Ideas for Creative Exploration is pleased to announce two new Idea Lab Mini Grant recipients. The projects were selected based on creative merit, extent of collaborative and interdisciplinary activity, and feasibility. They address the 2018-2019 theme of “cultivating community” by fostering new narratives around coastal environments and promoting cross-disciplinary communication through creative practice. Mini Grant awards provide production support from ICE Graduate Research Assistants and project funding.
Social Justice, Sustainable Futures: Retelling the History and Experiences of African-Americans in the Coastal Southeast
Lead applicants: Jeffrey Beauvais (doctoral student, Integrative Conservation (ICON)/Ecology) and Kathryn Koopman (graduate student, Music)
While academic studies may help to highlight social ills, many community activists have posited that the critique-focused approach of academic research creates overly negatives narratives that do not offer possible paths for more equitable futures. Through musical collaboration, we will: 1) provide more accurate representations of coastal African-American life and history, 2) give back to partnering communities by performing for them and completing community service during workshops on the coast, and 3) reach wider general audiences and connect them to these stories.
Exploring Research as Craft: A Workshop Series to Promote Cross-Discipline Communication by Examining Processes of Creating to Approach Questions
Lead applicants: Cydney Siegerman (doctoral student, Anthropology) and Alden DiCamillo (graduate student, Art)
The purpose of this collaboration is to promote cross-disciplinary communication by conceptualizing research and practice as craft. We use Ingold’s (2013) definition of craft as the gathering and transformation of material according to cultural and scientific presence. By considering research as craft, our goal is to uncover commonalities that exist among students from diverse disciplines in how they engage with questions about the world. Graduate students across the UGA campus will participate in a three-part project to communicate their research as craft. The project will culminate with a gallery show open to the greater Athens community.