Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| What the Presidents Read Elizabeth Goodenough LSA - Residential College $2000.00 |
I seek funding for editorial assistance and travel to New York (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History) to produce a a co-edited book (Rowman & Littlefield 2024). What the Presidents Read: Stories that Shaped Our Nation’s Leaders aims to illuminate how stories—rambunctious or practical, pious or surprising—sparked the imagination of the children who would go on to become American presidents. This book grew out of two courses I taught during the Democracy and Debate Theme Semester 2020-22. Student videos (final projects) for “Rites of Reading” would be included in outreach for the book provided I receive the requisite technical and editorial skills to complete the project. |
| Cinematography Pedagogy Support Robert Rayher LSA - Film, Television, and Media $1999.99 |
I am requesting funds to purchase a cinematography camera so that I can produce materials to use in my classes in which students use this specific camera. My home department is Film TV & Media in LS&A, my primary teaching assignments are film production classes. My standard course load includes at least two courses per term in which students utilize this camera throughout the semester. Cinematography is a complex process as it takes place at the intersection of technical (hardware/software) determination and artistic prowess. These two components of cinematography create its storytelling capability. Teaching cinematography requires teaching not just the emotive aspects of creating portraiture over time, but also how the image is processed through the presets of the camera’s sensor and data wrangling computer; these at last, spit out a “shot” that will be meaningful as an image, as a cultural production, and as part of a story. Long ago, in the analog world, the variety of film stocks available meant only limited options for how much an image was “processed” in-camera. Now, digital cinematography cameras are, in essence, an image processor with a data recorder attached. Just as your iPhone gives you “look” options when you take pictures, these cameras provide immense power in terms of how the image is sculpted before its recording takes place. Specifically, I will produce, over the term of the grant, a reference guide to the settings and the resulting “coloring” of the images produced. |
| Conference Presentation: Integrating XR Technologies to Teach First-Year Engineers Socially-Engaged Design $1960.00 |
Conference presentation and attendance at the 20th International Conference for Knowledge, Technology, and Society in Valencia, Spain, on March 7-8. Presenting course design and research results of a new section of ENGR 100: “Socially-engaged design of nuclear energy technologies.” An E3 Level 2 grant funded the development of this course. This project will directly impact the 85 students I teach in ENGR 100 each year. |
| Participation in the 2024 Koprivshtitsa Literary Conference and the Capital Literature Festival Jeremiah Chamberlin LSA - English Language and Literature $2000.00 |
I am requesting funding to attend the 2024 Koprivshtitsa Literary Conference (June 8-12) in Koprivshtitsa, Bulgaria, and the Capital Literature Festival (June 13-15), in the capital city of Sofia, where I’ve been invited to serve as a visiting speaker, and to participate in the many literary and scholarly events associated with these international programs—workshops, readings, roundtables, and lectures. Attendance at professional conferences such as these have been invaluable for my work as both a writer and a teacher, and participating in these events would enrich my professional and pedagogical development in many ways. Not only in terms of offering me the opportunity to hear presentations on literary craft and technique, but also to meet contemporary authors from different countries and cultures, thereby helping me continue diversifying the work I teach, as well as introducing me to different approaches to writing, the teaching of writing, and international literature. |
| Manuscript Workshop for TransFormed: How Religion Changed Sex in Early America Scott Larson LSA - American Culture $2000.00 |
I am requesting funds to support a manuscript workshop for my book manuscript project, entitled TransFormed: How Religion Changed Sex in Early America. Manuscript workshops invite external scholars, book editors, and UM faculty to read and offer structured in-depth feedback on a work in progress. At the University of Michigan and other major research institutions, these are a regular part of scholarly support and professional development for book writers, and they are generally funded in LSA for tenure track faculty, but not for LEO lecturers. TransFormed argues that the feelings, intimacies, movements, and practices of eighteenthcentury American religious revivalism constituted “trans formations” that offer new ways of imagining trans pasts and futures. The project investigates the ways that twenty-first century moral panics of the supposedly imminent end of gender is a fear with a long history in American culture. Religious movements that preached forms of spiritual, physical, social, or political equality were denounced for turning the world upside down, and even ending gender altogether. This book seeks to understand these larger social transformations as part of trans history and a broader remaking of gender in the long 18th-century. This manuscript has been formally invited for submission and review by Duke University Press’s series ASTERISK: Gender, Trans-, and All That Comes After. The workshop is tentatively scheduled for April 2024. |
