Eight Southwestern University faculty members have received a total of more than $15,000 in research funding for the upcoming year from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.

The funding comes through the board’s Sam Taylor Fellowship program, which awards fellowships to full-time faculty members at United Methodist-related colleges in Texas.

The faculty members receiving funding for 2013-2014 are:

Melissa Byrnes, assistant professor of history, received $2,000 that will enable her to travel to France and Portugal to conduct research on French activism for Portuguese rights in the 1960s.

Martin Gonzalez, associate professor of biology, received $2,000 to further his research on antibiotic resistance in e-coli bacteria.

Maria Lowe, professor of sociology, received $1,615 to fund a research project that is examining what types of behavior and people are most likely to trigger emails to a listserv in a predominantly white neighborhood warning residents of suspicious activity.

Stephen Marble, associate professor of education, received $1,500 to study the barriers that new teachers face if they try to bring research skills they have learned into the classroom.

Gulnar Rawji, associate professor of chemistry, received $2,000 for equipment and materials that will enable her to synthesize a series of new metal complexes that may be suitable for use in photodynamic therapy, a type of cancer treatment that uses electromagnetic radiation to activate drugs once they reach the targeted cancer cells.

Eileen Meyer Russell, associate professor of music, received $2,000 to commission, perform and record an original composition for organ and trombone called “Free Air.” The piece will be written by Baltimore-based composer David R. Gaines and will be premiered at Southwestern in October 2014.

Anwar Sounny-Slitine, instructor of environmental studies, received $2,000 to support his Ph.D. work at UT-Austin in geography and the environment.

Davi Johnson Thornton, associate professor of communication studies, received $2,000 to conduct research on an early incident in the civil rights movement known as the Dockum Drug Store Sit-ins. This little-known incident, which took place in Wichita, Kan., set a pattern for non-violent confrontation later in the civil rights movement.