NSF awards DRC undergrad research grants

Havidan Rodriguez, director of the Disaster Research Center at UD, confers with undergrad researchers Wandely Rentas from City University of New York and RaEsa Benjamin-Wardle from Ithaca College.

9:42 a.m., June 21, 2005--The Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware has received a $216,000 grant through the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program to engage 10 undergraduate students in hands-on research training to enhance their understanding of the social science aspects of disasters.

The UD program will be funded for a three-year period, according to the principal investigators, Havidan Rodriguez, director of the Disaster Research Center, and Joanne Nigg, professor of sociology.

Through the grant, the Disaster Research Center will hold a nine-week research training institute each summer to provide students with the necessary academic background, training and relevant research experiences to prepare them to function as relatively independent research scholars.

The students attending this summer will work under the guidance of UD faculty mentors Tricia Wachtendorf, assistant professor of sociology, and Benigno Aguirre, professor of sociology, in addition to Rodriguez, Nigg and Disaster Research Center graduate and undergraduate students.

Students will be exposed to several course modules, including research methodology most frequently used in the study of hazards and disasters, theoretical social science approaches to understanding the causes and consequences of disasters, and the ethical implications of the research process.

Students involved in the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates program at UD this summer meet with principal investigator Rodriguez (far right).

They will work with leading scholars and researchers on projects that focus on issues such as disaster mitigation, warnings and technology, disaster vulnerability and preparedness, response and recovery.

A national and multidisciplinary group of leading disaster researchers and practitioners will participate in a speaker series in order to emphasize the contributions that other disciplines bring to this field, and a series of professional development and social-cultural activities will complement the trainees’ overall education and training at UD.

For the past 42 years, the Disaster Research Center has done ground-breaking work on the societal and organizational aspects of disasters and has had a strong impact on the growth and development of the field of disaster research. As a result, the students will have a unique opportunity to work in a challenging, dynamic and intellectually stimulating environment with key disaster researchers.

Rodriguez and Nigg said they believe the students will develop a clear understanding of the societal and organizational factors that affect disasters, not only through a variety of academic and intellectual activities but also through hands-on research experiences in innovative, timely and leading-edge research projects.

As part of the experience, students will develop a research proposal and engage in independent research projects under the guidance of the faculty mentors and will develop research papers based on the selected projects. Students also will present the papers at regional or national scientific conferences, and the papers will be made available to researchers and the public at-large through the DRC web site and its resource collection.

Carla Russell (left), AS ‘05, and UD grad student Lauren Barsky (center) worked with Rodriguez (right) to organize the Research Experience for Undergraduates at UD this summer.

Furthermore, students will participate in the Natural Hazards Center’s 30th annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop in Boulder, Colo., and the National Research Council’s Disasters Roundtable to be held in Washington, D.C.

The 2005 cohort of trainees includes the following students: RaEsa J. Benjamin-Wardle, Ithaca College, psychology and sociology; Megan M. Denver, University of Delaware, sociology and criminal justice; Morgan W. Franklin, University of Central Florida, organizational communications; Scott Golden, University of Delaware, operations management and marketing; Angela F. Head, Oklahoma State University, political science; Lynn A. Letukas, Millersville University, applied geography; Adrienne S. McCord, Humboldt State University, anthropology and international studies; Joseph M. Mellon, Millersville University, sociology; Wandely Rentas, Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of New York, sociology; and Verneé Y. Ross, Lincoln University, psychology.

In addition to the NSF support, the program has received an additional $90,000 in funding from UD’s Office of the Provost, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.

Article by Neil Thomas
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson

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