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Investigator Spotlights

Spotlight: Sound Change in Georgian and Lezgi

Ioana Chitoran, associate professor of linguistics and French

Ioana Chitoran

WHY: "This research involves the study of sound change in Georgian and Lezgi. It consists primarily of an acoustic analysis whose results can explain directly the mechanism of an ongoing change in Lezgi and indirectly a similar already completed historical change in Georgian."

TRAVEL: "The award will enable me to travel to a Lezgi village in Azerbaijan to record native speakers, and to Georgia, to enroll in a Georgian language course, ultimately bringing research and coursework on the languages and cultures of the Caucasus to Dartmouth."

Spotlight: Producing and Disseminating Policy-Related Knowledge

John L. Campbell, the Class of 1925 Professor of Sociology

John L. Campbell

WHY: "The project investigates the organization, functioning, and evolution of think tanks and government and nonprofit research organizations in France, Germany, the United States, and Denmark."

UNDERSTANDING: "The research will fill a blind spot in our understanding of how policy-related knowledge is produced and disseminated. The results will be published and shared with organizations being studied."

AFFILIATIONS: Social Science Research Council in New York; International Center for Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School

Spotlight: Arsenic Exposure and Bladder Cancer

Margaret R. Karagas, professor of community and family medicine, associate director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences

Margaret R. Karagas

WHY: "This research will build on a study of bladder cancer in New Hampshire that began as part of Dartmouth's Superfund Basic Research Program to look at effects of arsenic exposure on the risk of developing bladder cancer."

EXTENSION: "It extends initial observations that low-level arsenic exposure may not directly damage DNA, but may result in DNA methylation silencing of tumor-suppressor genes."

COLLABORATORS: Karl Kelsey (PI) and Carmen Marsit, Brown University; Alan Schned, DHMC; Angeline Andrew, DMS; John Heaney, DHMC

 

 

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