Grants

Funded Projects
Lecturers' Professional Development Fund (LPDF)
Project Title Overview of the Project
Corsica Project, Residential College

$1130.00

In November of 2013 I brought a small performance project (an interface of medieval and modern drama) involving of myself and three RC Drama students, to a cultural festival in Patrimonio, Corsica. This festival focusses on the traditional 11 November feast day of the town's patron saint, Martin of Tours. (See report in the Fall issue of RC News attached.) Our production was well received by the festival participants and got a very favorable notice in the local Corse Matin and the national Nouvel Observateur. We were enthusiastically invited back for 2014.
2015 Latin American Studies Association Conference

$1700.00

I seek funding for attending the 2015 LASA meeting in San Juan, PR, where I plan to present a paper on "Cuban Science Fiction as a Mirror of Cuban Society and Culture," as part of a panel on "Cuban Utopias: Jewish and Other Quests for Home." This will accomplish three goals. First, interacting with international scholars of Latin America will directly benefit my teaching; I offer two courses on Latin America generally and use examples from the region in my other cultural anthropology courses. I will update lectures, class discussion notes, and AV materials based on new data and stories gleaned from panels and personal interactions at LASA (and on the streets of San Juan), as I have done in the past. Second, exchanging ideas with my fellow panelists and audience members will help sharpen my ideas for two works that I currently am preparing for publication. Third, my latest research project is translating a novel by a San Juan-based writer, Eduardo Lalo—interpreting his work in English while respecting and representing his culture—and I soon may begin translating a second novel by him. I expect to take advantage of the serendipity of the conference location to meet with the writer and to visit the neighborhoods and landmarks that feature prominently in his work, giving me valuable grounding that will improve my translations and help me convey the cultural meanings of his work more effectively to an English-speaking audience.
Authenticity Reconsidered: Archival Research, Scholarly Presentation, and Publication
Bradley Taylor
Administration

$2000.00

I am requesting $2,000 in CRLT funding to support travel related to a publication/ presentation project that will require primary resource research in Gloucestershire, a county in rural England. As a result of a previous research trips to London and Manchester, I have learned of repositories in three different locations in Gloucestershire (Gloucester, Snowshill, and Cheltenham) which house archival photographs and original documents that relate to the purchase, de-construction, transfer, and reconstruction of two-seventeenth century stone cottages and a stone forge that now exist in Henry Ford's outdoor museum, Greenfield Village, in Dearborn, Michigan. With this trip, I will have completed all the work required to tell the story of Ford's collecting trips to the U.K., specifically his purchase of two historic buildings. Given the troubled histories of these two preservation efforts, the results shed dramatic new light on the concepts of authenticity and originality in museums. And while this trip is largely research focused, I have been invited to give at least two guest lectures (with the possibility of a third) on my return to England. I would be happy to use some of this CRLT funding to allow me to travel back to Manchester and to rural Cambridgeshire to make these presentations. The project I propose relates directly to my teaching in the Museum Studies Minor and classroom discussions of the unique nature of original works of creation, the quintessential nature of experiencing those objects in person, and issues relating to originality and authenticity.
57th Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting--December 2015
Patrick Burke
Medical School

$2000.00

The proposed project seeks funding to support attendance at The American Society of Hematology (ASH) 57th Annual Meeting and Exposition in December 2015. ASH is the largest meeting dedicated solely to benign and malignant hematology, where the latest in basic science, translational, and clinical hematologic research is presented and where future collaborative research concepts are discussed and developed between investigators at various institutions and biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies. I have attended the ASH annual meeting every year since 2012 and have presented abstracts at each of these meetings. I have also met with other investigators and pharmaceutical companies to move projects forward. Funds for the proposal would pay for the meeting registration fee, airfare, and hotel stay. This will permit presenting potential abstracts but also allow networking. In particular, I plan to continue collaborations for an investigator-initiated phase I/II clinical trial that I developed and wrote as a fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Currently, the phase I trial is pending final Institutional Review Board approval at MSKCC and will soon open. Discussion has already been held regarding opening the future phase II trial at multiple sites, including possibly the University of Michigan. This networking to foster other research projects and bringing clinical trials to the University of Michigan are emblematic of the importance of ASH. This will benefit my clinical training and research career as a young investigator at Michigan. It will also greatly influence the care of the leukemia patients I treat in the Cancer Center.
"Writing the Unthinkable." Participation in a writing workshop with Lynda Barry
Mary Gell
LSA - Germanic Languages and Literatures

