Faculty Development Grant Recipients

Beau Beaudoin
Television

With this funding Beau will travel to Monteverde, Costa Rica to research the psychological dissonance and discomfort experience when an English speaking person wearing several identities is immersed in a Spanish-only speaking environment as a student. Beau will utilize heuristic investigation of her own identity and that of selected other second language students. She plans to present her findings in a paper in the forthcoming NAME (National Association of Multicultural Educators) conference in November 2008, as well as complete her writing of a narrative about her identity experiences in a creative nonfiction format with the intention of submitting it to an appropriate journal.

Kris Brailey
New Millennium Studies

Kris will use this grant for travel and equipment pertaining to a photographic documentary project. The project entails photographing her family during summer visits to reflect on her past, anticipate her future, and deal with the pending mortality of her aging parents.

Peter Carpenter
Dance

These funds will supplement research and development costs associated with Peter's dance theater work, "My Fellow Americans". The project explores the shifting identity of Ronald Reagan from the perspective of "special interest groups" that his rhetoric and policies consistently admonished. Peter plans to travel to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California for an intense immersion in the research process. The evening-length production of "My Fellow Americans" will premiere in June 2009.

Wilfredo Cruz
Liberal Education

With grant support for his project, tentatively titled "Latinos and Work in Chicago", Wilfredo will be traveling throughout the city taking close up photographs of Latinos in various jobs and occupations. The finished project will contain an extensive written introduction, and over 200 black and white photographs, along with written photo captions.

Lisa DiFranza
New Millennium Studies

Lisa will be able to research, purchase materials necessary to shoot video, and experimentally collaborate on her theater piece, "Home", with this grant award. This piece, which was started two years ago, examines the multiple meanings of the word "home" from virtual homes to home pages, the concept of "homeland security" to homelessness.

Arlene Greene
English

Using this grant, Arlene will be able to travel to Mississippi and Pennsylvania to do research for her novel, tentatively titled "Quicksand". The book is based on her family of origin and Arlene hopes to gain insight into what influences their birthplaces may have had on them and how it may have shaped some of the decisions they make and conflicts they have in the story.

Myra Greene
Photography

With this grant, Myra will continue her photography project, tentatively title "Whiteness". Myra will travel to photograph 35 people in 5 states to explore if their racial identity is as easily reduced to codes and gestures as many have classified the black image. The images will appear to be documents of people's lives, but will teeter into performative photographs.

Renee Hansen
English

Renee will move her image-poem project, "White Horse/Red Ink", into final stages with this funding. The resulting photographs will be 4'x6' black and white photographs of white Arabian horses stamped and drawn upon with poems in red ink, resulting in a brief, poetic, red-inked narrative across each photo. The project draws upon the disciplines of black and white photography, Japanese ink painting, and poetry.

Katherine Hamerton
Liberal Education

This faculty development grant will cover the costs of research and supplies for Katherine's submission to "The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe." The project is an annotated translation of famous eighteenth-century salonniere writings on women with an introductory scholarly essay.

Dawn Larsen
AEMM

Dawn will begin research into international copyright law issues with this funding. She plans to identify the key differences in copyright law in the United States, United Kingdom, France and the European Union, and Russia and Baltic States, as well as discuss the challenges these differences pose for copyright owners with regard to international distribution and enforcement of their copyright. Dawn will also explore the impact of cultural norms on the formation of copyright law and policy.

Alexis Pride
Fiction Writing

This funding will assist Alexis in research towards her essay, "Memory, Truth and Imagination". The work will discuss the autobiographical fiction writer's process: patterns in subject material many writers choose from their own lives and the artistic affect of these choices. The research involved in crafting this essay will further inform her writing process by examining the techniques of other writers, assessing their outcomes and learning of their problem-solving approaches.

Mat Rappaport
Television

Mat will use this grant to assist in developing a new body of work titled, "Resort". The work will continue his exploration of serialized spaces of habitation such as dorms, hotels, and in this case, a historic resort. Mat plans to travel to Prora, Germany to experience the architecture and create the work. The finished body of work will consist of a multi-channel video and audio installation, a series of photographs and a single channel video work.

Dan Rybicky
Film & Video

Dan will use this faculty development grant to assist with the production of a forty-minute long documentary focusing on his relationship with Chicago architect Ed Noonan entitled, "Under Ed's Roof." The project will be a syntheses of character study, historical document and personal essay. In a series of "on-the-go" filmed conversations with Ed Noonan, Dan will address concepts of sustainability, faith, and design.

Arti Sandhu
Art & Design

This funding will be used to conduct investigatory research in New Delhi, India for Arti's written compilation on contemporary Indian fashion and design. This work may be submitted as a book, as well as towards conferences and journal publications. The funding will also be used to purchase artistic materials that are specific to India for creative practice in mixed media.

Mirella Shannon
Interactive Arts & Media

These funds will be used to develop Mirella's workshop that uses computer video game development tools as a method of teaching programming. Using a variety of photography, drawing techniques, and visual story-telling strategies, students will begin the workshop by exploring their artistic voices and recording their own personal narratives. By the end of the workshop students will hopefully have developed a new perspective about programming and see the potential of careers in computer science.

David Trinidad
English

David will use this faculty development grant to assist in conducting research in New York City at Fales Library where the papers of Tim Dlugos are housed. David is currently editing the collected poems of Dlugos, a prominent young New York poet who died of AIDS in 1990.

Wehwa Ts'ao
Film & Video

These funds will be used to support the production phase of Wenhwa's five-minute film, "Nova". This short film investigates the building of genetically modified and scientifically improved humans and the ethical impact. Jin, an ailing old geneticist and biochemist, created the heroin of the story, Nova, to serve his personal need - a daughter to love him

Heather Minges Wols
Science & Mathematics

Heather will use the development fund to enhance her project "The Impact of Age on B Cells." It is well documented that our immune system declines with age. This project will test the hypothesis that mature B cells cannot home to the proper location oin the spleen due to a decrease in the chemokine CXCL13, thus severely limiting the ability of B cells to respond properly to the presence of invading pathogens. The results may have implications for improved vaccine design for the elderly.