| Attending the Decolonization across Time, Place, and Field Conference Greta Uehling LSA - International and Comparative Studies $1389.00 |
I am writing to request support from the Lecturers' Professional Development Fund to attend the 2023 Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) conference. My participation in this conference is important for my scholarly development and will greatly enhance my teaching capabilities. The conference's theme is "Decolonization Across Time, Place, Field, and Institutional Setting," and is of utmost significance for advancing both my teaching competencies and scholarly objectives. |
| A Hard Act to Follow: THe Hollywood Studio System in the Wake of Vaudeville Vincent Longo LSA - Film, Television, and Media $2000.00 |
I am applying for funding to research at two archives containing material central to film history: The Warner Bros. Archives in Los Angeles, California and the Dallas Public Library in Dallas, Texas. The funds will be used for travel and lodging for two, four day research trips. The material collected there would be used to write an academic manuscript on the history of vaudeville and its role in the formation of Hollywood that I am preparing for publication. The book argues that Hollywood entrenched its monopolies over American entertainment broadly (not just the film industry, but of live/recorded music, Broadway, radio, etc.) by controlling and showcasing vaudeville performances alongside movies in its urban theaters between 1910 to 1960. These live performance circuits also uniquely supplied a space for racially and ethnically diverse performers (especially those in music) to receive top-billing on these movie-theater stages, while they largely only received marginal, stereotypical roles in Hollywood films. Most film history related archives contain records of the production of films, but these archives uniquely contain materials related to theater companies/chains. Funding this proposal would also benefit my teaching and student mentorship. In all my film history and media studies courses as well as my UROP mentorships, I teach my students to examine primary sources related to our topics. I would immediately mobilize these newly collected materials into my classes and mentorship, showing students that much of history remains to be written and empowering them to join the call. |
| Research and Course Upgrades at Pompeii David Stone LSA - Classical Studies $1950.00 |
This proposal is for an eight-day visit to Pompeii (Italy) to conduct research on a painting found in the House of the Sarno Lararium and to obtain first-hand knowledge of many archaeological sites for three courses that I teach in the Department of Classical Studies. The proposal represents the ways my teaching and research in my field of Roman archaeology overlap, and pursuing these intersections in the context of this proposal will further my professional development. Much has changed since I last visited Pompeii and neighboring sites as a graduate student some 25 years ago. New locations have opened for visitation, the topics that interest students are different, and historians and archaeologists pose different questions and take new approaches today. To gain a current perspective so that I can provide up-to-date and well-informed learning experiences for University of Michigan students, I am applying to the Lecturers Professional Development Fund. I will use the funding to integrate new material and create new assignments for my courses on “Pompeii”, “Death in the Ancient World”, and “Roman Art and Archaeology”. The funding will also enable me to visit the House of the Sarno Lararium in order to confirm my novel interpretation of the subject of the main painting in this house, and to examine the comparanda necessary to write an article about it. |
| Integrating the use of Generative AI into Language Research Teaching Meredith Bricker LSA - English Language Institute $2000.00 |
As a Lecturer in the English Language Institute, I teach international graduate students across U-M graduate programs. My primary instructional focus is an academic writing course in which students develop the advanced writing strategies needed to produce cohesive, coherent academic writing and research. In this role, I am keenly aware of the importance of ongoing professional scholarship, and I am dedicated to staying abreast of the latest research in the field of second language writing instruction. The emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022 has initiated a surge in pedagogical research with vast implications for the language teaching community, and more research is needed to successfully harness this new tool. My funding request will allow me to continue my professional growth in the pedagogical uses of Generative AI by providing access to resources of two professional teaching organizations: the TESOL International Association and the International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT). With funds from this grant, I will travel to the International TESOL Conference in March 2024 where I will focus my conference participation on the development of Generative AI in the second language classroom. Funding will also allow me to join the IALLT organization and its regional affiliate, MidWest Association for Language Learning Technology (MWALLT). By gaining access to these organizations, which are specifically geared toward advances in language learning and language learning technology, I will broaden the scope of my ongoing research into the pedagogical applications of Generative AI which will be directly applicable to my teaching practice. |
