Congratulations to CURAH Councilor Chad Spigel, the director of Trinity’s Mellon initiative, pictured above with students. The grant will expand Mellon’s presence at Trinity. Among other things, the grant will allow them to “integrate arts and humanities research preparation more fully into the curriculum,” especially in lower-division classes.
Congratulations to two of our Arts and Humanities Division Councilors who were awarded N
EH Humanities Connections Grants in the 2018 round!
M. Soledad Caballero, associate professor of English at Allegheny College (PA) and CUR Arts and Humanities Councilor, is co-PD with Aimee Knupsky on “Ethical Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Enhance Humanistic Thinking,” which received an NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grant of $34,987. The project aims to develop an “Ethical Interdisciplinary” partnership that will expand the role of humanities education for undergraduates.
Amy Woodbury Tease, associate professor of English and director of undergraduate education at Norwich University (VT), received $35,000 in Humanities Connections Planning funds for her project, “Developing an Interdisciplinary Curriculum to Foster Citizen Scholars,” five interdisciplinary courses on the theme of resilience, co-taught by faculty in humanities and non-humanities fields.
According to the NEH website: “The Humanities Connections grant program seeks to expand the role of the humanities in undergraduate education at two- and four-year institutions. Grants will support innovative curricular approaches that foster productive partnerships among humanities faculty and their counterparts in the social and natural sciences and in pre-service or professional programs (such as business, engineering, health sciences, law, computer science, and other technology-driven fields).”
For more information on this UR-focused grant program: https://www.neh.gov/grants/education/humanities-connections-planning-grants
Top row, left to right: Maria Iacullo Bird, Ruben Dupertuis, Gretchen Braun, Ian MacInnes, Chad Spiegel, Jennifer Thorington Springer, Jamie Gilbert, Tom Scott, Cheryl Nixon, Amy Woodbury Tease, Sara Orel, Kimberly Jones
Middle row, left to right: Lynette Overby, Alexa Sand
Bottom row, left to right: Eugenia Oi Yan Yau, Michelle Hayford, Joe Trimmer
Recen
tly-elected CUR Arts and Humanities Councilor Michelle Hayford, Director of the Theatre, Dance, & Performance Technology Program at the University of Dayton, is co-editor with Susan Kattwinkel of Performing Arts as High-Impact Practice, in Palgrave’s The Arts in Higher Education series. As described on Palgrave’s website, “This book investigates how the performing arts in higher education nationally contribute to the “high impact practices,” as identified by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU). Using the well-known map of the HIPs for illustrating the centrality of performing arts practices in higher education, the editors and authors of this volume call for increased participation by performing arts programs in general education and campus initiatives, with specific case studies as a guide. Performing arts contribute to the efforts of their institution in delivering a strong liberal arts education that uniquely serves students to meet the careers of the future. This is the first book to explicitly link the performing arts to the HIPs, and will result in the implementation of best practices to better meet the educational needs of students. At stake is the viability of performing arts programs to continue to serve students in their pursuit of a liberal arts education.”
Congratulations, Michelle, and welcome to the Council!
For more: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319729435#aboutBook
The Humanities Education and Research Association (HERA) has a new prize associated with its annual spring conference. The prize is $1000 for the student and $500 for the faculty mentor. Next year’s conference has yet to be determined, but the call for student contestants will be in mid January. Here’s a link to their conference page.
The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) announces a new endowment that will support a CUR Arts and Humanities Mentor Award as well as other initiatives to nurture arts and humanities research involving faculty members and undergraduates.
Noted 2012 CUR Fellow Joyce Kinkead (distinguished professor of English, Utah State University) established this fund in 2018 to support undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry in arts and humanities disciplines and encourages others to consider donations to the endowment. Said Kinkead, “CUR has been extremely important to my professional life, providing critical support to me as a director of an undergraduate research program and as a faculty mentor to students. I wanted to give back, and it seemed appropriate to establish an award that recognizes and illuminates the stellar work done in the humanities and arts by faculty mentors. I hope that this award gives them the opportunity to share the inspiring stories of their work with undergraduate researchers and to know that this work is highly valued.”
It is anticipated that a call for nominations for the inaugural Mentor Award will be issued in fall 2018, with the first award presented at a CUR event in spring 2019. The awardee will receive a plaque and $1000. The CUR Executive Board, in consultation with CUR Executive Officer Elizabeth L. Ambos, will determine additional priorities for the arts and humanities endowment.
Said Ambos and Maria T. Iacullo-Bird (chair of CUR’s Arts and Humanities Division and assistant dean for undergraduate research, grants, and special projects at Pace University), “The range and vitality of undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry in the arts and humanities have grown significantly in recent years despite major funding challenges. We look forward to spotlighting the innovative and important work of faculty members and students through the Mentor Award and other projects that the endowment will make possible.”
The National Collegiate Honors Council has a new online journal, UReCA edited by honors students from around the country. Essays and creative work by undergrads in fields ranging from STEM to performing arts are considered for publication. Read more on their website (just click through the weirdly persistent error message if it shows up): http://www.nchc-ureca.com/index.html
Encourage your students to submit work!
In June 2017, two CUR Division of Arts & Humanities Councilors (Sara Orel and Julia DeLancey, Truman State University) participated in a workshop for faculty members in Art departments at public, liberal arts universities. The workshop, put on by the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges brought together artists, art historians, designers, and museum and library professionals to discuss how to better support teaching of the arts in a public, liberal arts setting. As part of that, Sara Orel co-facilitated a very well-attended session on integrating undergraduate research into arts curricula. Dr. Orel is a former Arts & Humanities Division Chair and also co-author of the CUR publication How to Get Started in Arts and Humanities Research with Undergraduates (2014).
Councilor Lynnette Overby shares this feature from the University of Delaware’s College of Arts and Science news feed: https://www.cas.udel.edu/news/Pages/SummerResearchSymposium.aspx
It’s great to see arts and humanities featured so prominently in a campus-wide celebration of student summer research. Delaware continues to provide exemplary leadership in UR!
Here’s an article from the Summer 2017 issue of CUR Quarterly (the very last under that title) co-authored by current CURAH councilor Alexa Sand , CUR Fellow (2012) and Carnegie Professor (2013) Joyce Kinkead, and a trio of Utah State University’s talented library faculty members who are all involved in UR: http://www.cur.org/assets/1/7/SandCURQ374.pdf
