The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowships
The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowships were supported until 2024 by a generous gift from Raj and Mary Rajkumar of Singapore. These grants funded travel to Asia for selected UNC-Chapel Hill faculty to conduct research, form institutional partnerships, or attend a conference. One grant annually funded travel specifically in Singapore; from 2020, a second award could be used to travel to any country within the remit of the Carolina Asia Center (also still including Singapore).
Although the Rajkumar Faculty Fellowships are no longer running, other opportunities for UNC faculty to support their travel to Asia can be found on the CAC’s Faculty Grants page, and the Office of the Vice-Provost for Global Affairs has Global Partnership Awards that can support collaboration with UNC’s strategic partner in the National University of Singapore.
Past Recipients
2024
Yunzhi Hu, Assistant Professor of Finance, Kenan-Flagler Business School – to the People’s Republic of China
The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship supported research on a distinctive aspect of China’s real estate market: the prevalence of pre-sold and unfinished homes. This project, called “Exploring Unfinished properties in China,” asked what factors contribute to the existence of unfinished properties, what methods real estate developers employed to fund their construction projects, and in what manner homebuyers organize to abstain from making mortgage payments.
Martin Louis Johnson, Associate Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature – to Singapore
The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship supported (1) research in Singapore on visual representations of the rubber industry in Southeast Asia, (2) building relationships with the film studies faculty at the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University, and (3) fostering relationships with faculty, students, and staff involved in the joint NUS-UNC degree program that includes an opportunity for students to major in English and Comparative Literature.
2023
Angel Hsu, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Policy and Environment, Ecology, and Energy (E3P) Program – to Singapore
The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship funded research on the theme of “Exploring Urban-Climate Teleconnections across Southeast Asia and Beyond.” Prof. Hsu spent Fall semester 2023 in Singapore, working with colleagues on the repercussions of rapid urbanization and climate change in Southeast Asian cities, the extent that climate policies and actions adopted by the region impact the broader geopolitical landscape concerning decarbonization.
Xiaoming Liu, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences – to Singapore and Japan
The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship supported attendance at the Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) in Singapore, as well as collaboration with Prof. Yoshio Takahashi at the University of Tokyo and Dr. Toshihiro Yoshimura at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
2022
Christina M. Cruz, Assistant Professor, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine – to India
The overall objective of the Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship-funded work is to understand the culture and social contexts in which the school psychology protocol “Tealeaf” (Teachers Leading the Frontlines) is implemented, adding a specific aim to the larger trial to be pursued in fieldwork in Darjeeling, India: To understand the power dynamics among the various community members involved in Tealeaf (teachers, principals, families, children).
2021
Wei Mei, Assistant Professor, Department of Marine Sciences – to Singapore and Japan
The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship supported attendance at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) in Singapore and collaboration with Prof. Youichi Kamae at the University of Tsukuba, Dr. Kohei Yoshida at the Meteorological Research Institute, Prof. Yu Kosaka at the University of Tokyo, and Prof. Fumiaki Kobashi at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology on research into tropical cyclones.
Steven Rosefielde, Professor, Department of Economics – to Singapore
The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship supported a visit to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore to continue collaboration in research on economic and political issues exploring the impact of recent developments in the European Union on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
2020
Marc Callahan, Assistant Professor, Department of Music – to Singapore ***travel cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic
Conghe Song, Professor, Department of Geography – to Nepal ***travel delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic
The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship supported research on forest management practices alongside a graduate student, local counterparts, and community organizations.
2019
Shu Wen Ng, Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition, UNC School of Medicine
Much of my research in the past 7 years have been focused around chronic disease prevention via improving the food supply, food choices and eating behaviors. All of my work seeks to link research to policy. The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship provided me with resources to make a trip to Singapore in August 2019 to meet with members of Singapore’s Health Promotion Board to share research based on experiences from other countries where I and my colleagues work to help inform them on some new policies they are considering as part of Singapore’s “War on Diabetes.”