| Activating Change through Empowering Communities and Classrooms Diana Seales Social Work $2000.00 |
I request funding to present my paper titled Activating Change through Empowering Communities and Classrooms: The Impact of Grassroots Innovation at the upcoming Pathways to Sustainability Innovation: Perspectives from Civil Society, Government and Business conference. This notable event is scheduled from January 24th to 26th, 2024, at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. I will showcase my research under the Education, Assessment, and Policy specialty subsection. My active participation in this conference will enhance the depth and breadth of my professional expertise and benefit our institution. The insights and feedback from international peers will enrich the content I deliver in my current classes and guide the design of future seminars and workshops I intend to offer within the Community Action and Social Change minor. The core of my research revolves around the pivotal role of grassroots innovation, primarily rooted in Indigenous feminism and climate justice. This approach offers a comprehensive perspective on addressing climate change, emphasizing the intertwined relationship between climate impacts and feminist issues, especially those affecting Indigenous women and marginalized communities. The objective is to highlight the significance of integrating diverse voices on sustainability and justice. I intend to inform how we impart education on climate change, incorporating the narratives of MMIW, Black Feminism, and grassroots feminism. This enriches student learning, preparing them to tackle our world's multifaceted challenges with empathy and informed action. |
| The Knowing Body: God's Forms in Jewish Antiquity $2000.00 |
To be an excellent teacher requires a scholar to stay active in their respective field, publishing regularly and contributing to their area of specialization so that they can bring the latest, up-to-date, information about a subject to their students. As a specialist of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, on November 19, 2023, I will present an academic paper at the Society of Biblical Literature’s Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. My paper addresses a topic related to the third chapter of my current book project—The Knowing Body: God’s Forms in Jewish Antiquity. This book not only deconstructs the false binary between “mind” knowledge and “body” knowledge, but it also situates the Gospel of John and its description of Jesus as God-made-flesh within first-century Judaism. In the process, the project addresses intersecting themes of epistemology, anti-Semitism, and racism—arguing that for ancient Jews and early Christians alike, God not only had a body but was known through the body. Presenting my research and listening to other scholars’ present their work will undoubtably make me a better researcher, but it will also make me a better teacher since it will enable me to bring the latest scholarly developments on the origins of Judaism and Christianity into the classroom. |
| Attendance at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting $2000.00 |
Funding is requested to attend the Association of American Geographers (AAG) 2024 Annual Meeting in Honolulu. The AAG is the largest organization of geographers and the annual meeting brings together both US and international geographers. The annual meeting includes approximately 5,000 presentations, posters, and field trips and attendance numbers over 6,000 participants. For the 2024 meeting, I will present my research related to vegetation change on Great Lakes islands, perform my responsibilities as a board member on the Biogeography Specialty Group, and attend sessions that will enhance my teaching of GIS and water systems. |
| Archival Research for Nonfiction Book Molly Beer LSA - English Language and Literature $2000.00 |
I write and teach nonfiction documentary writing. This grant would fund a research trip to access primary sources at 2 major archival institutions and several historical sites relevant to my forthcoming nonfiction book (W. W. Norton, 2023). My subject is a woman who was deeply involved in the American Revolution and in early American politics and society, both in the U.S. and abroad, whom history credits with little more than "founding" the very small town deep in a destitute part of rural America where I grew up. While my teams of students go out into the community to research and write about the places they occupy, I do likewise with my own work, and our individual experiences (struggles, setbacks, frustrations, and successes) inform the learning process for us all. |
| Exploring the Malay Archipelago's Manuscripts on Qur'anic and Classical Arabic Ali Hussain LSA - Middle East Studies $2000.00 |
