Thomas Ewing

Cultivating Research Practices and Collaborations

Often, a successful application for external funding has a watershed effect on future research endeavors and funding. Such is the case for Thomas Ewing, Professor of History and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. An award by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and matching funds provided by ISCE and other university programs was the start of the flood. ISCE funds helped support a GRA for two years for the project Epidemiology of Information, which examined American and Canadian newspaper reports about the Spanish Flu in 1919.

“That was the first project we had that connected the humanities and the sciences,” said Ewing of the project that included a team of faculty and students from English, computer science, the library, history, and a Canadian expert.

While the project resulted in a website that is now dormant, the main product was the algorithm that the computer science team created to mine for the data. The project also resulted in a public forum, published articles, and features in newsletters and media pieces. Most importantly, though, it positioned the researchers to win more grants.

“There were five subsequent NEH grants that I trace back to that first one,” confirms Ewing. “The process of the research and the connections that were made not only made the three grants I’ve received possible, but also two others.”

Ewing later received a second grant from the NEH to host a summer seminar on the Spanish Flu, deepening the connections he had made during that first grant. The team took K-12 teachers to Washington, DC and conducted research there, which included similar methods as Epidemiology of Information. Another NEH grant that made use of the algorithm originally developed for a different subject soon followed.

Ewing’s projects have had direct impact on Virginia Tech students. After the grant, Ewing taught both a seminar in history on the Spanish Flu and an undergraduate course on epidemics in world history. From the first GRAs funded by ISCE and others, now Ewing’s projects also include undergraduates. Both graduate and undergraduate students have had the opportunity to work on federally-funded projects that allow them to dig deeply into the data.

ISCE’s focus on interdisciplinary team-building and collaboration by integrating the human element into technology-based research is evident throughout this five grant portfolio.

For more about Professor Ewing, go to:  http://liberalarts.vt.edu/faculty-directory/history-faculty/e-thomas-ewing.html