Additionally, I met with a number of faculty members at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw See Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH) and the Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and Information (WKWSCI). I learned more about some existing studies to explore how these may be used to help inform on future policy evaluation and what collaborative efforts around these may exist. The Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship provided a sign of commitment from UNC that I brought up to show institutional backing around exploring future collaborations between UNC and these universities.
Patrick Conway, Professor, Department of Economics, UNC Chapel Hill
My research considers the impact of emerging-economy participation in international trade, and I was pleased to be able to visit Singapore with the Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship to investigate recent developments in Singapore’s trade policy. I worked with economists at the National University of Singapore and spoke with trade-policy specialists in the Government of Singapore to evaluate the impact on Singapore and its neighbors of the US decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Singapore is a traditional leader among the emerging economies in its free-trade policies, and my visit to Singapore was an excellent opportunity to learn more about the efforts of its government to preserve its free-trade agreements during a time of trade wars elsewhere in the world.
I have also been the coordinator of the collaboration that the UNC Economics Department has with the NUS Economics Department in encouraging our undergraduates to earn a joint degree from the two universities. My visit gave me the opportunity to work intensively with the NUS administrators in coordinating that degree program
2018
Lorraine Aragon, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Asian Studies, UNC Chapel Hill
I research Southeast .Asian societies and cultural practices. I regularly teach survey courses that cover all 11 nations of Southeast Asia. I am currently researching and writing about the expansion of intellectual and cultural property laws to regulate Indonesian regional arts practices.
I traveled to Singapore to present talks and collaborate with faculty at the National University of Singapore. While there, I gave presentations titled ‘Cultural Enclosures: Intellectual Property Law and Regional Arts in lndonesia’ and ‘Ritual Arts, Temporality and Intellectual Property Developments in Indonesia.’ I also had the opportunity to conduct anthropological fieldwork in Singapore and Laos in May and June of 2018. This related to my ongoing book research project on intellectual property law and indigenous creative productions.
Pamela Lothspeich, Associate Professor, Department of Asian Studies, UNC Chapel Hill
l research and teach courses on the Hindu epics-the Mahabharata and the Ramayana-and am interested in how these ancient stories still have deep relevance to many people today. Since 2006, l have been traveling to India whenever I can to see Ramlila, a form of theater that tells the story of the Ramayana. Recently, I completed a book manuscript on this subject. This is a follow-up to my first book about modern literary adaptations of the Mahabharata. I enjoy sharing my Ramlila research at conferences and local events and even curated a semester-long Ramlila exhibit at UNC, which included some of my photos and materials (costumes, props, etc.) used in Ramlilas.
I was delighted to receive the Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship to travel to Singapore for several weeks in July 2018. I am excited to develop connections that I made with faculty at the National University of Singapore (NUS), especially Professor Miguel Escobar Varela in the department of theatre studies, with whom I have continued to communicate via email. Professor Varela does research on Wayang theater (the shadow puppetry tradition of Java), which draws heavily on stories from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and has developed much digital content related to this form of theater. I hope to keep learning from him about how he uses the internet to share his work. Thank you so much for supporting my research and helping me to forge relationships with NUS faculty!”
Roger J. Narayan, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, UNC Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University
My research group examines the use of laser-based additive manufacturing techniques, including laser-direct writing and two-photon polymerization, to process materials with micrometer scale and sub-micrometer scale features for medical applications. In particular, we have received funding from several U.S. governmental agencies as well as major medical device companies to pursue pioneering work involving use of two-photon polymerization for creating many types of small-scale medical devices, including microneedlebased sensors, microneedle-based drug delivery devices, tissue engineering scaffolds, micostructured bone prostheses and microstructured barbs for tissue joining.
I want to thank the Rajkumar Faculty Fellowship and Mr. and Mrs. Raj Rajkumar for their support that enabled me to serve as an organizer and invited speaker at the 12th International Conference on Ceramic Materials and Components for Energy and Environmental Applications in Singapore as well as visit professors Chee Kai Chua and Raju Ramanujan of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and professor Seeram Ramakrishna of the National University of Singapore to discuss research collaborations and form institutional partnerships.