This project consists of a research visit to three countries in the Malay Archipelago: Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, specifically renowned universities, research institutes and libraries therein. The project includes purchasing works on Quranic and Classical Arabic unique to this region of the world and important to a new course on this subject offered in the Department of Middle East Studies. The project also entails purchasing unique digitized manuscripts on Quranic and Classical Arabic in the Archipelago that will contribute to the academic understanding of the Arabic language and Quran at the University of Michigan. Lastly, the project will include interviews with specialists on Quranic Arabic in the Archipelago as well as observations of cultural practices revolving around the memorization and recitation of the Quran. The contributions of this project aim not only to enhance the teaching and learning experience in ARABIC 121/221 at the Department of Middle East Studies, but also the academic understanding and appreciation of Quranic Arabic as it is lived, practiced and celebrated in regions of the Muslim world other than the Arab world and Middle East. |
| river, river, river – a solo dance text Shannon Stewart Music, Theatre & Dance $1950.00 |
I’m seeking support for part of an artistic research project that looks at the connection between prose writing and dance performance in a work that addresses histories of land, artistic training and influence, and the creative process itself. Over the course of four months, I will work with an editor, accountability advisors, and dramaturg to take a solo performance and turn it into a performative chapbook/print object. I will conclude this writing intensive with attending the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Seattle, WA March 8-11, 2023. As a lecturer, I’ve been hired to lead graduate students in discovering and honing their research in creative practice. Because I’m a teacher who is a practicing artist, I’m actively engaged in pushing my own edges of exploration, working interdisciplinarily and across modalities. The research process requires artists to articulate things that are often hard to grasp in language. This is a skillset I bring to my teaching but would like to expand and strengthen through this project. How can we make language work for dance without replacing it or oversimplifying it? How do overlapping modes of articulation generate meaning and knowledge in unexpected ways? The pandemic has shown performing artists especially that if we can conceive of our work existing in a multitude of ways, there is the possibility to expand opportunities and continue working. By pushing myself into new territories, I can better understand and share the possibilities with my students. |
| Updating Ethnographic Fieldwork: the 100th Anniversary of the Greek-Turkish Population Exchange Leigh Stuckey LSA - Anthropology $2000.00 |
I am applying for funding to travel to Istanbul, Turkey, to conduct a week of ethnographic fieldwork during the events memorializing the 1923 Greek-Turkish Population Exchange. My years-long anthropological research has focused on the heritage preservation and return tourism efforts of descendants of the Population Exchange, who in recent years have begun working across a politicized and hostile Greek-Turkish national border in order to preserve and publicize their identity as transnational exchangees. The 100th anniversary of the Population Exchange will be marked around January 30th with a number of events in Istanbul hosted by the Lausanne Exchangee Organization. Maintaining an active research program on these issues supports my teaching in a number of ways. First, data that I gather will be added to material I present in lectures in Introduction to Anthropology (450 students) about ethnic groups, nationalism, and transnational violence, and in Anthropology of the Near East and North Africa (up to 30 students). Additionally, as instructor of Qualitative Research Methods in Ethnography (up to 30 students), it is crucial that I maintain my own skills in conducting ethnographic research. In truth, these experiences will provide stories I can draw upon to enliven many topics I introduce in all of my classes. Finally, I intend to draw upon this research in future presentations and publications, helping me to lead a rich and complete academic life even as I focus my attentions on teaching as a Lecturer. |
| AATSP Conference 2023 (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) in Salamanca, Spain Kathleen Forrester LSA - Romance Languages and Literatures $2000.00 |
I wish to attend the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Annual Conference (June 26-June 29) in Segovia, Spain. The principal reasons I wish to attend are to network with other educators in my field, to stay abreast of advances in the field of SLA, to learn more tech tools that I may be able to incorporate in my classes, and to explore this year's theme of Culture and Communication. I am especially interested in learning new ways to diversify my curriculum and to talk about real world issues like sustainability. This information will be beneficial to my Spanish Special Topics course on the environment. |
| Relative Poetics: CD Wright and the Decentering of Self, Whiteness, Hegemony and Homo Sapiens Jennifer Steinorth LSA - English Language and Literature $2000.00 |
