Regional Small Grants Program

The Regional Small Grants Program supports the research endeavors of academic scholars who are not members of the UK faculty. Up to three grants are awarded competitively each year for research on poverty-related topics of regional importance. Preference is given to research that sheds light on the problems of poverty and inequality in the South. The funds may be used at the investigator’s discretion, but suggested uses include graduate student research support, academic-year course relief, or summer salary support.

Winners of 2011 Regional Small Grants

Joan Hermsen, Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Missouri.  James Rikoon at University of Missouri is serving as Co-PI on this project.  Drs. Hermsen and Rikoon’s proposal is titled A Comparison of Rural Missouri Food Pantry Users in 2005 and 2010:  Compositional Change, Material Hardships, and Coping Strategies.  The aims of the study are to: (1) document how the composition of food pantry users has changed in rural Missouri; (2) compare the extent of material hardships and food tradeoffs made by food pantry users in 2010 as compared to 2005; (3) determine if the types of coping strategies deployed to meet hunger needs (use of local institutions and social networks) have changed over the last five years; and (4) analyze how participation in federal programs has changed among food pantry clients between 2005 and 2010.

Susan Parish, Professor of Disability Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Dr. Parish's proposal is titled State Policy & Financial Burden of Low-income Families Raising Children with Special Health Care Needs.  The proposed study has three goals: (a) to develop an understanding of the health care access and financial well-being of low-income Southern families raising CSHCN; (b) to describe the relationship between state public health insurance and the health care access and financial burden of low-income families raising CSHCN; and (c) to determine the extent to which public health insurance supports families of CSHCN.

Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Votruba-Drzal’s proposal is titled Urbanicity and Income-Related Disparities in School Readiness:  Are Low –Income Rural Children at Higher Risk for Low Academic Achievement at School Entry?  In this study, Votruba-Drzal proposes to examine the effect of parental income on child readiness for school (kindergarten), as well as the extent to which the presumed positive effect of income is mediated by urbanicity.

Winners of 2010 Regional Small Grants

Seth Sanders, professor of economics and public policy, Duke University. Project: An analysis of the impact of the Great Migration on mortality of Black Americans: The case of migration from Mississippi

Ebonya Washington, assistant professor of economics and political science, Yale University. Project: Race, redistricting and the distribution of federal funds
In the Southern United States