$1675.00

Every year Lynda Barry, or as she calls herself Lynda Barry!!, an award-winning cartoonist, writer, University of Wisconsin associate professor and creative storytelling guru holds an intensive four-day workshop called "Writing the Unthinkable" in Rhinebeck, NY. Participants are engaged in rigorous in-class writing exercises while Barry guides them with a host of innovative techniques for tapping into what she considers our natural capacity for creativity. Less interested in the formal craft of writing, Barry is fascinated with discovering and helping others discover the place where new ideas come from. She encourages students to experience the fun of allowing ideas and memories to flow freely because for her "writing should take you for a ride." In these dynamic seminars, participants write and share personal and fictional narratives while exploring new ways to think creatively. While Barry's workshops may not be exclusive to writers or teachers of writing, I see great potential in her approach to teaching creative storytelling in my courses and believe that upon completing her workshop I could return to campus with a cornucopia of appealing, productive techniques that would benefit all of my students. Every class that I teach in the department from German 101 to German 386 has a creative writing or storytelling component, and Barry's ideas would be extremely valuable to me, my students and colleagues.
Using Popular Culture in the Spanish as a Second Language Classroom
Andrew Noverr
LSA - Romance Languages and Literatures

$2000.00

This proposal funds my participation in an international series of classes and workshops on incorporating popular culture in to the Spanish as a second language classroom. This experience will help me mentor the approximately 20 graduate student instructors and lecturers who work with me each academic year while providing training on creating new activities I can use in the classes I teach.
Global Cinematography Institute Workshop

$2000.00

The Global Cinematography Institute (GCI) is devoted to the education of advanced/post-graduate filmmakers and professional cinematographers in the traditional techniques of the trade as well as the newly expanding digital and virtual creative methods in the filmmaking industry. Each summer GCI offers an intensive two-week workshop in Los Angeles taught by film professionals, including members of the American Society of Cinematographers, an elite group of award winning cinematographers whose artistic output has been recognized by critics and audiences internationally. I would like to attend a training session at GCI in order to integrate new technological changes into my work as a filmmaker, as well as gain experience with developing fields of cinematography for inclusion in my future courses. I am seeking support from the Lecturer's Professional Development Fund to help defray costs for attending a two-week intensive during the summer of 2015.
Ancient Community Space: A Presentation at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting
Lisa Young
LSA - Anthropology

$1769.00

The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) annual meeting is the largest professional conference of anthropological archaeologists in the United States. This meeting provides an internationally recognized venue for archaeologists to present their research and share ideas and experiences. I request funding from the CRLT LPDF to enable me to attend the 80th annual SAA meetings in San Francisco, California, from April 15-19, 2015. At the meetings, I will present a paper, entitled "Community Spaces at Pueblo III Pithouse Villages in Northeastern Arizona," which is an outgrowth of my long-term research on the organization of prehistoric Southwestern farming communities. This paper will be presented in a symposium called "Homol'ovi: A Gathering Space," organized by Dr. E. Charles Adams of the University of Arizona. This symposium, and the conference as a whole, will provide an ideal venue for me to present my ideas and receive feedback on my research. The SAA meetings are also an important venue for professional development related to my role as undergraduate and honors advisor for archaeology students in the UM Department of Anthropology. I am a member of the selection committee for a newly created national award for best undergraduate paper and poster presentation at the SAA meetings. I will also have the opportunity to meet with and/or see the presentations of recent graduates from the U of M Anthropology program, who I advised as honors students.
2015 AWP Writers Conference Panel Presentation and Bookfair
Jeremiah Chamberlin
LSA - English Language and Literature