I propose traveling to Yale University to study the collected papers of C.D. Wright, a poet renowned for her singular approaches to language and form, her devotion to teaching, and her contributions to literary citizenship and artistic collaboration and whose poetry has been monumental to my own. The funds would cover transportation, housing, and food for one to three weeks depending on housing options. In Wright’s archives I would explore questions regarding the twofold development of conscience and craft over the course of Wright’s life that yielded such effective explorations of intimacy, culpability and the pain of others without ceding to exploitation and other ills oft and rightly associated with appropriation. I will be considering Wright’s work in light of Paisley Rekdal’s Appropriate: A Provocation and Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain. My reasons for pursuing this research are threefold: 1) to further scholarship on this writer whose oeuvre– in particular her longform documentary poetry– has made singular contributions to American poetry but perhaps owing to its length and complexity, has not been widely studied, 2) to better understand the mind that gave rise to such work and the way it manifest as a teacher and artistic collaborator, 3) to gain insight into her creative process, through the study of early drafts, which I may then, a) share with my students and b) apply to my own creative work, particularly a long, documentary poem which has, these the last few years, stymied me. |
| Sewing workshops to expand and strengthen my creative and teaching practice Emilia White Art & Design $1829.00 |
I am requesting funding from the Lecturer’s Professional Development Fund to participate in four virtual courses through the London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins, along with the Pattern Workshop. These courses will push me to experiment with sewing in new ways; strengthening my techniques while also providing me with new perspectives on how this craft fits into my larger creative practice. The skills I develop will fuel my increased focus on costume and wearable art, thus also pushing my work as a performance artist and storyteller in a new direction. As a Lecturer at UM Stamps, I regularly teach courses in time-based media and performance. Teaching within a program that combines visual art with video/performance, I can see clearly where my interdisciplinary skills can merge. In the Interarts Performance program, for example, my students are often straddling more than one medium and finding new ways to bring their ideas to life. By continuing to pursue new skills in my own work, I can speak to my students on why pushing further is necessary. I hope in the future to have more opportunities to integrate costume design and storytelling through fiber arts into my teaching practice. |
| Everyone Can Write a Play Emilio Rodriguez Music, Theatre & Dance $2000.00 |
My plan is to write and self-publish a book on playwriting called Everyone Can Write a Play which will include differentiated lessons for teaching playwriting that can be used by K-12 teachers, professors, parents, and community activists who want to bring playwriting in the classroom. Over my past 15 years of teaching professionally, I have had to develop my own original content to better differentiate learning for a variety of learners (different ages, different writing levels, different experiences with the arts). Because of the lack of resources, I had to create a develop my own lessons that could be easily adapted to fit elementary students who were learning to read, high school students who hadn’t read a play yet, college students who were eager for challenges, adults who needed help structuring their ideas and incarcerated people who had were rarely allowed to use pens and never allowed computers to notate their ideas. During the course of my teaching career, I have accumulated enough original lessons to create a book that I believe will help educators like myself differentiate learning experiences for all of their students and make the creative skill of playwriting more concrete for learners. My goal is that arts instruction can be broken down into tangible skills that enable educators to grade fairly while giving students the resources they need to allow their creativity to flourish. |
| Humanize the Numbers at the Detroit Historical Museum Isaac Wingfield LSA - Residential College $1919.00 |
I am organizing an exhibition using the archive of Humanize the Numbers—a collaborative Prison Creative Arts Project photography course I have taught in the Residential College since 2015. In February 2023 the Detroit Historical Museum is scheduled to host this exhibition. This funding request is primarily to support this exhibition, while also serving to provide long-term sustainability for future exhibitions with design, website management, media content development, and physical exhibition materials. |
| Architecture and Society Irene Hwang Architecture and Urban Planning $2000.00 |
