BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Twenty-eight faculty from various Indiana University campuses have been awarded New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grants. With the intent of encouraging faculty to expand their work into new disciplinary or interdisciplinary areas, the awards will provide funding for this year's winners to explore topics such as:
"Divine Healing and Deliverance in America, 1860-2010," a book manuscript by Candy Gunther Brown, associate professor of religious studies at IU Bloomington.
"All in the Family: Identifying Kinship in Prehistory Using Ancient DNA," a project looking at kinship patterns in the Midwest over the past 2,000 years by Frederika Kaestle, assistant professor of anthropology at IU Bloomington.
"Requiem for the Innocent," a vocal and orchestral remembrance of victims of terrorism by Jorge Muñiz, assistant professor of music at IU South Bend.
"Mothers' L.A.N.D. (League Against Nuclear Dangers): History, Heroines, Housewives and Homeland," an exhibition examining an organization formed in 1973 in opposition to the construction of a nuclear generating facility, by Matthew Groshek, assistant professor of civic engagement, exhibition planning and design at IUPUI.
This is the fifth and final year for the original New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities program, which was funded by the Lilly Endowment for five years with $5 million. However, the university will continue to support the program after this year.
"In the last four years, more than 300 awards have been made to faculty members on all eight campuses, resulting in many dozens of books, art exhibitions and performances," said Sarita Soni, IU vice provost for research, whose office oversees the program. "Equally impressive is the fact that many of these awardees have successfully competed for external funds to continue their work. President McRobbie's commitment to continuing funds for this program for the next five years is a recognition of the work faculty are accomplishing in the arts and humanities at IU."
The New Frontiers program offers support to faculty in a number of ways. New Frontiers grants assist in the development of innovative works of scholarship and creative activities, while New Perspectives grants target workshops and conferences on the arts and humanities. Visiting Visionary scholar grants support extended visits to IU by scholars and performers, and Exploration Traveling Fellowship grants support national and international travel for scholars and researchers in the initial stages of new projects.
"The value the New Frontiers Visiting Visionary grant is immeasurable for my research and for the SoFA Gallery," said Betsy Stirratt, director of the School of Fine Arts Gallery at IU Bloomington. She will orchestrate "Re(Actions) Visualizing Climate Change," a series of programs and exhibits. "This funding has made it possible to present the topic of global warming in a completely new way. Through interdisciplinary activities, collaborations and the display of contemporary art, I hope that we will provide a forum to examine and understand, through visual means, climate change."
The deadline for 2009 New Frontiers grant proposals occurs in October. For more information about the program and the application process, see
www.research.iu.edu/funding/newfron/index.html.
2009 New Frontier grants were awarded to:
Candy Brown, IU Bloomington, Religious Studies, "Divine Healing and Deliverance in America, 1860-2010
David Craig, IUPUI, Religious Studies, "Debating Desire: Ritual Performance and the Politics of Man
Denise Cruz, IU Bloomington, English, "Transpacific Femininities: Literature and the Making of the Modern Filipina"
Margaret Dolinsky, IU Bloomington, Fine Arts, "Annunciation + Visitation: Operatic Projections of Her Sexual Insight"
Matthew Groshek, IUPUI, Fine Arts, "Mothers' L.A.N.D. (League Against Nuclear Dangers): History, Heroines, Housewives and Homeland"
Jeffrey Hass, IU Bloomington, Music, "Third Symphony for Orchestra with Electronics and Video Projection: Together and Apart"
Frederika Kaestle, IU Bloomington, Anthropology, "All in the Family: Identifying Kinship in Prehistory Using Ancient DNA"
Stacie King, IU Bloomington, Anthropology, "Archaeology of/as Political Action in Southern Mexico"
Brigitte Le Normand, IU Southeast, History, "Gastarbajteri: The Influence of Labor Migration on Yugoslav Society and Culture, 1960-1980"
Murray McGibbon, IU Bloomington, Theatre and Drama, "The African Tempest Revisited"
Elliott McKinley, IU East, Music, "Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra"
Jorge Muniz, IU South Bend, "Requiem for the Innocent"
Kathleen O'Connell, IUPUI, Fine Arts, "Watercolor Groundscapes Inspired by Ecosystems of the Desert"
Rakesh Solomon, IU Bloomington, Theatre and Drama, "Islamic Fundamentalists, Hindu Militants, and Globalization: Locating Traditional Theatre within Contemporary India's Political Economy"
Rachel Wheeler, IUPUI, Religious Studies, "Revolutions in Faith: Five Generations of a Mohican-Moravian Family, 1740-1815"
New Perspectives grants were awarded to:
Colin Allen, IU Bloomington, Poynter Center, "Neuroethics: Ethical and Social Implications of Neuroscience"
Hakki Cipa, IU Bloomington, Central Eurasian Studies, "Editing the Past, Fashioning the Future: Historiography of the Ottoman Empire"
William Deal, IUPUI, Music, "Intermedia Festival Project"
Adelheid Gealt, IU Bloomington, Fine Arts, "Merged Symmetries: Exploring the Geometric Sculptures of Morton C. Bradley Jr."
