2024 Edgren Scholar recipients were announced Monday. Every year, Bethel University selects to two faculty/student research proposals to fund. Psychology professor Sherryse Corrow is working with political science major Ian Young on a project about prosopagnosia, a form of face blindness. History professors Chris Gehrz and Sam Mulberry are working with Ellie Heebsh on a project about the history of women at Bethel. 

Corrow and Young are building off of a recent study that linked prosopagnosia with ADHD. They will be testing if prosopagnosia affects a broader deficit in the brain and will also collaborate with Dr. Starrfelt at the University of Copenhagen.

“I am excited about working with Ian, as student collaborations are always fun,” Corrow said.

Corrow will travel to Denmark this August to do more work with Starrfelt and present at a neuropsychology conference in Norway. 

Additionally, Corrow, Young and Starrfelt will be collecting data from around 100 participants with ADHD and seeing if they show signs of face recognition deficits. 

“As a political science major and psychology minor, I have tried to take on several opportunities that will expand my knowledge,” Young said, “and make an indelible impact on a field in which I have developed a strong fascination.”

With this research, they hope to pave the way for the diagnosis and treatment of prosopagnosia. 

Gehrz, Mulberry and Heebsh are creating an oral history project of important women from Bethel by preserving, gathering and interpreting the voices and memories of women who were a part of Bethel in the last 50 years. 

“It struck me that no one has attempted to do a version of Bethel’s history that places women fully at the center of the story,” Gehrz said. 

There are many women who built programs, shaped curriculums, mentored colleagues and taught students at Bethel. There are names that Gehrz and Mulberry have worked with, and ones they have only heard of but have left lasting impacts at Bethel. 

“Their fingerprints are all over this place,” Mulberry said, “in big ways and in small ways.”

This summer, Gehrz will be researching Bethel history, gender studies, religion and higher education as well as building a list of interviewees. Mulberry will be working with the media production side of things — filming, editing and preserving interviews. Heebsh will be pulling resources from the Bethel archives and writing short biographies about the women the group will interview. 

“I am excited to get to learn more about these women who have shaped the university which I call home,” Heebsh said. 

While taking Intro to History with Gehrz, Heebsh saw a lack of women’s perspectives and stories. She knew there wasn’t a full story with the exclusion of these female voices.

“I expect that it will be complicated,” Gehrz said. “Gender at Bethel is not a simple subject, with a history full of triumphs and struggles.”

After conducting interviews, they will be able to get more complete stories from women from the 1970s through 2000s. Their first focus will be in-depth interviews with “pioneers” before they open up a space for shorter interviews for faculty, staff and students to be able to share their experiences. 

“As a young woman, I expect this project to have a huge impact on my life,” Heebsh said. “There is so much to be learned from past generations of people — their successes, mistakes, joys, triumphs and setbacks have so much to teach me personally and professionally.”