A total of eight faculty members spread across six departments were awarded 4C Pilot Grants by the University of Miami School of Communication Center for Communication, Culture, and Change. These grants are awarded three times per year to fund interdisciplinary projects that align with the mission of the center and are designed to provide data to compete for external funding from private, foundation, and government sources.

Margaret Cardillo, lecturer in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, along with Caleb Everett, professor in the College of Arts & Sciences and chair of the Department of Anthropology, will use their funding to document the story of three former fighters from the jungle-based FARC guerrillas of Colombia as they struggle to integrate into mainstream society in their project Strangers to Peace.

Nick Carcioppolo, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies, and Michelle Seelig, associate professor in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, received their award for their project 90 Days: An Investigation of a short entertainment education film to increase HIV status disclosure among sexual partnersJoNell Potter, director of the Division of Research and Special Projects in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well doctoral student Jazmyne Simmons from the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media will be assisting this project.

Cong Li, associate professor in the Department of Strategic Communication and associate dean for Graduate Studies, and Michel Dupagne, professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Management, will be examining the use of arbitrary scale points when measuring attitudes in social sciences in their project, 1-5 vs. 1-7 vs. 1-9 rating: Should attitude be measured with a “random” scale?.

For more information on 4C Pilot Projects visit, http://com.miami.edu/center-for-ccc/pilot-projects.