• Natasha Prudent Malmin, Population Health Sciences – Community-Researcher Collaborative Hub Pilot: Bankhead Neighborhood

• Cynthia Ann Stappenbeck, Psychology – Evaluation of a Brief Web-Based Intervention to Reduce Alcohol-Facilitated Intimate Partner Violence

• Yue Wang, Computer Science – Intelligent Spectrum Sensing, Utilization and Coexistence in Dynamic Radio Environments

Scholarly Support Grants support the research, scholarly and artistic activity that will result in a significant and prestigious product or outcome (e.g., book, external funding, prestigious fellowship, etc.). Nine awards were granted:

• Emily Baker, Art & Design – Witness Mark: Sculptural Interventions in the Archive

• Janie Rebekah Copple, Educational Policy Studies – What to Expect When You're PhDing: Examining the Experiences of Mothers Pursuing Doctoral Degrees

• Michael Frisby, Educational Policy Studies – Development and Application of the White Short Critical Consciousness Index

• Mathew D. Gayman, Sociology – Jail Exposure & Recidivism Study: The Impact of Using Jail Sanctions in Probation

• Anthony Kreis, Law – Transatlanticism and the Midnight Hour of American Constitutional Development

• Ben Marx, Economics – Understanding Charitable Giving Using Confidential Datasets: Disparities After Disasters and the Causal Effect of Wealth

• Monique Moultrie, Religious Studies – Choosing Me: Exploring Black Women’s Experiences of Religion, Family, and Legacy

• Veronica Newton, Sociology – There’s Racism in the Building and Patriarchy in the Yard: Black Women Navigate Discrimination at an HPWI

• Susan Reid, Film, Media & Theatre – In the Dirt Film Project

Arts & Humanities Grants support research investigators in the arts and humanities in advancing their scholarship and creative activity for professional career development and to enhance their professional visibility and standing in their respective fields. The six awardees in this category are:

• Jessica N. Berry, Philosophy – Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction

• Jeremy Bolen, Art & Design – Future Notes for De-Extinct Species

• Christie J. Hartley, Philosophy – The Ethics of Abortion

• Kesha Shalyn James, Communication – A Spectacle of Double Consciousness in Black Horror

• Shuai Li, World Languages & Cultures – Training a Small Language Model for Assessing Pragmatics: The Case of Request-Making in L2 Chinese

• Serena Perrone, Drawing, Painting & Printmaking – Site-Specific Art Installation, Museo Regionale Archeologico Salinas, Palermo, Sicily

For more information about Georgia State University research and its impact, visit research.gsu.edu.