Bring Your Own Idea gatherings offer new opportunities for collaboration


Could a cup of coffee bring faculty across campus together to expand and enhance research and teaching while broadening perspectives? That’s the idea behind the Office of the Provost’s Bring Your Own Idea program, which awards grants to support gatherings of faculty from across Washington University in St. Louis around meaningful topics.

“An exchange of ideas is one of the fundamental reasons why a university exists,” said Marion Crain, JD, vice provost and professor of law. “We want to bring together scholars of all disciplines to spark collaborations that are key to addressing issues and taking advantage of opportunities on campus and beyond.”

The Office of the Provost recently awarded the first round of Bring Your Own Idea grants. A complete list of proposals is below. Faculty with a research or teaching interest in any of these topics should contact the faculty listed for more information.

Bring Your Own Idea award recipients and proposals:

  • Religion, Poverty and Social Justice: Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp,
    PhD, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, and Gregory Magarian,
    JD, School of Law
  • The Creative Process: Andrew Knight, PhD, Olin Business School, and
    Robert Mark Morgan, Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences
  • Gender and Leadership Across Disciplines: Michelle Duguid, PhD, Olin Business School, and Hillary Sale, JD, School of Law
  • In/Equality in Theory and Practice: Vetta Sanders Thompson, PhD, Brown School and Institute for Public Health, and Carol Camp Yeakey, PhD, Arts & Sciences
  • Public Health Opportunities and Challenges in Guatemala, WUSTL Opportunities for Research and Teaching Collaboration: Joaquin Barnoya, MD, School of Medicine, and William Powderly, MD, School of Medicine and Institute for Public Health
  • Global Cities: Migration, Capital and Transformations in Urban Space: Margaret Garb, PhD, and Sonia Lee, PhD, Arts & Sciences; Patty Heyda and Eric Mumford, PhD, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
  • Post-conflict Cultures: Jennifer Kapczynski, PhD, and Lori Watt, PhD, Arts & Sciences
  • Economic Inequality and the American Experience: Steven Fazzari, PhD, Arts & Sciences, and Mark Rank, PhD, Brown School
  • Enhancing Global Engagement and International Affairs at WUSTL: Jeremy Caddel and Andrew Sobel, PhD, Arts & Sciences, and Leila Sadat, JD, LLM, School of Law
  • Working Across Disciplines to Make Data More Meaningful: Heather Corcoran, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts; Matt Kreuter, PhD, Brown School and Institute for Public Health; Aaron Addison, Olin Library; and Leslie McIntosh, PhD, School of Medicine

Further information about this year’s Bring Your Own Idea grant winners and their proposals is available here.

The original request for Bring Your Own Idea proposals is available here.