Research

Dietrich School Faculty Member Honored by AAAL

Smiling woman sitting on a park bench outside

Amy Williams, professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Music, is among four composers to receive a 2024 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (AAAL). The $10,000 prize acknowledges artists who have arrived at their own voice. Williams will also receive an additional $10,000 grant to fund a recording of her work, which will also be presented during a spring concert at the AAAL library.

Dietrich School Doctoral Student Shares Insights on First Black Opera Company

Woman smiling at camera

Candace Burgess, a doctoral student in the Dietrich School's Department of Music, sat down with NBC's Harry Smith to talk about her graduate work focusing on the lives and legacies of Black classical composers, singers historical Black Classical music communities as seen in  Brazil, and New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Dietrich School Historian's Award-Winning Book Tells Very Personal Story

Smiling woman sits on a chair between stacks of books

When Alaina Roberts, associate professor in the Dietrich School's Department of History, was a sophomore at University of California, Santa Barbara, a professor’s assignment on race and creating a family tree sent her on a quest that ultimately resulted in, “I’ve Been Here All the While,” a book that has been described as a “lovingly personal narrative” by the Journal of Southern History and “a well-timed and welcome read [that is] hard to put down” by the Journal of African American Studies.

Pitt Alumni Receives Prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship for Early-Career Researchers

Image of Pitt Alumnus Zhen Liu

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences alumnus, Zhen Liu has received the 2024 Sloan Research Fellowship. Zhen graduated from Pitt in 2015 with his PhD. There are 126 researchers who are awarded this fellowship each year. It includes a 2-year $75,000 fellowship to advance research. Liu is now an assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota.

Seed Grantees

Image of a snowy Pitt Campus with the Cathedral of Learning in the center of the frame

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced the recipients of grants totaling $2.5 million. The University of Pittsburgh is one of 10 schools who will be receiving $250,000 for a two-year seed grant to help make and implement plans that will help advance more diverse and equitable doctoral STEM programs. After the two-year period universities will be eligible to apply for a four-year, $1.4 million implementation grant from Sloan. That grant will also include scholarship funds for students in those STEM departments.