CWU Receives Grant Totaling More Than $400,000

June 10, 2009

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — The National Science Foundation has awarded Central Washington University with a $403,942 grant to fund ongoing research in China under the direction of CWU associate professor of history Dr. James Cook, associate professor of sociology Dr. Hong Xiao and economics Professor Emeritus Dr. Richard Mack. The project, Negotiations and Impacts: Great Western Development, Rural Peasants and Water Policy across China’s Loess Plateau, will be funded through March 2010.

“This NSF grant highlights the innovative research being done at Central on environmental issues,” says Dr. Marji Morgan, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Central. “The grant supports a model research project in that it involves an interdisciplinary team of faculty working with both undergraduate and graduate students.”

Money from the grant will help pay for three trips to China where faculty and students will conduct research. Four CWU students, along with eight other students from universities across the country, will travel to China this summer for the first trip under this grant. Former CWU professor Dr. Roberta Soltz will join the group.

The project’s main goal is to study the effects of national and provincial policies that have impacted economic growth, affected environmental resources and more specifically the water resource management policies among local rural peasants in China’s Yellow River Loess Plateau and Gobi Desert, China’s most vulnerable ecosystems.

“This research trip is intended to train future graduate students how to conduct research in China,” explains Cook. “This critical research is beneficial to not only the 60 million poor farmers in China’s Yellow River Loess Plateau region; we can also apply it to the various Loess regions in the northwest and the United States.”

Through this collaborative research program, students from economic, biology and sociology backgrounds work together to develop research questions about how water resource policies have affected the regions fragile landscape and the way of life. Primary research for this project will take place in rural villages and will consist of interviews, surveys and research observations. The international program will also involve cooperation with several Chinese universities.

Before heading to China, the students will begin their journey at CWU where they will take classes that teach them how to write grants and conduct primary research.

Media Contact: James Cook, CWU Department of History, 509-963-1290, jacook@cwu.edu

Teri Olin, CWU Public Relations & Marketing, 509-963-1416, olint@cwu.edu

Central Washington University is a master's degree-granting institution with approximately 10,000 students and 1,500 faculty and staff. More than 160 undergraduate and master's degrees are offered. Founded in 1891, the Ellensburg campus is located in the heart of Washington State, nestled between the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River. Since 1975, CWU has served the needs of placebound students at six university centers throughout the state. CWU is an AA/EEO Title IX Institution.