Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Research Towards a Revised Proposal for an Accelerated MA Program in Intercultural Studies David Porter LSA - English Language and Literature $500.00 |
The College of LSA at the University of Michigan has in recent years encouraged departments to develop proposals for accelerated master's degree programs combining requirements for the BA with a terminal master's degree to be completed within five years of study. An ad hoc faculty committee within LSA has developed a detailed proposal for an innovative interdisciplinary MA program of this kind on the topic of "Intercultural Studies." The proposal has received official endorsements from eleven participating LSA departments in the humanities and social sciences along with the support of the deans of LSA and the Rackham Graduate School. On conducting a preliminary review of the proposal earlier this year, the LSA Executive Committee determined that the proposal, while promising, requires considerably more data concerning practical opportunities and outcomes for students enrolling in such a degree program in order to be approved. Funding is requested to support research on internship and employment possibilities for future holders of the proposed degree, in preparation for a revision of the proposal along the lines requested by the EC. |
| Audience Work in Technical Communication Sarah Burcon Engineering $500.00 |
This project involves pedagogy in technical communication. Along with 3 other technical communication instructors, I am presenting pedagogical and research findings at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (4Cs) in March in Tampa, Florida. At this conference, we will discuss and share insights into a particular subject in Technical Communication (TC): audience. "Audience" is a crucial constituent in the field of technical communication, and it is important for TC instructors to convey to their students the significance of this concept so that students are equipped to write effective technical documents, both at the university level and in their future careers. Therefore, it is important for TC instructors to think about how they will teach this term. The conference panel at the 4Cs conference is based on some colleagues' research on audience. This research shows that we must think in terms of "audience work" vs. "writing for an audience," and further demonstrates that this approach allows for the complexity of relationships and the collaborative nature of audience work. Last semester (Fall 2014) I used this approach as a foundation in my classroom to create a more student-centered experience. I greatly modified my existing curriculum, giving students an assignment in which they worked with an actual stakeholder, the Canton Public Library (CPL). I will share my findings from last semester at this conference in order to add to the existing conversation on audience in technical communication. |
| Undocumented migration and the U.S./Mexico Border Sherrie Kossoudji Social Work $500.00 |
What does the U.S. border enforcement policy look like at the fence? Why do people risk their lives to trek the Sonora desert to try to work in the United States? Is Operation Streamline, a zero tolerance federal court trial for undocumented immigrants, constitutionally valid? Questions of policy, migration strategies, and legal validity permeate my classes on immigration. Students will travel to the U.S./Mexico border to experience, record, and reflect on the repercussions of U.S. immigration and border enforcement policy in the Tucson/Nogales area. The goal is to begin to understand the nuances of this immigration and our policy response by observing the day to day activities that constitute the minutiae of a policy's impact upon both the people who migrate and the people who enforce the policy. This short trip focuses on experiential learning rather than evaluating the research of others. Students will use interviews, videos, photographs, poetry, and essays to attempt to gain an understanding of the impact of U.S. enforcement policy and the militarization of the border on all of our lives. They will prepare public presentations to share their findings. |
| Healthcare quality poster session Andrew Ryan Public Health $500.00 |
In HMP 601 – a required master's level course –students explore the definition and measurement of quality medical care. Students gain an understanding of private organization approaches as well as policy efforts to measure and improve quality. As a culminating experience of the course, students will analyze quality measurement and improvement efforts in a specific healthcare sector (i.e. surgical care, nursing homes, behavioral health services). Students will display their analyses as a presentation and a poster. The goal of this final project is not only to apply knowledge about quality measurement and improvement to a real-world healthcare context, but to improve presentation skills (both verbal and visual). |
| Electronic Chamber Music Concert in Detroit Michael Gurevich Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
