Two faculty members from SLCL have received Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement, and Education (BRIDGE) Seed Fund Grants for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Jonathan Ebel, head of the Department of Religion, will collaborate with a professor from Birmingham on a project titled: "New Directions in Interfaith Education and the Study of Jainism.”

Valeria Sobol from the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures will collaborate with a professor from Birmingham on a project titled: "Russophone Literary Diversity and Peripheries."

The University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign formed BRIDGE in 2014. Since then, it's brought together more than 115 faculty members from both institutions to collaborate across various disciplines. The BRIDGE Seed Fund supports collaborative projects between the University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with a focus on developing faculty networks, building cognate research areas, expanding educational exchange opportunities, and strengthening strategic aspirations for institutional engagement.

“We are delighted to see an increase in the number of applicants, as well as the diversity of applicants and the number of disciplines across STEM, Social Sciences, and Humanities,” said Sammer Jones, director for global relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign “ We remain committed to aligning BRIDGE activities with our university’s Vision 2030 Global Strategy, which emphasizes leveraging collaborations with partners in the Global South while advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

Twelve projects received funding this year.

Editor's note: This story first appeared in the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics fall 2024 newsletter.