AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Chiquita Collins, an assistant professor of sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, has received a Career Enhancement Award for Junior Faculty, which is administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
A total of 20 recipients were selected from a national competition representing three academic disciplines: the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences. Collins is one of three sociologists around the country to receive this award, which helps talented junior faculty in pursuing scholarly research and writing by providing a sabbatical for the academic year 2004-2005.
Collins will use the award to complete several research projects that explore health outcomes in minority communities across the U.S. She is working with researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to ascertain whether cultural influences such as attitudes and behavior with respect to cancer, physical and social amenities located in the community, as well as known environmental exposures, contribute to poorer health outcomes within specific racial and ethnic populations. Collins’ research focuses on racial differences in mortality, African-American health, AIDS awareness and prevention, and the effects of residential segregation on health.
For more information contact: Michelle Bryant, College of Liberal Arts, 512-232-4730.
