Research Showcase

Photo of the Week

Eleven undergraduate students in the College of the Arts showcased their research projects in the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum Wednesday, May 16, in French Field House. They were among undergrads from throughout the university presenting their research accomplishments to the campus community in the nationally known forum. The students' research ranged from studies of movement such as b-girling and house dancing to an analysis of birds' song frequency ranges in noisy urban environments. Students included Dina Sherman, Sharon Fox and Jon Keppel (Art); Kerri Seger (Music/Zoology/Ecology); Katherine Thornton, Brittany Futrell, Joel Searls and Katie Kimmel (Theatre); Ali Simon and Sara Wiseman (Dance); and Jessica Daniel (History of Art). Searls (pictured above) created a western play, Antioch, that deals with alcoholism, violence and racism and is set in 1906. Congratulations to Fox, Simon, Sherman and Futrell -- they were named winners in the Denman competition.

Notable News

The Department of Dance's BFA graduating class -- including Allison Molyet (right) -- presents an all-student produced performance, Assorted Impulses, May 23-25 in Sullivant Theatre. The full-length evening of dance includes choreography inspired by multicultural, theatrical and diverse music and text influences. The performance features gifted modern dancers performing original work representing a wide perspective of dance's place and meaning in our culture. Tickets are $5 at the door; call 292-7977 for information.

Doctoral student Jodi Kushins (Art Education) has been invited to give a presentation based on her dissertation this month at a Think Tank in Georgia sponsored by FATE (Foundations in Art, Theory and Education). Her dissertation research focuses on innovations in introductory undergraduate studio art education, and she is completing case studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University.

The "Food for Thought" fundraising dinner originally scheduled for tonight, Monday, May 21, at 6 pm at the Wexner Center, has been canceled. The event is organized by Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil (Art). An 8 pm screening of the award-winning 2006 documentary Our Daily Bread will be presented as planned.

Karen Hutzel (Art Education) and Flavia Bastos, University of Cincinnati, recieved a $5,000 NAEF grant for their proposed research project, Art in the Market Program's Legacy: Outcomes of a 10-year Community-Based Art Education Initiative. They plan to start the research in June.

Greg Leedy, an alumnus of the Department of Design and now senior product innovator at Nike's 'Innovation Kitchen' in Beaverton, OR, visited Reinhart Butter's graduate class May 10 to talk about "Research as an Integral Aspect of Design and the Crucial Role of Innovation in Industry". And alumna Verena Paepcke, who now teaches at Savannah College of Art and Design, was invited by Butter to lecture May 11 in his junior industrial design studio on the subject of "Sustainability as Related to Design". Both events were partially funded by past and current sponsored projects.

Melanye White Dixon presented "Marion Cuyjet: Cultural Activist and Visionary of Dance Education in Black Philadelphia" for the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity's brownbag speaker series May 16.

The current revival of the play Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, has been nominated for five Tony Awards, including best revival of a play, best actor in a play, best lighting, best scenery and best costuming.

Undergraduate student Jon Keppel (Art), who presented his research at the Denman Forum, will premiere his video assemblage, Mere, at the Columbus Museum of Art on Tuesday, May 29. Based loosely on the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's conception of "the Real," the project consists of five videos that plot a unique relationship between content and form. The screening begins at 4 pm at the museum, and runs about 40 minutes. A repeat screening at Ohio State starts at 7 pm Friday, June 1, in Hagerty Hall room 180. A teaser for the film is here.

Theatre student Jason Bush has learned his paper proposal -- "Scissors Dancing and the Intellectual Gaze" -- to the American Society for Theatre Ressearch has been accepted for the plenary sessions at the society's November conference in Phoenix. Only 12 to 15 papers are selected each year for the full conference plenary sessions, and typically 80-150 proposals are submitted by national and international scholars.