Faculty Diversity Research and Curriculum Development and LGBTQ+ Research Initiative Grant Lecture
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
1-2:15 p.m
Guthart Cultural Center Theater
The Faculty Diversity Research and Curriculum Development Grants are awarded in support of research or curricular innovation regarding diversity. These grants are designed to encourage research and curriculum development on issues of diversity by faculty in any discipline. The LGBTQ+ Research Initiative Grants are awarded to faculty engaged in research or creative work on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex people and allies on Hofstra’s campus and/or in the suburbs.
2025-26 Faculty Diversity Research and Development Grants
Disabled Students’ Experiences in Kinesiology-based Programs in Higher Education in the United States
Fabián Arroyo-Rojas, PhD, Assistant Professor of Specialized Programs in Education, School of Education
Kinesiology programs significantly contribute to understanding the body and, consequently, to the well-being of individuals based on their bodily movements. However, there is still limited understanding of how disabled individuals experience these programs in higher education. This study aims to explore the experiences of disabled students in kinesiology-based programs in the United States through a critical-ableist lens. The participants were 10 disabled students (8 females, 2 males; ages 20-41 years). Semi-structured interviews and reflective notes were conducted and analyzed thematically. These themes highlight the challenges faced by students within these programs and raise questions about whether these programs effectively contribute to the well-being of disabled students.
Sounding Anti-Slavery Voices: Black Women on the Speakers’ Platform
Lisa Merrill, PhD, Professor of Rhetoric and Performance Studies, Department of Writing Studies and Rhetoric, Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
In the antebellum period the ability of Black actors and speakers to move audiences on the abolition platform, onstage, or in dramatic readings stood as powerful refutation of the vocal stereotypes staged in blackface minstrelsy. For my Faculty Diversity Grant Lecture, I will examine the performance practices and reception of the dramatic readings of 19th-century Black elocutionist and dramatic reader Mary E. Webb — for whom Harriet Beecher Stowe expressly adapted a version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin — and the impact of orality and elocutionary training in the performances and later UNIA activism of actress and activist Henrietta Vinton Davis.
2024-25 LGBTQIA+ Research Initiative Grant
Colors That Move: How LGBTQ+ Family Acceptance Films From Immigrant Communities Create Radical Empathy
Aashish Kumar, MFA, MS, MA, Professor of Radio, Television, Film, Lawrence Herbert School of Communication
This project intends to showcase how storytelling around sexual and gender diversity sourced from within immigrant communities of color can serve to enrich and empower their acculturation process and serve as a model for other immigrant diasporas (e.g., Middle Eastern, African, Caribbean).
Intended as an interactive workshop that uses short film clips and prompts for audiences, the project aims at addressing how storytelling in marginalized communities can be a source of empathic understanding as well as radical change in broader communities.