In their quest for knowledge, researchers face significant struggles. It is competitive, expensive, and time-consuming. In order to ease the struggle, the College of Arts and Sciences established two seed funding programs. The Dean's External Funding Support grant and the Dean's Graduate Thesis Support grant aim to remove research barriers for faculty and students. Dr. Amy Shapiro emphasizes the college's commitment. "We are committed to promoting research and scholarship," Shapiro said. "We want to be able to support faculty and students to be as successful as they can be."
 

The Dean's Graduate Thesis Support Grant funds graduate students who are completing their theses. The grant provides a $500 award to be used on research expenses. Elizabeth Lozano, who is pursuing her master's degree in experimental psychology, received one of the GTS grants. Her research focuses on the benefits of personality and positive emotions within interpersonal relationships. "With the grant money, I was able to obtain an "ability-based" measure of emotional intelligence called the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT™)," said Lozano. "Without the funds, I would not have been able to afford this instrument."  

The Dean's External Funding Support Grant provides support and monies for faculty to complete external funding applications. According Dr. Shapiro, there is about a 90% rejection rate with external grant applications. The EFS grant supports faculty and offers financial resources or a course release to enhance the odds. Professor David Manke, one recipient of the EFS grant, utilized the course release. "The course release provided by the EFS proposal frees up time and really makes the grant submission possible," said Manke. "The time allows for more attention to detail, more preliminary results and dissemination of results, which are all key components to a successful grant application."
 

In his new book, The Risk of Reading, Professor Robert Waxler suggests that literature is more than just a story. In his view, literature is a tool to experience and understand the human experience. As a lifelong lover of literature, Waxler believes that it can make a difference in people's lives. "We are linguistic beings and the use of language is central to our being," Waxler said. "Literature helps people understand themselves and helps them find their location."
 

During his years at UMass Dartmouth, Waxler has witnessed the power of literature. Through close reading of a text, Waxler's students transform their thinking and change the way they see the world. Deep reading also changes the way students see themselves and brings them into unknown territory. "Witnessing these transformations reinforces my notion that reading and the discussion of literature is extremely important," Waxler said. "We need to keep it as a focus in the 21st century."
 

According to Waxler, literature is important because it holds a communal value. When readers read a great story, they have a strong need to talk about it. They want to engage with other readers. The literature experience increases the human experience. But Waxler fears this experience is threatened in our post-human world. And he suggests that supporting and promoting literature is a possible solution. "Our best hope is to keep the vision alive as long as we can," Waxler said. "We need to promote studies in literature."

For one month this summer, James Burke, a doctoral student in the Mathematics Education program, taught fifteen 8th graders the basics of game programming. The initiative, called the Bootstrap Program, was funded by a grant from New Bedford Public Schools. The curriculum, designed by Emmanuel Schanzer, utilizes game programming in order to introduce computer programming. "The students have experience in playing video games," Burke said. "But they haven't had the experience to be in the driver's seat of creating games."
 

As the liaison for the UMass Dartmouth team, Burke led a team of UMass Dartmouth instructors and managed the implementation of the unique curriculum. The program uses computer and game programming as a way to teach algebraic and geometric concepts. "The process of exploring game programming is a way for the students to express themselves," Burke said. "It is a method for integrating math with creativity."
 

Not only does the Bootstrap Program teach math concepts, but it also teaches the basics of routine programming. It gives the students a foundational programming language that can be used to learn more advanced codes. Even with the one-month time constraint, the team watched the students succeed and gain unique skills. "Even though the curriculum had limits, it still gave the students the experience of what it is like to put a game together," Burke said. "For one month, they were game designers."