$2000.00

To attend the 2015 AWP Writers Conference as a presenter on the panel "God Made Flyover States: Writing the Rural Midwest," which relates directly to and will help inform my continued teaching of Midwestern, Michigan, and Rust Belt Literatures in the English Department at the University of Michigan, as well as to participate in the bookfair as the Editor-in-Chief of Fiction Writers Review, an online literary journal founded by University of Michigan alumni. I also hope to attend a number of talks and panels focused on the teaching of writing in general and the pedagogy of creative writing in particular, with special attention to issues related to teaching genre literature, integrating new media and digital publishing in the classroom, and effectively interacting with student writing as a critical respondent.
Locating Digital Storytelling in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Curriculum: Panel Presentation at the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s Annual Conference
Laura Thomas
LSA - Residential College

$1705.00

I am requesting conference participation fees, travel and accommodation funding from the CRLT Lecturers' Development Fund to present a paper at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs 2015 Annual Conference and Bookfair in Minneapolis, MN. AWP was founded in 1967 to support the growing presence of literary writers in higher education, and is the professional organization for creative writing teaching professionals and writers. I will be a presenter on the panel Locating Digital Storytelling in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Curriculum based on a proposal I authored. This panel of university faculty will examine how electronic media is impacting the teaching of creative writing.
Attend 2015 American Planning Association Conference
Jeffrey Kahan
Architecture and Urban Planning

$500.00

I would like to attend the 2015 American Planning Association's National Planning Conference in Seattle, in April 2015. The conference will provide multiple opportunities to obtain information that can be used to improve the course material for two classes that I currently teach in the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. I have just begun co-teaching a new class that I co-created called, "Sustainable Water Infrastructure" which is being cross-listed with the Urban and Regional Planning program and the Civil Engineering program. I also teach a class that I created in 2004 called "Urban Land Use Planning" which is intended to give planning and design students exposure to current and best practices in the field. Attending the best urban planning conference in the U.S. will give me access to the people, presentations, and tours necessary for me to keep my students exposed to the latest information in the fields of water infrastructure and land use planning. The following subjects are specific areas of focus at the conference that I intend to introduce to my students: a) Geodesign, b) Smart Location Data Base, c) Coastal Protection Tools, d) Stormwater Management Best Practices (including a tour from a River Basin Steward from King County), e) Duwamish River Cleanup (including a tour from a representative from the City of Seattle Office of City Attorney), f) Green Alley Conversions, g) Sewage Reclamation, h) photo opportunities to update my PowerPoint Presentations).
Photopolymer printmaking workshop

$1062.00

I am applying for this LPDF grant to attend a professional workshop at Zea Mays Printmaking studio in Florence, Massachusetts, on the topic of photopolymer plates. I will be teaching two art-printmaking classes at the Residential College during winter 2015 semester. I am interested in covering as wide a range of printmaking techniques as possible, while still maintaining the classroom as a non-toxic studio. I believe that, given current ecological and environmental concerns, it is important to shift towards processes that minimize use and exposure to hazardous substances. Under typical circumstances the last directive would unfortunately eliminate intaglio, as etching is a process which traditionally uses an acid to etch copper/zinc plates, along with the use of powerful solvents and tar-based compounds. However, in the last decade non-toxic alternatives, such as photopolymer plates, have emerged in the field of printmaking. These plates feature a steel-backed photopolymer plate with a photo-sensitive polymer emulsion on top. The only equipment and chemicals that this process requires is an exposure-unit (already available at the Residential College), and water for developing. There are no acid or toxic solvents required at all. The results are comparable to traditional copper plates. The use of these plates would allow the students a unique opportunity to explore intaglio printmaking within the parameters of a non-toxic studio. I would like to attend this workshop to learn more about the process so that I may be able to incorporate it into the curriculum for winter 2015 and future semesters.
Attendance at the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting

$1960.00

With the advent of the Ophthalmology Milestone Project, educators across the country are seeking new ways to better assess resident performance. Residents currently keep records of every patient seen on call in accordance with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirements, and these logs are potential sources of valuable information on resident clinical experience and progress if stored in an easily accessible format. An iPad application was developed to document information about each on call patient encounter in real time. The application was implemented at the Kellogg Eye Center starting January 1st, 2014 and preliminary data was gathered for 5 months. The number of patients seen per call ranged from 0 to 21 with a mode of 2. The average number of patients seen on a weeknight was 3.5 versus 9.5 on a weekend day. Additional data was compiled regarding types of consults seen, types of diagnoses seen, and duration of encounters. The digital call log application is a useful tool for ascertaining numerous parameters of the resident call experience. This will be helpful in assessing the call system as a whole for quality improvement as well as evaluating individual residents according to ACGME milestones. The project will be presented at the annual meeting of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology in Tucson, Arizona in January 2015. This will be an invaluable experience to share our data and to learn more about the current challenges and innovations in ophthalmology education across the country.
To Map a Hidden World: African American and Jewish Cooperation During the Age of Jim Crow -- Research Trip for a Forthcoming Book

$2000.00

For more than a decade I have been researching and writing a new book on forgotten precursors to the Civil Rights Movement in the American South, specifically on an illegal, racially integrated, precedent shattering—and previously unknown—college basketball game that took place in North Carolina in 1944. My book, titled The Secret Game, will be published by Little, Brown next year. Unearthing this story has required extensive and wide-ranging historical research, including site visits to more than a dozen different states, and scores of oral history interviews with elderly African American and white Southerners. This summer, however, I made a surprising discovery, one which has prompted this grant proposal.

continued in Project Objectives...
Funding for Two Conferences: Wwise software training at GameSoundCon and paper delivery at the inaugural North American Conference on Video Game Music
Matthew Thompson
Music, Theatre & Dance

$2000.00

I write to request funding to attend two contrasting conferences on Video Game Music. The first conference, GameSoundCon, is the only conference that focuses solely on video game music creation and audio design. I am a gamer, lover of game music, and researcher, teacher, and writer about game music, but I have no practical experience creating it or practical experience imbedding it into video games. At GameSoundCon, I would receive training in Wwise, one of two ubiquitous software programs used to implement music into video games. This training would not only improve my personal scholarship and research, it would be something I could immediately demonstrate to my game music students in future iterations of a highly successful course I'm currently piloting, MUSPERF 300: Video Game Music. Wwise training would also provide a foundation of knowledge for an upper level course in game audio implementation I'm exploring to offer in 2015. The second conference is the inaugural North American Conference on Video Game Music. This is the first ever purely academic conference on video game music in North America. Continued in Project Objectives....
Professional Development at the Americas Hepato Pancreato Biliary Association Annual Meeting
Susanne Warner
Medical School

$2000.00

I am currently a surgical fellow pursuing additional training in hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) and advanced gastrointestinal surgery. In this role, I am learning many complex surgical techniques and state-of-the-art treatments of pancreas, liver, and biliary diseases. In my role as clinical lecturer, I work very closely each day with residents and medical students. My goal is to teach them as much as I can both about HPB surgery and about general medical concepts and debates. The Americas Hepato Pancreato Biliary Association (AHPBA) is the flagship organization of HPB surgery. The annual AHPBA meeting held in Miami, FL each February assembles the nation's top HPB surgery experts, and they bring with them their latest data regarding surgical techniques and patient care. These data guide HPB surgical therapies around the world. The programming at this conference is excellent, and each year I leave inspired to learn and teach more, and I go home to make improvements in my practice and patient care based on data presented. The conference also offers instructional courses in techniques like liver ultrasound which can be a valuable tool in assessing hepatic anatomy. Additional instruction in this will help me both operatively and as a teacher in order to better explain and display anatomy for the students. I have submitted two publications for possible presentation at this conference: one is a needs-assessment for online education platforms, and the other is a surgical technique video. I am seeking funds to attend this conference and the preceding post-graduate ultrasound course.
A Self Directed Residency in New Mexico and Arizona to do Creative Research and Curriculum Development Relating to Native American Traditions and Culture
Nancy Thayer
Art & Design