Philip Goff, IUPUI, Religious Studies, "The Religion and American Culture Conference"
Bessie House-Soremekun, IUPUI, Political Science, "Rethinking Economic Development in the Context of Globalization"
Paula Katz, IUPUI, Fine Arts, "Collaborate: Projects for the 21st Century"
Michael Martin, IU Bloomington, African American and African Diaspora Studies, "Cinematic Representations of Racial Conflict in 'Real Time'"
Portia Maultsby, African American and African Diaspora Studies, "Black Rock Music and Audio Visual Archives: The Conference as a Solution to Filling the Documentation Gap"
David Ransel, IU Bloomington, History, "Everyday Life in Russia: Strategies, Subjectivities and Perspectives"
Jutta Schickore, IU Bloomington, History and the Philosophy of Science, "Integrated History and Philosophy of Science Conference"
Samrat Upadhyay, IU Bloomington, English, "The Writer in the World: The Personal and the Political"
Visiting Visionary Scholars grant was awarded to:
Elizabeth Stirratt, IU Bloomington, Fine Arts, "ReActions: Visualizing Climate Change"
Arts and humanities grants awarded to 28 faculty at IU
Georgetown Granted $50 Million for Latin American Education Program
The United States Agency for International Development recently gave a $50 million grant to the Georgetown Center for Intercultural Education Development to fund its Scholarships for Education and Economic Development program.
The university announced this gift on Feb. 3 in a press release.
USAID typically provides grants for programs aimed at helping people in poorer areas of the world. SEED is set to begin in August 2009.
“[SEED brings] disadvantaged youths from Central America and the Caribbean to study at community colleges for two years. It also has an employment program for the youths when they return to their countries,” said Chantal Santelices, director of CIED.
The program allows youths from the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua to study agriculture, business, health, education, information technologies and other fields that will enable them to be successful upon return to their home country. The students will also be given the opportunity to enroll in English as a second language and leadership courses.
Santelices emphasized the importance of this program, as well as the nature of the grant given by USAID.
“This is a very important program for CIED. SEED embodies the mission of the center to train young people and find employment. [It emphasizes] social justice and empowerment through education and training,” she said.
USAID currently funds many similar initiatives in Latin America. It previously sponsored CIED’s Cooperative Association of States for Scholarships program, which preceded SEED. The CASS program provided training for more than 6,000 students from low-income and rural areas in Central America and the Caribbean. CIED and the university hope that with the help of USAID, the SEED program will be as or more successful.
“This grant funds the important work of CIED in carrying out educational opportunities for many students from foreign countries,” university spokesperson Julie Bataille said. “Georgetown is certainly pleased that CIED’s efforts are recognized with this grant funding — it speaks to the high caliber of their work and the success of the educational opportunities they provide to students who participate in their programs.”
USAID could not be reached for comment.
By Laura Engshuber Feb 05 2009
Obama stimulus package questioned
Professor Michael Porter is boyish in his enthusiasm. His work may be taught at most business schools in the world, but he's no ivory-tower pedant.
Professor Porter, who sweeps his hands expansively through the air while talking at a hundred miles a hour, has been called "the doyen of living management gurus", a pillar of Harvard Business School and author of textbooks on competitive advantage and strategy.
Professor Porter has also advised various governments on economic policy and in the past was picked out to lead a presidential commission by Ronald Reagan.
So when he expresses concern that the US government's economic stimulus package has not targeted the right areas, it's worth listening to his arguments.
Short-term jolt
Professor Porter concedes that America does need something to stimulate its ailing economy.
But he is not impressed with the shape of the package presented to the US Congress - leaving aside the controversy over the "Buy America" clause.
The current package includes almost $300bn (£205bn) of tax-cuts and twice that in extra government spending, which would extend unemployment benefits, and increase spending in some areas of healthcare, education and transport.
It is all meant to give a short-term jolt to the economy and set in motion projects that will create jobs over the longer term.
Self-interest
The plan has left Professor Porter frustrated.
In his opinion, much of it displays "the usual pork-barrel, favourite projects" and he insists that America ought to be identifying the fundamental challenges facing its economy and the country and investing in those.
The country, he says, ought to focus on "issues which would be critical constraints to our future".
In Professor Porter's view, those include the problem of access to higher education, and a dearth of spending on research and development.
He accepts that some parts of the stimulus package addresses those subjects, but not enough; much of it is about the politics of local self-interest, he believes.
'Washington is broken'
Asked why the plan from the Obama team is being rushed through, Professor Porter considers for a moment, before saying:: "I don't think it's so much their plan.
"It's a plan that's come out of the political process in Washington," he adds.
That's the trouble.
In his view "Washington is broken".
"It's not good at strategic thinking and it's become a circus that jumps from issue to issue and soundbite to soundbite."
Professor Porter believes the US has never dealt with any of the real issues that affect its competitiveness, such as healthcare and public education.
Any suggestion that these are major problems that need time and thought for wholesale reform, time that America's economy does not have, are met with a reminder that there are short-term things that could be done immediately.