The goal of Electronic Chamber Music (PAT 413) is for students to gain understanding of important movements in the history of electronic music. Each year, the course focuses on a musical theme, with which students engage through reading, listening, composition, and performance. The theme for 2015 is "Techno"—students will explore the technologically mediated dance music that originated in urban centers in the U.S. and Europe, including Detroit. For this project, the class will hold a free, public concert in Detroit, for which students will compose, perform and produce all the music. Detroit being the birthplace of Techno, this is a natural fit, but the concert offers significant educational opportunities. Performing in front of a large, public audience will foster a different kind of engagement with the subject. Listening, reading, and composing are important modalities for learning about music; active engagement with the music through performing will be an invaluable complement to promote experiential, embodied learning. The event will also use music to broach a number of complex and vexing cultural, social, and aesthetic topics. In preparing for the concert, we will inevitably discuss questions of race, class, poverty, privilege, urban renewal, and gentrification. These issues are inherent in the music the students are studying, but producing a concert in Detroit will bring them to the fore in ways that would not otherwise be possible. The process of creating, composing, and presenting music will offer an outlet for students to creatively and critically express themselves on these subjects beyond discussion. |
| The Angoulême Festival - analysis of the collection for the competition to better understand French Comics $500.00 |
30 to 35 comic books, all in French, are in competition each year for the coveted Fauve d'Or award at the Angoulême Festival, in France, at the end of January. Having access to this collection will be very meaningful to students and engage them individually for a better understanding of the content of the course. It will provide them with a variety of genres and styles to study and analyze, it will trigger unique, personal and empowering conversations, engage students in the competition process and motivate them to express their opinion in the target language so as to convince other students of their choice of preference. The class will of course follow the competition on-line and react to the results of the award-winning comics. Students will be able to relate their French course at the University of Michigan, in the United-States, to an international cultural event happening in France, all in real time. |
| Exhibition Catalogue of the Museum of Literary Objects Sean Silver LSA $500.00 |
Over the course of the semester, students in English 351.001 compose and publish an exhibition catalogue of a museum of literary objects. Students in this lecture course select significant objects from readings in British literature of the eighteenth century, the so-called "consumer revolution." They become curators in a museum composed of these objects, writing accession sheets, object records, and extensive curator's notes. Towards the end of the semester, students revise these documents into a single collaborative document, an exhibition catalogue. This catalogue includes object descriptions, images, and extensive curator notes. Printed using the Espresso Book Machine in the Undergraduate Library, each student takes home a copy of their catalogue at the end of the class. |
| Experiential learning of Savoring Using An Art Class Nansook Park LSA $500.00 |
I would like to include a ceramics class as a way to teach students a concept and technique of savoring, which is part of the life worth living. This hands-on learning activity will provide students an opportunity to put savoring techniques in practice through creating a piece of art and appreciating different final projects of the other students. Making a ceramics piece would serve multiple learning purposes. It involves utilizing various senses such as touch, vision, smell, and sound, which are proven to be better ways of savoring. Exposing students to this type of learning experience that they are not familiar with could challenge their mind, creativity, and broaden their perspectives. |
| Field trips for Hist/Environ 223: Trashed! A History of Garbage in the Modern World Anne Berg LSA $456.00 |
Trashed! explores the history of waste since the 19th century. We will trace how garbage – the actual stuff that humans discard – has changed along with methods of production, distribution and consumption. We will think about waste politics and garbage culture. We will examine how waste shapes societies, how it is managed, what roles it plays in different economies, how it integrates into people's everyday lives, and how it fits into their value systems. Most importantly, we explore how trash connects and divides people in different parts of an expanding and constricting world. In order to make these connections tangible, this course includes active explorative learning in particular two field trips to a waste processing facility and a materials recovery facility. It is in support of these field trips that we apply for funding. |
| Investigating Student Learning Outcomes in the Arabic Program at the University of Michigan $500.00 |
Our project seeks to document learning outcomes of Arabic students at the University of Michigan. We plan to use this research to enhance our Arabic language teaching strategies and to define and refine our program goals and methods. Additionally, our program can serve as a model for other language programs across the University and will provide an opportunity for inter-departmental collaboration and innovation. |
| Student Focus Groups In Conjunction with Revamping NES Curriculum $500.00 |
The Curriculum Committee of the Department of Near Eastern Studies has identified the critical need for detailed student input and feedback, in the form of two Student Focus Groups consisting of NES majors and other active and engaged students in the department, while we are in the process of conducting a major re-vamping and overhaul of the Curriculum of Near Eastern Studies, ranging from re-designing the major, designing and integrating a range of large course initiatives into the new configuration, re-shaping the way we 'appear' to students and their interface with our departmental listings, our visibility, advising, and more. As a committee we have been consulting and generating innovative ideas, but feel we are lacking the 'student-eye-view' of all this, and that we need that at this juncture. We would like to conduct one Focus Group of graduating seniors before the end of the Winter 2013 term, and another one in the Fall of 2013. Having learned from the CRLT staff we consulted with that it is common practice and necessary to 'incentivize' student participation in such Focus groups (in the form of $25 gift cards or food/meals) we are applying for $500 for this purpose, $250 for each group of 10 students in the two focus groups. |
