Junior Faculty Award recognizes research

Five faculty members received the IU Outstanding Junior Faculty Award for their dedication to teaching, research and service.

Winners were Brian D’Onofrio, Christiane Gruber, Ho-fung Hung, Daniel Kearns and Marissa Moorman.

The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research awarded each recipient $14,500 to enhance their research.
D’Onofrio is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. He researches child and adolescent psychological problems.

His work is supported by several grants, including one from the National Institute of Mental Health, and has been published in several journals.

Gruber, an assistant professor of Islamic art in the Department of Art History, has work published in several journals.

Her work focuses on texts and images of the Prophet Muhammad.

Her first book is an overview of Islamic ascension texts and images, as well as an analysis of an illustrated book about ascension from 1436. Her second book analyzes texts and images of Muhammad’s ascension in the medieval Persian world.

Hung is both an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.

He is currently examining how the Confucianist legacy shaped China beginning in the 18th century, as well as contrasting it to the West. Hung’s research also looks at China’s economy, impact on global capitalism and its concept of nationhood.

Kearns is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology and researches bacterial motility and the assembly, function and regulation of the bacterial flagellar motor.

He has published his work in several journals and is supported through multiple grants, including one from the National Science Foundation.

Moorman is an assistant professor in the Department of History and the African Studies Program. As a historian of southern Africa, her work focuses on politics and culture in Angola.

Currently, she is working on a book about the relationship between radio and shifting politics in southern Africa. She is also organizing an international collaboration to study music and dance, called kuduro, in Angola.

All the winners have worked at IU for at least one academic year.