Yeager and Normoyle Awarded Competitive Engagement Scholarships
Two East Carolina University research faculty members have been named recipients of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s (ESC) Research/Creative Activities Grants Program. A limited number of awards up to $5,000 each go to university faculty members to fund one-year projects and collaborative projects.
In an announcement from ESC earlier this month, ECU’s Dr. Emily Yeager, College of Health and Human Performance, and Cat Normoyle, School of Art and Design, were both named awardees of the highly competitive grant program. Only 13 other faculty members in the nation were named for 2022.
Yeager says the grant will help advance the Blue Economy Corridor project, a research project that focuses on mapping assets along the Tar-Pamlico Economy Corridor (BEC).
“This funding will help us continue to engage communities in the corridor to map the assets that make the Tar-Pamlico River Basin a great place to live and visit,” said Yeager.
According to North Carolina Sea Grant, a Blue Economy is a sustainable ocean and coastal economy, which emerges when economic activity is in balance with the long-term capacity of ocean and coastal ecosystems to support this activity and remain resilient and healthy.
“Ultimately, these mapped assets will be pulled into a digital interactive map that allows users to curate their experiences in the Tar-Pamlico River Basin,” Yeager explained.
Normoyle received seed money for the ARCHIVES PROJECT. Normoyle said, “This award is appreciated because it will primarily support the scholarship of two student research assistants, one graduate and one undergraduate student, both of which have knowledge in areas of archival research and a unique interest in community engagement and design. I’m excited to have their support on the project and that ESC saw the value in our work.”
Normoyle’s research and creative work intersects a range of design interests including community engagement, design activism, social impact, digital experiences, creative technologies, and speculative design. The ARCHIVES PROJECT is a new community engagement project that seeks to discover and present an important and relevant historical narrative of the community of Greenville, North Carolina through archival research. A portion of the funds will also go to supplies to conduct community focus groups.
All 2022 grant recipients will be recognized during the ESC Annual Conference, September 21-22 in Athens, Georgia.