Grants in Action

Celebrating Scholarship

Vassar Grants in Action highlights and celebrates the grant funding, principal investigators, and project leadership that enrich faculty research and scholarship, institutional programs and priorities, and the student experience at Vassar.

Sumita Choudhury, Professor of History, Selected for Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Membership

Mita Choudhury, Professor of History on the Evalyn Clark Chair, was selected by the Faculty in the School of Historical Studies for membership at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) during the 2025–26 academic year. In her fellowship term, she will be completing her book project entitled The Silent Chain: History and Reckoning in the Catholic Church, which focuses on the early modern French Church and centers sexual assault victims as relevant historical figures.

Kirsten Wesselhoeft, Associate Professor of Religion, Publishes New Book Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France

Kirsten Wesselhoeft, Associate Professor of Religion, is the author of Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France, appearing in March 2025 with University of Chicago Press. In her new book, she argues that dissent and argument can be potent forms of solidarity through an ethnography of French Muslim activism and close readings of recent French laws on religion.

Leslie Offutt honored at the American Historical Association’s Annual Meeting

Leslie Offutt, Associate Professor Emerita of History, was recently honored at the American Historical Association’s 2025 Annual Meeting at a Conference on Latin American History Session entitled Interstitial Spaces of Empire and Resistance in Latin America: A Panel Honoring Leslie Offutt.

Black and white image of two people standing outside, back to back, with fog all around them.

Emily Drummer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film, Is the Recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship, a Grant, and an Award

Emily Drummer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film, received a MacDowell Fellowship, LEF Foundation grant, and NYSCA Support for Artists Award for her film project In the Keeping, which explores the human pursuit of an ideal image in the ever-changing, unwieldy body of a fish.

Denise Iris, Assistant Professor of Film, Receives NYSCA Grant for Her Film Dreams, Drooms, Dromes

Denise Iris, Assistant Professor of Film, received a New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support for Artists Award for her feature film Dreams, Drooms, Dromes, which uses finger puppets to bring to life audio recordings of the yearly festival of the Rainbow Gathering.

Colin Echeverría Aitken wearing navy shirt with high collar against a gray background.

Colin Echeverría Aitken, Assistant Professor of Biology, Awarded Renewed NIH Funding

Colin Echeverría Aitken, Assistant Professor of Biology, was awarded renewed funding by the National Institutes of Health for his ongoing research project, The Role of the mRNA-entry Channel Arm of eIF3 in mRNA Recruitment.

Professor Paulina Bren Publishes New Book About Women on Wall Street

Paulina Bren, Adjunct Professor of Multidisciplinary Studies on the Pittsburgh Endowment Chair in the Humanities and Director of the Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Program, is the author of the recently published She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street (W.W. Norton).

A person with medium length dark hair, dark skin, smiling, wearing a dark blue blazer, red mock-neck shirt, and long necklace with a gold pendant.

Arpitha Kodiveri, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Is Author of Governing Forests

Arpitha Kodiveri, Assistant Professor of Political Science, is the author of the recently published Governing Forests (Melbourne University Press), which explores how the nations of the Global South are making decisions about natural resource use.

Diptych headshots of Erendira Rueda and Candice Lowe.

Candice Lowe-Swift and Erendira Rueda Received an AALAC Award for “Beyond Inclusion and Belonging”

Candice Lowe-Swift, Associate Professor of Anthropology, and Erendira Rueda, Associate Professor of Sociology, received an Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges award for “Beyond Inclusion and Belonging: Telling Future Histories of Classrooms from 2050,” a multi-institution workshop animated by the question, “What more is needed, beyond current DEIB efforts, to make our colleges nurturing and supportive places to learn?”