| Scientific Writing in the Classroom Lynn Carpenter LSA - Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology $500.00 |
Upper level writing skills are essential to every field that students will pursue after graduation. As instructors it is our job to teach our students these required skills. Scientific writing can be particularly challenging to teach, as many science classes commonly range in size from 30 students to 150. Effective teaching will involve not only grading primary pieces, but also revision after revision. Ultimately this can add up to thousands of pages that must be not only graded but analyzed for meaningful feedback. This is on top of the traditional teaching load, which involves conveying the science material that students need as subject matter for their papers. Technology has the potential to eliminate many of these mechanical issues. With the proper software, tablet PCs have the potential to revolutionize the grading procedure for writing assignments. Rather than carrying around thousands of pages of paper, digital drafts can be critiqued, revised, and sent back for another round of work from the student. I am requesting funds to purchase a Tablet, with Windows Pro and Microsoft Office (with OneNote). Specifically, I want to construct a method to be able to download papers from CTools in batch, pull the papers into individual folders to Microsoft OneNote, and spend the grading time giving feedback on the papers rather than the mechanics. Ideally, if this does help to streamline the process of critiquing and giving feedback this information could be shared with other Biology faculty who may incorporate additional writing assignments into their curriculum. |
| Breaking Down the Academy Walls Mark Clague Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
Through "Breaking Down the Academy Walls" I connect students in my musicology courses with informants from outside the University to make their learning real. A primary goal of this project is to spark my students' imaginations about the role of art making in American society and to offer models of real-world musicians who are making a difference in American cultural life. An Instructional Development Fund award would assist in covering the modest but still required expenses necessary to provide for three visitors this term. |
| Course enhancement for History Gateway Course on the History of Michigan $500.00 |
In the winter term of 2014, I will be launching a new "gateway" course in the history department. The course will be designed for freshmen and sophomores. These gateway courses are to take a topic in history ( in my case it will be Michigan and its university) and work trough a succession of themes that not only explore aspects of the general topic, but also suggest the different ways that history is done and understood. As a "gateway" class, I am particularly aware that to bring the idea of history to life will require an impressive visual accompaniment to the lectures. We have exceptional visual content here at the Bentley Library. I would like to devote the summer months (July and August -- my two final months as director) to building sets of images that will accompany the 26 lectures. To do this I will engage a student (already selected) to work with me to scan hundreds of items in support of this endeavor. From this databank of images I will be working this fall (during my sabbatical) to prepare the power points. I will "leverage" a $500 grant with other funds to put together an 8 week position. |
| Non-governmentality: Designs, Cultures, Politics Andrew Herscher Architecture and Urban Planning $500.00 |
Slavic 471/Arch 603 "Non-governmentality: Designs, Cultures, Politics" will be a seminar taught concurrently at the University of Michigan, by Associate Prof. Andrew Herscher, and at Syracuse University, by Assistant Professor Yutaka Sho. The course will explore a new model of co-teaching; instead of a team of teachers teaching a lecture class, as in the conventional co-teaching model, we will teach the same seminar at different universities. Staging a co-taught course as a seminar in separate locations, our model combines the pedagogical benefits of multiple teachers with those of a limited-enrollment seminar. Our model also has a particular relationship to non-governmentality, the subject of our course, as the form of co-teaching we are exploring is based not upon top-down administrative decisions but peer-to-peer initiatives between course faculty and students. We will establish two links between the seminars at Michigan and Syracuse: one, web-based video conferencing and blogging that will connect the seminars during and between class meeting and, two, two field trips during the semester that will allow the seminars to physically meet. |
| Holocaust Memorial Center Field Trip $350.00 |