$2000.00

The Professional Development Grant will provide funds for a two month self directed residency in New Mexico and Arizona where I will be immersed in Native American communities allowing me to become more acutely aware of the complex and vexing challenges facing modern Native American societies. This residence will directly benefit my professional development as an artist and enrich the course content of my drawing and painting classes. Assignments that specifically refer to cultural concerns of Native Americans will be woven into the syllabus. The residency will also allow me the opportunity to develop new courses that would examine Native American attitudes, traditions and challenges and offer the students a means for greater understanding, respect and appreciation for these diverse communities. In a vision statement President Mary Sue Coleman wrote, "The University of Michigan celebrates and promotes diversity in all its forms, seeking the understanding and perspective that distinct life experiences bring." My immersion in national communities such as Hopi and Zia will provide distinct first hand experiences that I will share with my students and express through my own work as an artist.
Improving Student Pronunciation: A Two-Step Self Evaluation for Non-Heritage Learners of Korean

$2000.00

Project OverviewI am applying for support from the Lecturer's Development to support my participation in the 2014 Summer Program in Quantitative Methods in Social Research offered by the Institute for Social Research here at the University of Michigan.During this past year, I was awarded an Investigating Student Learning Grant by Fund from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching to support my ongoing research on teaching and learning of Korean. Central to that project is to develop a two-step self-evaluation process to help non-heritage learners of Korean improve their pronunciation.Key to the project is collecting and analyzing data from student self-evaluations. To this point, I have collected and, with the help of Mary Wright of CRLT, analyzed data from two semesters and will be presenting preliminary finds in a paper to be delivered this November at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages annual meeting. Because of the centrality of data collection and analysis to this project I would like to attend the ISR's summer program in quantitative methods in order to improve my ability to analyze the data on my own and allow for the development of new modes of analysis as this project progresses. I have some background in quantitative methods from my undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan, but lack formal training in the application of these methods to social research of the kind I am now pursuing.
[Collect], [Sort] + Plot

$2000.00

Please consider this application for a CRLT Lecturer's Development Fund. I am a currently a Lecturer in architecture at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. I am seeking $2,000 in funding to research and develop course materials and teaching methodologies to supplement an undergraduate design studio that I will be teaching next semester titled [Collect], [Sort]+[Plot]. The funds will be used to hire a research assistant and to develop a public Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The research assistant will edit and expand course materials and research outcomes from an experimental seminar that I am currently teaching and will format the content for online publication. This content will inform the development of a dynamic and collaborative VLE that will serve as an active repository of knowledge and as a platform to disseminate student work to a broader audience. The course is of importance to my own research and pedagogical ambitions. I am also deeply interested in developing and presenting research through collaborative online platforms accessible to the public, a virtual space that sits slightly outside of traditional institutional frameworks.
High + LOw Dens(C)ities
Claudia Wigger
Architecture and Urban Planning

$1950.00

The proposed project, High + Low Dens(C)ities, aims to research about urban density, verticality, domesticity, urban infrastructure and ecology to develop a set of operative tools to be used in future design processes. Besides tackling urgent problems that come with an increasing world population the project will include collecting data and building critical analysis in various cities of different densities in order to fully understand the meaning of urban density and its conditions both quantitatively and qualitatively. The aim of the course is to evaluate which qualities of urban density can be described, distilled and transformed into concrete parameters to be transformed into tools to design lively, diverse, intimate and healthy communities.
Post-Military Infrastructure and Abandoned Sites: How to Re-think, Re-engage, and Re-imagine
Clark Thenhaus
Architecture and Urban Planning

$2000.00

This proposal for the Professional Development Fund in the amount of $2,000 seeks support for teaching and research through architectural design and development with specific attention given to historically significant sites and infrastructures that are no longer in use. In particular, the funding will provide opportunity to visit, document, and assist in reconsidering key sites and infrastructures of American history in relation to the Cold War that are no longer in operation. In or around the Chicago and Detroit areas alone are some 30 sites and connective infrastructure. Such sites include now abandoned military complexes, testing sites, and military storage facilities in the Midwest region, some of which are urban, others of which are quietly disguised in non-urban landscapes. Currently, many of these sites are vacant and thus contributing to a decaying urban fabric or idle as underused farm land, yet maintain central roles in the history of the region as well as maintain historical global implications. This research thoroughly investigates these sites through research, development, and education as proactive design disciplines to reimagine these abandoned sites. Primary consideration is given to how these sites could be potentially reused and repurposed as new models of renewable energy infrastructure, regional economic contributors, or culturally relevant sites of social experience. In this way, the funding is understood as both allocated to historical research and documentation as well as to addressing contemporary ecological, cultural, and economic issues through architectural and landscape design.
International Conference AIDS and STI's in Africa - "Now More than Ever: Targeting Zero New HIV Infections, Zero Discrimination, and Zero AIDS-Related Deaths"
Okeoma Mmeje
Medical School

