The Diversity Initiative (DI) Faculty Relations Committee awarded the first annual Faculty Research Support Award to Michele Gelfand, psychology, and Seung-Kyung Kim, women's studies. The nominees were so exceptional that the committee decided to provide two awards instead of one.

"Both recipients stood out because of their high quality proposals and [because] their research promises to teach us more about the impact of diversity in international and organizational settings," says Gabriele Strauch, co-chair of the DI Faculty Relations Committee.

The DI Faculty Relations Committee, with support from the Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of Graduate Studies, began this award to increase the visibility and coherence of campus diversity activities. "A lot of times people are not aware of what other people are doing on campus, so this award gives us a chance to highlight and publicize those activities under one umbrella," says Marvin Scott, co-chair of the Awards Committee.

Award winners are granted faculty release time from one class for one semester. In addition, they are given an honorary advisory position on the Faculty Relations Committee for one academic year. Recipients are asked to disseminate information about the project (what they were able to do during their faculty release time) at the Annual DI Research Forum at the end of the award period.

As recipients of this award Gelfand and Kim received the honors mentioned and will present the results of their projects at the Annual DI Research Forum on April 8. Both have made significant contributions to their areas of expertise as well as the University of Maryland and are currently receiving their faculty release time, which has provided each of them with unique opportunities.

Gelfand, who has been teaching at the university for two years, says her research and teaching interests all focus on one theme: incorporating elements of culture into theories of social and organizational psychology in order to understand what is culture specific and universal regarding psychological processes in organizations. Over the last seven years Gelfand has conducted cross-cultural research in China, Cost Rica, Estonia, Greece, Japan, Turkey, and the United States.

Her research program focuses on three areas: cultural influences on negotiation, conflict resolution and justice; diversity in groups; and theoretical developments and methodological issues in basic cross-cultural research and identifying dimensions of cultural variation.

"There is an amazing amount of work being done on diversity issues on this campus, and I’m very glad to have the opportunity to connect with people who are committed to these issues," Gelfand says. "And, being involved in the Faculty Relations Committee has already exposed me to many inspiring people," she adds.

Gelfand has used her extra release time to work on the two main projects: editing a special issue on cross-cultural and national issues in organizational psychology for Applied Psychology: International Review, as well as write her own paper on culture and negotiation for the issue, and developing a prospectus for a book, which envisions being titled "Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Organizational Psychology" (an advanced text for Ph.D. students).

Kim, who has been at the university for eight years, teaches various courses directly related to diversity issues. She taught the first Asian American course, "Asian American Women," in 1993 before the Asian American Studies Project (AASP) was established. Also, she served as the coordinator of the AASP for two years, is a member of the President's Commission of Ethnic Minority Issues, and serves as the co-chair of the Korea Council.

Kim says receiving this award gave her the opportunity or "push" to commit herself to more transnational research. Kim applied for this award from South Korea where she was on sabbatical conducting anthropological fieldwork last spring. When she returned from Korea she wanted to link her international studies to Asian American Studies. As a result, she established an intensive three-week course titled "Asian American Elderly Women and Poverty," which she taught last winter.

In the course Kim and her students explored the link between immigrant women in the U.S. and how they are affected by welfare policy. They interviewed and spent time with elderly Asian American women living in two different low-income apartment complexes, as well as four different service providers of these women in D.C.

"I’m grateful that this award gave me the impetus to get me thinking about the connections among international studies, U.S. ethnic studies, and women’s studies," Kim adds.

If you are interested in applying for the Faculty Support Award for 1999-2000 or would like more information, please contact Marvin Scott at 405-2480 or ms24@umail.umd.edu or Michele Gelfand at 405-6972 or mgelfand@bss3.umd.edu. Applications must be submitted by March 17, 1999.

--JAMIE FEEHERY-SIMMONS