One example would be providing better access to higher education.
Increasingly, Professor Porter insists, university is unaffordable.
America's educational attainment in terms of university education has "not gone anywhere in 20 years".
The stimulus could provide student loans and grants to support kids going to college, and grants to allow people to re-train, he suggests.
"This kind of activity does put money into the economy. It helps the short-term problem, but it's investing behind a fundamental priority, and if we don't address that priority, the country's not going anywhere."
'Nip and tuck'
Professor Porter's is not the only voice raised in criticism of the existing stimulus package.
Any number of politicians and economists have expressed a range of concerns, but his centre on America's long-term competitiveness.
He still hopes though, that the plan may yet be adjusted.
"President Obama has an ability to break the pattern", he muses.
"It will be interesting to see if he can use his tremendous, amazing popularity to start to nip and tuck on this stimulus package and get more of it aligned with the nation's real agenda."
He professes to have enormous respect for President Obama's economic team, but tempers that with a concern that he "would like to see some more business expertise and credentials in his people".
But could the United States manage to re-invent itself?
Professor Porter sighs and talks about his tremendous faith in the resiliency and dynamism of the US economy "which over and over again, takes its hits and moves on".
People across the world should not be pessimistic about the US, he insists, though there is a "but".
With the current stimulus plan, he says, "we're falling into the trap of taking an enormous amount of money that we really don't have right now, and not necessarily spending it well".
The head of the committee in charge of overhauling CORE said he wanted to modernize the university's general education curriculum to give students mor
The head of the committee in charge of overhauling CORE said he wanted to modernize the university's general education curriculum to give students more freedom.
"Nobody likes being told what to do - this is America," said Ira Berlin, who will lead the general education committee. "There are general education curriculums around the country that have been modeled after CORE, but it's been 20 years; things change. We are a very different society and university now. We need our general education to evolve like we have."
Provost Nariman Farvardin named Berlin, a history professor, as chairman of the committee yesterday, ending a lengthy search for the position. The task force was jointly appointed by the provost and the University Senate.
"I really had to twist his arm," Farvardin said. "But we were very persistent, and it paid off."
Berlin said he only changed his mind and agreed to chair the task force after giving the offer long and serious consideration. This reluctance delayed the start of the task force, which was supposed to begin work last semester.
"It's a very big job," Berlin said. "I, personally, would be deeply suspicious of anyone who would take on such a big responsibility on a lark."
Berlin said he ultimately hopes to change undergraduate sentiments to be more accepting of a "new CORE" curriculum. University officials have repeatedly said they want students to view general education courses as more than boxes to be checked off before graduating. Berlin said the decades-old curriculum was rigid and outdated, which causes aversion to the program.
"We're going to try to provide students with options," Berlin said. "There's not just one way of doing general education and we'd like to try to think of different possibilities instead of a one-size-fits-all approach."
Farvadin added that though the task force would be looking at and revamping the content of CORE, he hopes they also consider how such education is "delivered" to students, citing smaller class sizes and attracting the best professors on the campus to teach general education courses as key means to this end.
"I want all of the university to participate in general education - especially our best teachers," Farvardin said. "I hope [the task force] will come up with powerful ways to better this program."
Giving general education courses smaller class sizes and prominent professors was also a goal of the Pease Committee, which created CORE two decades ago. However, many of its recommendations were subsequently ignored.
Criticism from sociology professor John Pease, who chaired the commission, as well as fellow Pease Committee members Danny Gulick, a math professor, and Maynard Mack, an English professor, was part of the reason the original plan to overhaul CORE was delayed and the task force was created. Along with other faculty members, Pease, Gulick and Mack said the original proposal focused too much on current issues and not enough on broad philosophical issues students would not likely otherwise consider. In contrast, administrators said the focus on current issues would make students more interested in the classes.
The committee, consisting of 17 professors and administrators and two undergraduates, will begin to meet weekly after spring break, officials said. The provost has set a deadline of the end of fall 2009 for the task force to deliver its report and said the university will begin implementing the new recommendations as soon as the report is filed.
"We would like to move forward with this as soon as possible," Farvardin said. "The budget might be tight right now, but already we have resources behind the existing CORE program that we can use. I don't have any more worries. I am completely focused on the implementation of the strategic plan.
"I consider general education - CORE - a very important thing that separates this university from others," he added. "We want to pay special attention to this distinguishing program and better it, to give students the tools they really need to be successful, no matter what they do in life."
University officials said Berlin was the obvious choice to chair the committee, citing his experience, clout, enthusiasm and familiarity with undergraduate education as key factors in his appointment.
"He'll be very good as chair," Senate Chair Ken Holum said. "He's very enthusiastic about it, and everyone is really very happy. He's absolutely the right person for the job."
"CORE has been around for almost 20 years," Berlin said. "There are a lot of Terps out there who have been affected by CORE. And I think that if the new general education curriculum will be just as influential, it should be something that students embrace. And maybe if 20 years from now, students came back and said, 'You know, that was really important,' we could really feel like we accomplished something."
Marissa Lang
langdbk@gmail.com