It is important to understand that architecture is the product of more than the aesthetic concerns of the architect and the practical concerns of the client. It straddles two realms: that of the fine arts and that of the highly practical and utilitarian. In its dual nature, architecture is most often cast as a high art; the outcomes of architectural thinking and making are celebrated, analyzed, and documented for their aesthetic significance as art objects. ARCH 423 Architecture and Society reconstitutes a new survey of architectural history, examining periods of tremendous growth and building, alongside the rise of new shared ideas, practices, and customs that have shaped—and continue to shape—the structures of society alongside the structures of its built environment. Through the construction of visual and written narratives for individual buildings of architectural origin (i.e., those designed by architects) this new course will examine the social, technological, material, and economic forces that led to the emergence and construction of these buildings (architecture), and link those architectures with the outcomes that arose in society afterward. ARCH 423 will introduce students to a new method of practicing a “close reading” of a building—whereby they will understand architecture as historical event rather than as historical artifact. Thus, students will examine how architecture’s historical significance is not solely as a static object (or artifact), but rather as something that happened and happens (an event), transforming and shaping history in unexpected and significant ways. |
| Study with Leaders in Timpani Education Jeremy Epp Music, Theatre & Dance $2000.00 |
The purpose of this project is to gain insight into the teaching practices and pedagogical approaches of some of the most successful timpani educators currently active in the United States. This would be accomplished by receiving 1-2 hours of one-on-one instruction/coaching from each instructor (in the same format as the individual lessons I teach at the University of Michigan), a follow-up discussion with each instructor, and – subject to availability and students’ consent – observation of instructors teaching their current students. I will inquire about specific technical challenges relating to teaching timpani, curriculum and preferred course materials, and other general questions including what they think students need to be successful and what they have done to grow their own teaching skills. |
| Anderfuren LPDF Grant Angele Anderfuren LSA - English Language and Literature $2000.00 |
This LDWP grant will enhance my knowledge, skills and techniques in nonfiction writing, particularly nature and environmental writing, partially funding my attending the Bear River Writers’ Conference (May 2023) and Middlebury Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference (June 2023). I’ve been a professional journalist and writer for over two decades and full time university faculty member for one of those. Among the activities I've created is setting up and take students on writing-based field trips with historical learning and hiking in Sedona, Arizona. I’d like to use the knowledge I’ve built in this arena and expand my experience to be able to better serve students at the University of Michigan in the coming semesters when I partner with The Huron River Watershed Council on a community-based writing program coordinated with UM’s Ginsberg Center. This semester I’ve already partnered with UMMA and UM’s Arboretum to add student field trips to my classes with a focus on nature, water and the outdoors. (At UMMA, we’re studying the Watershed special exhibit and going to The Arb for a guided field trip to specifically focus on water’s impact for a project for my English 221 Travel Writing course, which I newly developed for UM this fall.) Both conferences will not only add to my own personal growth as a writer, but teach me new writing and teaching techniques and assignments to directly implement in my EDWP writing classes. |
| The Esoteric Fine Art of Risography Cooper Holoweski Art & Design $1750.00 |
Risography (or Riso) is a printing technology invented in the early 1980s in Japan. This lesser-known process uses archival inks and papers similar to traditional fine art printmaking but provides and ease of use akin to mimeograph or early xerox technology. Pushed aside for advancing xerox technology in the 1980’s and 1990’s, risography has seen a resurgence in usage over the past decade among DIY and independent publishers. I was recently accepted to the Frans Masereel Centrum Printmaking Residency in Kasterlee Belgium for the summer of 2023 where I will be working with a master printer exclusively on risography. Through this residency I will acquire a deep knowledge of this technology and bring it back to the University of Michigan. This competitive residency is partially funded by the Belgian government but also requires a fee of 1750 Euros (approx.. $1750 USD) for the five-week period of my residency (Jul. 3 – Aug. 4, 2023). I am applying to the Center for Research on Teaching and Learning Lecturers’ Professional Development Fund to cover this fee. I have been a lecturer at Stamps School of Art and Design since 2016. This innovative art school recently invested in Risograph technology. While used occasionally for specific projects, there is no class dedicated to Riso. Through this residency, my goal is to acquire a depth of understanding of this exciting and historically overlooked technology that enables me to design a class around the process and aid other instructors in teaching it as well. |
