This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project will renovate and expand existing research space in the Bell Building on the campus of the College of Charleston to create a new Center for Social Science Research (CSSR). The new center will be a state-of-the art space designed to facilitate collaborative research and research training in many of the College's research programs in the social sciences, including biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, cognitive science, human development, and neuropsychology. The project will relocate several existing, but inadequate, social science research laboratories to the Bell Building to be part of the Center for Social Science Research - in particular, archaeology and biological anthropology laboratories as well as several psychological research labs that are currently located in former private homes throughout the campus.
Within the CSSR, the psychological research spaces will include cognitive testing labs, psychology testing labs, data collection rooms, and individual testing rooms. The anthropological research spaces will include a renovated cultural anthropology lab, a relocated archaeology wet lab to be shared with the biological anthropology research program, and a computer lab for data analysis to be shared with the psychology programs. The CSSR will providee an array of opportunities for the faculty and students to collaborate on research questions in the social sciences ranging from the role that the cognitive mechanisms of executive control and automaticity play in decision-making and memory, to the mechanisms involved in relational learning, behavioral fluency, and behavioral history (e.g. resurgence), to the function of stone tools and their relationship in space in reconstructing the principal economic activities in past societies.
The Center will improve the quality and capacity of and access to the social science research infrastructure at the College and increase its impact on the nation's social science research enterprise. Undergraduate and graduate students will have additional research training opportunities available to them, including an array of interdisciplinary research projects. Broader participation in social science research by the local and regional communities is expected because the social science research laboratories will be centralized in a building that is accessible to persons with disabilities and adjacent to a large parking garage.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Project Outcomes The Center for Social Science Research at the College of Charleston is now a state-of-the-art space designed to facilitate collaborative research and research training among departments in the social sciences. Approximately 5,288 SF located throughout campus have been consolidated, and after renovation, expanded to 7,295 SF of research space. The creation of the Center for Social Science Research has and will continue to enable synergistic activity and improve the professional development of students and faculty. This funding has enabled collaboration and partnership among formerly separate or independent programs of research and research training. The interdisciplinary nature of research programs at the Center for Social Science Research and the integrative nature of research training taking place there have led to more comprehensive and superior training opportunities, and as it continues to develop, will have an influence upon the greater Charleston community. Moreover, the Center for Social Science Research fosters the research interests and skills of those students who do not go on to graduate studies but would, however, be better prepared to conduct research in a variety of settings that benefit others (e.g., non-profit organizations, hospitals, primary education). Students at the College, children and parents, and older adults from the Charleston community are deriving benefits from participating in these social science research projects. Broader Impacts As an institution of higher education with a strong focus on undergraduate research, the College of Charleston is now much better able to foster research and research training in the social sciences. This space now provides complete disability access and has dramatically improved our current cyber-infrastructure. In addition, the Center for Social Science Research (with greater square footage, better access, increased institutional support, a multi- and interdisciplinary mission, and a more visible nature), is enabling participation by a much more diverse pool of student researchers, particularly women, African-Americans, and those with disabilities. The Center for Social Science Research has increased and enhanced the opportunities for collaborative and cross-disciplinary research and is allowing our faculty and students to directly develop and participate in emerging research. Products College of Charleston prehistoric and historic archaelogical collections and a modern forensic skeletal collection are now curated in the Center for Social Science Research.
