Two Elon faculty members have received funding for research and an international student fellowship program.
Iris Chapman, assistant professor of English, has received a $3,000 grant from the Marion Stedman Covington Foundation to complete her research on the life of North Carolina musician Joe Thompson. Chapman plans to produce a 30-minute videotape about Thompson as part of her project titled “The Life and Times of Joe Thompson: Building Connections.” The videotape will be distributed to public television, local school systems and civic organizations. Thompson is a widely renowned fiddler who learned the instrument by age 5, and today he is one of the last remaining active African American fiddlers in the South.
Chapman has also utilized funding from the North Carolina Humanities to produce the video. A second phase of the project is also planned, which will create an interactive presentation containing audio, video images and text at the Mebane (N.C.) Museum, near Thompson’s home.
Betty Morgan, assistant professor of political science, has received a $23,959 grant that will allow Elon to serve as a host for the Freedom Support Act (FSA) Undergraduate Program during the 2002-03 academic year. Elon will host two undergraduate students from an Eastern European country for a one-year fellowship. The students will complete one year of non-degree academic study, perform a minimum of 20 hours of volunteer work the first semester and have a part-time internship the second semester. The FSA Undergraduate Program is funded by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.