$2000.00

The 17th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) is an opportunity to renew the global commitment to HIV treatment and prevention. This year's conference is an opportunity for the international community, and all Africans, to join efforts in committing to achieving an AIDS-free Africa with the participation of the world's leading scientists, policy makers, activists, people living with HIV, government leaders – as well as a number of heads of state and civil society representatives – will be joining the debate on how to achieve this vision. The objectives of ICASA 2013 are to: 1) serve as an advocacy platform to mobilize African leaders, partners and the community to increase ownership, commitment and support to the AIDS response; 2) provide a forum for exchange of knowledge, skills and best practices in Africa and from around the globe; 3) mobilize support to scale up evidence-based responses to HIV and AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis and malaria in order to achieve the millennium development goals; 4) act as platform to hold accountable all stakeholders to scale up and sustain the AIDS response; and 5) create opportunities to define priorities and set policy and program agendas to enhance mobilization and effective utilization of resources.
A Video of Remnants, my play--Post-production

$2000.00

Since 1997, I have been doing a one-person performance of my play, Remnants, originally produced for radio and distributed on NPR. As of this date, I have presented the piece "live" at more than 300 venues worldwide--primarily universities, secondary schools, museums, academic conferences, and Holocaust remembrance events. The play draws on three decades of my interviews with Holocaust survivors--it is not verbatim "testimony" but rather recreates quintessential conversational moments--and performances are always followed by discussion/Q&A. I see performances, and especially the discussion that follows, as an extension of my teaching on what has been my primary teaching and research topic for almost forty years. A video is intended especially for classroom use to reach students on a wider scale than up to now, and I would remain available for Q&A via teleconference and similar. I am working this Fall with Digital Media Commons to "shoot" the "out-takes," which include an interview with me based the questions audiences most often raise. But the big expense is post-production, mainly editing, that will begin in January 2014. It is for that expense that I apply for funding help. Further info on the background and performance history of Remnants can be found at http://www.henrygreenspan.com/work2.htm
Authenticity Reconsidered, II: Reconstructing a London Jewelers in the Shadow of the Rouge Plant
Bradley Taylor
Administration

$2000.00

I am requesting $2,000 in CRLT funding to support travel related to a publication/ presentation project that will require primary resource research in Manchester, England. As a result of a previous research trip to London, I have learned of a repository in Manchester which holds the personal papers of Henry Ford's English agent Herbert Morton, the man who negotiated the purchase and supervised the dismantling of the Sir John Bennett Jewelry Store and Ford's other major English building purchase—two sixteenth-century stone cottages near Oxford that were "married" as a single building when Ford moved them to Dearborn. A colleague in the UK has traveled to Manchester and suggests that there is considerable material in Morton's papers to tell the "English side" of these purchases. I propose to travel to Manchester to examine these materials, thus allowing me to complete my research and write up the Bennett Store and transition to a book proposal to tell the larger story that stems from the problematic nature of Ford's preservation work. The project I propose relates directly to my teaching in the Museum Studies Minor (LS&A) and classroom discussions of the unique nature of original works of creation, the quintessential nature of experiencing those objects in person, and issues relating to originality and authenticity.
Diné Bizaad and English Composition

$1512.00

I applied for the Lecturers' Professional Development Fund to establish an ongoing dialogue between my students in the English Department Writing Program and the Navajo (Diné) students Diné College in Tuba City, Arizona. Through an in-person visit and online student connection, I endeavored to establish a collaborative discussion of composition and craft, worldview and identity, and applications of academic writing in life. The collaboration ultimately allowed me to visit and speak with four Diné College classes and allowed for two conference calls between UM students and Diné College students.