I am hereby submitting an application for the funding of a field trip to the Farmington Hills Holocaust Memorial Center. I am teaching a senior seminar this coming fall for the Program of International and Comparative Studies (PICS) that discusses genocides of the 20th century from a comparative angle. The study of genocide and the possibility to compare one atrocity to another is not uncontroversial. This course by no means seeks to determine which genocide was the worse nor judge the degree of horrors based on a pornography of pain. Instead the goal is—through a variety of primary and interdisciplinary scholarly works, literature, oral histories, court cases, film and material culture—to dive into a critical comparative analysis while at the same time preserving the historic specificity of the various genocides. Questions we will ask are: How do genocides come about? What motivates people to partake or oppose the violence? How is genocide remembered, forgotten, and taught? The field trip to the memorial center will be a hands on experience for students to work out how the holocaust is remembered, taught and represented in Michigan, and they will have an opportunity to discuss it in comparison to the cultural memory of the holocaust in Germany and Poland, as well as with the commemorative practices of the Rwandan genocide. |
| Video Game Music Industry Expert Interview Honoraria Matthew Thompson Music, Theatre & Dance $400.00 |
I write to request 400 dollars to conduct four virtual (Skype) interviews with various top-level industry professionals throughout the semester as part of classroom activities. Through work on my game music blog, videogamemusicnerd.blogspot.com, I've made connections with guest speakers: Karen Collins (Associate Professor, University of Waterloo) who is the leading game audio scholar in the western world; Brian Schmidt (founding member of the Game Audio Network Guild (GANG)) who is a composer, audio programmer, game audio consultant, and creator of GameSoundCon; and George Sanger, author of The Fat Guide to Game Audio, game audio think-tank guru, and well respected composer, and Damian Kastbauer, audio implementor and co-creator of gameaudiopodcast. Each conversation will be timed to coincide with and reinforce classroom discussions of similar topics. For instance, the interview with Damian Kastbauer will take place during the section of the class when we're discussing audio implementation and the conversation with George Sanger will be concurrent with beginning our Composition Quest! In these interactive conversations, I'll act as moderator and give the students the chance to speak directly to professional experts, fleshing out class readings and discussions. As a way to extend the function of these interviews, I plan to record these video conversations for re-use and would also like to make these recorded interviews available via the UM-library for access by the community. |
| Corsica Project (7-12 November) Martin Walsh LSA $490.00 |
Research, rehearsal, and performance of two plays, La Moralite de l'aveugle et du boiteux (1496) by Andrieu de la Vigne and Rough for Theatre 1 by Samuel Beckett for the festival: San Martinu in Patrimonio: Festivale d'autumnu di a ruralita in Corsica, 7-12 November 2013. |
| Guest Participants in "Medical Humanities and Jewish Studies" (JUDAIC 318/517) $500.00 |
For my new workshop course, Medical Humanities and Judaic Studies (JUDAIC 318/517), I am bringing in a variety of people who are involved in healthcare to sit side-by-side with students and participate in class discussion. By bringing guests into selected class meetings, I am offering students the opportunity to discuss texts with those who can offer real-world perspectives on what it is to witness/experience suffering, make complex end-of-life decisions, and nurture clinician-patient relations. Moreover, as many of the guests are extraordinarily accomplished healthcare professionals, they model an appreciation of the Humanities for students. |
| Collaboration with a Professional Sports Organization: Creating new sponsorship inventory for the Detroit Tigers Dae Hee Kwak Kinesiology $500.00 |
Instructional Development Fund is sought for a collaborative project between SM439 (Sponsorship-Linked Marketing) students and the Detroit Tigers. Students will work in a small group to tackle a real-world problem the professional baseball franchise is facing. Senior executive of the organization has committed to provide a sponsorship-related project and students will have opportunities to apply various sponsorship theories and concepts to solve the real-world problem. In order to make this collaborative project more engaging, the senior executive invited the whole class to the facility during the semester. The Comerica Park has statues in left field concourse but have some unique potential for fan attraction and sponsorship. The organization would like to create new sponsorship inventory and make the space more appealing to fans. Therefore, it is critical for students to actually visit and experience the surroundings of the unused space. Instructional Development Fund will be primarily used to arrange a vehicle and a driver to take students (35 including the instructor) to the facility. Department of Parking and Transportation Services provides vehicle lease program and the cost for leasing a bus and a driver is $71.50/hour (6 or 8 hours minimum charge depending on the vendor). Therefore, I ask for $500 to cover the transportation expense to make experiential learning possible for my students. This problem-based learning opportunity will challenge students to critically think how the concepts can be utilized outside of the classroom. Students are already excited for this real-world case study and I am eager to provide relevant resources for them. |
| Workshops in Chinese Medicine and Chinese Opera for First-Year Seminar "China in Ten Words" Emily Wilcox LSA - Asian Languages and Cultures $500.00 |
