Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Jackson State University, a historically Black educational institution in Mississippi, received a $509,000 multi-year grant from the National Science Foundation to examine if the exposure of COVID-19 related news in tandem with the shootings of unarmed Black civilians has a cumulative impact on Blacks’ mental health. D’Andra Orey, a professor of political science at Jackson State is the principal investigator.
Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri, has received a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment to help strengthen current and establish new theological training specifically focused on Black and Hispanic ministers at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, the embedded seminary of the university.
Historically Black Tuskegee University in Alabama received a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a multidisciplinary traineeship in sustainable nanobiomaterials. This project is a partnership between three doctoral programs at the university to develop innovative sustainable biomaterials for biodegradable packaging systems, including biomedical and food packaging.
Alcorn State University, a historically Black educational institution in Mississippi, received funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to enhance the sustainability of new farmers, ranchers, and veterans. The funding allows the university’s Mississippi Small Farm and Agribusiness Center to recruit, train, and equip new farmers, ranchers, and veterans in Mississippi to implement viable farm business plans.
Johns Hopkins University historian Jessica Marie Johnson has received a $120,000 planning grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission that will support the development of a collaboration of scholars and graduate students who will work to develop a digital, open-source, searchable edition of some 200,000 French and Spanish colonial records documenting enslaved and free people of African descent in Louisiana between 1714 and 1803.
