FOUR PROMISING U.VA. RESEARCH-AND-TEACHING
PROJECTS SELECTED FOR SPECIAL FUNDING

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 14 -- The University of
Virginia's Board of Visitors today approved four innovative U.Va.
research-and-teaching projects to receive some $965,000 in private
funds over the next three years to support further advances in their
fields.  They include a cutting edge technology program to explore
using Virtual Reality and 3-D modeling in humanities research and
teaching; a center to expand knowledge about children, families and
the law; a center to help plan new schools and learning
environments; and an interdisciplinary program in the changing field
of employment and labor law.
	The winning proposals for U.Va. Academic Enhancement Program
(AEP) grants were selected by a faculty committee from 15 proposals
in the humanities and social sciences.  The grants, part of a
special academic-support effort begun by the Board of Visitors in
1989, are aimed at enhancing the national potential of already
distinguished scholarly work, according to Gene D. Block, vice
provost for research.  "We believe these four projects show
outstanding promise to be of great benefit to the University and the
public," he said.
	The newly selected projects all promote links between
teaching, technology and research.  Principal researchers and their
projects, with three-year funding totals, include:
	¥ John Unsworth, associate professor of English and director
of the Center for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, will
receive $175,943 to direct a project to apply emerging technologies,
including Virtual Reality (VR) and 3-D modeling, in humanities
research and teaching.  Those technologies are already being widely
applied in science, medicine and industry and are expected to
benefit humanities fields, especially at first in areas such as art
and archeology that have spacial and visual aspects and can best be
studied in three dimensions.  The U.Va. institute, already a world
leader in applying technology to the humanities, will explore VR
applications with such current, widely praised U.Va. World Wide Web
projects as models of the Pompeii archeology site, electronic
archives of the art of D.G. Rossetti and William Blake, and a
history archive about Virginia and Pennsylvania communities during
the Civil War.  "If research and teaching in the humanities are
going to enjoy the benefit of these very promising new technologies
and indeed if humanists are going to have a role in shaping those
technologies, then someone needs to be working with them now in
their infancy," said Unsworth.
	¥ Robert E. Emery, professor of psychology, will receive
$319,850 to establish a Center for Children, Families and the Law.
In recognition of vast changes in the American family, such as
increases in births to unmarried mothers, divorce and remarriage,
and women's changing roles in families and the workplace, the center
will study how these changes influence the emotional and economic
well-being of children.  A collaborative effort among faculty who
are nationally recognized experts on children, families and the law,
the center will hold an annual conference to communicate its
findings to the public and policy makers.  The first conference will
be held in April 1997.
	"A variety of risks, including increased psychological
distress, and problem behaviors, such as substance abuse, violence
and poor academic performance, are often associated with the changes
in family structure and relationships.  The center's research will
be relevant to issues of social policy, child development and family
functioning," Emery said.  He noted that the multidisciplinary
research will allow the family to be studied from many perspectives
including the individual, the family unit, the community and society.
	¥ Daniel L. Duke, professor of education, will receive
$299,116 to establish the Thomas Jefferson Center for Educational
Design and Planning.  Center researchers will help educators plan
productive learning environments by studying such factors as daily
schedules, grouping strategies, governance structures, evaluation
systems, curriculum options and spatial arrangements.  Through a
collaboration of faculty in the education, graduate business and
architecture schools and the sociology department, the center will
identify innovative schools and educational practices and
investigate a variety of options such as charter schools,
voucher-based programs, magnet schools and private and parochial
schools.
	"The studies will enable researchers to compare schools
serving different purposes, public and private alternatives,
innovative approaches to teaching and learning in different
countries and educational systems outside of schools.  We hope the
resulting data base will establish U.Va. as a leading source of
information and on-going research on new developments in education,"
Duke said.  He believes the AEP grant will establish a "one-stop
shopping center" where educators can find the equivalent of a
consumer-testing service that details the strengths and weaknesses
of new methods in delivering education.
	¥ J.H. "Rip" Verkerke, assistant professor of law, will
receive $170,520 to establish a program for employment and labor law
studies at the law school.  With employment-discrimination law and
labor law undergoing a recent period of rapid change, the new
program will expand the curriculum in that area; enable pursuit of
interdisciplinary research projects and development of ways to
disseminate research results widely; and establish contacts with
employment lawyers in Virginia to allow students to gain practical
experience assisting real clients with employment-related legal
problems.  The latest computer and Internet technology will be used
in the program. 
	The Academic Enhancement Program was established in 1989 to
foster interdisciplinary teaching and research.  Faculty are invited
to submit proposals that are reviewed competitively by other faculty.
	During the first five-year period the program supported six
centers that went on to become self-supporting.  Previous grants
have attracted outside support worth considerably more than the
U.Va. board's initial investment and have created more than 200 new
jobs, Block said.
	Because previous AEP projects have been largely in sciences,
the 1996 competition was focused on humanities and social sciences.
The new awards complete a $6 million funding cycle authorized by the
Board of Visitors last year.
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June 14, 1996
For more information please contact:

Gene Block, (804) 924-3606
John Unsworth, (804) 924-4527
Robert Emery, (804) 924-0671
Daniel Duke, (804) 924-3979
J.H. "Rip" Verkerke, (804) 924-3463
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