I am applying for funding to offer two guest workshops – one in Chinese medicine and one in Chinese opera – for my freshman seminar course ASIAN 251 First Year Seminar "China in Ten Words: Foundational Ideas in Chinese Culture." The course teaches students to apply key concepts from early Chinese philosophy to understanding Chinese culture today. Students read primary philosophical texts in translation and study secondary sources that explain these texts. In addition, students conduct research on the connections between these philosophical ideas and modern Chinese culture. By holding these workshops, I hope to give students a chance to engage hands-on with two important aspects of modern Chinese culture – medicine and opera – in an experiential learning session that is guided by professionals working in each field. As professionals in these fields, the guest speakers will be able to introduce students to techniques and specialized vocabulary that is outside the scope of the readings and class discussions. For example, the doctors will demonstrate pulse-taking, acupuncture, and cupping methods from Chinese medicine. In addition, they will explain how these treatment methods connect directly to the ideas of "qi" and "yinyang," the two key works covered in the first unit. The Chinese opera practitioners will perform a piece of opera and teach student to enact basic singing and movement techniques. In addition, they will explain how opera performance engages the aesthetic concepts of "yun" (rhyme) and "xiang" (image), which are the keywords for that unit. |
| Photographic and Encaustic Processes Workshop Lisa Steichmann Art & Design $500.00 |
I propose to attend a four day workshop at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, in Woodstock, NY, from June 21 through June 24, 2014. The workshop is Photographic & Encaustic Processes. I teach Digital Photography at the Stamps School of Art, and I am always seeking to expand the methods and processes that are used in manipulating digital negatives. My teaching in the Stamps School is centered on the use of tools, materials, and processes. I have incorporated alternative processes in ARTDES 121 and ARTDES 300 courses I have taught, and in the ARTDES 173 courses I currently teach. What I learn in this workshop, I will directly transfer to students as I work one-on-one and in groups with students seeking solutions to the design and composition problems they encounter in my assignments. Encaustic is a wax-based process that allows the artist to enhance the dimensionality of an image, giving the illusion of three dimensions, the illusion of space, adding translucent layers, adding to the body and substance of the image. This is an interdisciplinary workshop that will afford me the opportunity to create new work and experiment with alternative processes. The workshop also covers archival processes, methods of presentation, and basic safety. All of this will directly impact my current classes, as I am continuously revising my course to bring additional methods for students to attempt. This increases their vocabulary in terms of the visual language they use to communicate in creatively solving art and design problems. |
| Joint community project to assess food availability and procurement in southeast Grand Rapids Phyllis Meadows Public Policy $500.00 |
The Office of Public Health Practice is requesting funds to support the cost of transporting 25-30 UM students to participate in an engaged learning activity focusing on population health in Grand Rapids, MI.PHAST was invited by faculty from Grand Valley State University to establish a joint community project to assess food availability and procurement in southeast Grand Rapids. Students from UM SPH and GVSU collected household surveys on neighborhood perception of food availability and accessibility. |
| 21st century music education clinics with Julie Lyon Lieberman Michael Hopkins Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
The purpose of this grant request was to provide support for a clinic on a topic of importance in 21st century music education: the integration of technology in performance and creative musicianship. The guest clinician was Julie Lyonn Lieberman, an eclectic styles violinist who specializes in improvisation, American vernacular and world styles. She is a nationally recognized clinician and performance artist. Lieberman visited campus on Thursday March 13 and gave a presentation entitled "Technology for Strings" to 30 undergraduate and graduate music education and music performance students during the meeting time for our String Techniques course. In addition, I was able to make arrangements for Lieberman to travel with me to Clague Middle School in Ann Arbor later that morning, where she gave her presentation to 60 7th-grade orchestra students. During her presentations, Lieberman introduced the participants to the use of electric violin, looper, effects, amplification, and led an improvisatory "jam session" with the participants. |
| Development of a Course Assignment Using the Labadie Collection $500.00 |
This application seeks funding for research assistance using the Joseph A. Labadie Collection. In the course, Sex, Sexuality & Public Policy (WS/Psych 394) students are asked to design a set of advocacy materials that would educate and persuade a policy maker about a topic of interest to the student. The Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan houses a large array of excellent historical examples of these kinds of materials from the 20th century, including political pamphlets, posters, and placards. The funds from the Instructional Grant would be used to pay for research assistance to find and catalog these examples for regular use in this course. There would be several useful outcomes from this archival research: a graduate student would develop a set of instructional materials using this collection and develop expertise using archival methods. Secondly, students in the course (75 students each year) would be exposed to the Labadie Collection, as well as the importance of using archival materials to think about contemporary politics. |
