Conference Schedule

Virtual Pre-Conference: Panel 1 (11:00am-12:15pm)

Poetics and Politics

Peter Sparling, University of Michigan

Greenscreen allows me to clone the videotaped body in editing to create works that challenge the usual transference of “kinesthetic empathy”. These works create their own politics and poetics; the cloned figures appear as visualizations of musical ideas of unison or counterpoint, or as embodiments of fascism, democracy and/or ritual.

Enriching tensions of oppositions

Julia Pajot, Independent

Presenting scientific theories through artworks and analyzing them through artistic parameters, my aim is to relate various forms of the representation of matter through a comparative analysis of sensory qualities and physicochemical properties. This approach relates 3 main areas : philosophy (construction and analysis of representation : mathematics, theoretical science, natural language, art), sensory (forms of representation made by the brain : visual, auditory, tactile or chemical) and physics (underlying physical mechanisms of representation  : waves, forces, chemical reactions).”

Aesthetic-epistemic dilemma

Maryam Rashidi, Australian National University

This presentation examines the ongoing scholarly tension between the aesthetic identification of contemporary art and the complex epistemic assemblages of artistic research. I argue that reflexive application of systems thinking in the realm of art must acknowledge the qualitative distinction but also the theoretical and practical interdependence of both domains.

Virtual Pre-Conference: Workshop (12:45-1:45pm)

Regathering Legacies

Jan Cohen-Cruz, Touchstone Theatre/Moravian University

In “Re-gathering Legacies,” the co-facilitators will share under-recognized historical markers that inspired nearly 100 diverse theater/performance makers they interviewed. Participants, in small groups, will recount brief stories about under-recognized inspirations on their art (as makers or researchers). We will then consider how field histories are created and can be re-envisioned.

Virtual Pre-Conference: Story Interlude (2:15-2:30pm)

Chaos, contingency, and the spiral of the shell: “Lines of flight” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) in the possible futures of arts inquiry

Morna McNulty, Townson University

The presenter will perform an example of arts-based inquiry entitled “Spiral of the Shell,” which includes spoken word, photography, and music. The session examines arts inquiry framed by chaos and contingency. The goal is to employ arts inquiry methods dedicated to aesthetic re-presentations of subjectivities for liberation and systemic democratic transformation.

Virtual Pre-Conference: Keynote, “Poetry is not a luxury: An intersectional framework in performance research” (3:00-4:15pm)

Nisha Sajnani, New York University

Reception (6:00-8:00pm)

CultureVerse Gallery, 309 S. Main Street

Meet your fellow conference attendees and staff from our conference sponsors CultureVerse and Saganworks while viewing the new exhibit “Kara Thomas: Dimensions.”

Light refreshments will be served.

Welcome

Opening Keynote: “Artistic Praxis as Worldbuilding” (Virtual option) (9:15-10:30am)

Michigan League Ballroom, 2nd floor

Carlos Jackson, Dean, Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan

Introduced by Laurie McCauley, Provost, University of Michigan

Coffee Break (10:30-11:00am)

Michigan League Concourse, 2nd floor

Session 1 (Virtual Option) (11:00am-12:15pm)

Michigan League Ballroom, 2nd floor

Understanding and Bridging the Gap between Art Practices and Academic Research: Practical Steps

Ellen McMahon, University of Arizona

Addressing looming and complex social and environmental problems requires equitable interdisciplinary collaboration. The R1 university is a great place for team projects to form and thrive, but the lack of understanding and support for research in the arts is impeding progress. In this presentation I will discuss the obstacles I faced as the first associate dean for research in the arts in an R1 university and the four steps I took to address them. I will end with an invitation to conference participants to join in a co-researching/co-writing group to explore the next challenge.

Interdisciplinary Art and Design Pedagogy: Collaboration between Academia and industry

Cherif Amor, Virginia Commonwealth University

This line of inquiry is based on a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project with emphasis on interdisciplinary pedagogy. This research/creative practice deciphers the opportunities and challenges associated with the adoption of interdisciplinary pedagogies that involved an academic art institution, a design firm, a governmental agency, and an art exhibition organization.

Josiah Wedgwood’s Legacy

Peter Pincus, Rochester Institute of Technology

I will share a new studio-based course at RIT titled Josiah Wedgwood’s Legacy. I will discuss how strengthening student awareness of the ceramic discipline by blending art history with studio-based learning promotes a deeper respect for where creativity originates and how it is historically referenced within our contemporary activities.

Session 2 (11:00am-12:15pm)

Rackham Graduate School, West Conference Room, 4th floor

String Figuring: A Movement-Based practice to Witness Feminist Beauty

Catalina Hernandez-Cabal, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

String Figuring functioned as a platform to faithfully witness creative tactics for minoritarian subjects to inhabit our positionality and render it movable. This contributes to feminist beauty (refusing violence and commitment to live). This presentation shares key elements of scholarly and artistic traditions to engage with positionality as creative practice.

Interweaving Tags and Arts-Based Research as a Resistant Practice

Eunkyung Hwang, The Pennsylvania State University

This presentation aims to address the unique potential of arts-based research that can underscore erased stories of marginalized people by creating tags based on a visual inquiry. The presentation ultimately seeks to find pedagogical insight in creating tags with life testimonies of people with disabilities resisting the current ableist global society. Through sharing her autobiographical graphic design and poetry in her creation, the presenter will question the gendered body normativity in the global society.

Critical Compassion in Higher Education Art and Design Contexts

Vittoria Daiello, University of Cincinnati

How can lived experiences of critical compassion intervene in the institutional spaces in which we teach, learn, research, work, and dream in order to build collective hopefulness, care, and flourishing? This session shares recent research in critical compassion studies, offering examples of current and developing outcomes of this approach in an R1 university context. Session participants will engage in conversation about feasibility of implementing critical compassion-based pedagogies in their own institutional contexts and have the option to join a study group for ongoing cross-institutional studies of critical compassion methodologies in art and design higher education contexts.

Session 3 (11:00am-12:15pm)

Michigan League, Koessler Room, 3rd floor

Animated Amplification of Advocacy

Vanessa Sweet, Rochester Institute of Technology

This presentation of Vanessa Sweet’s 2D animated short film “Amplifying Feedback Loop” features metamorphic vignettes informing on the magnifying domino of the Climate Crisis. This presentation illustrates the artistic research behind crafting the film, and examines the human causality of a deteriorating biosphere, showing the intensifying real-world outcomes and acts to guide de-escalation through community-led solutions.

Redwork: The Emperor of Atlantis –– A Case Study of Artistic Practice as Research

Catherine Heard, University of Windsor

The proposed presentation analyzes artistic practice as research through a case study of Redwork: The Emperor of Atlantis, a collaborative project that mobilizes people from diverse communities to engage as co-creators of a textile installation that camouflages imagery of injustice within a collage of red-on-white embroideries.

Using Artistic Research to Improve Access to Live Theatre

Jill Bradbury, Rochester Institute of Technology

This lightning talk will describe a research study exploring tactile approaches to accessibility for theater-goers with visual disabilities.  Results of the study suggest that costume displays, set models, and touch tours of the set can improve how these patrons experience live theater.

Session 4 (11:00am-12:15pm)

Michigan League, Vandenberg Room, 2nd floor

Bringing Arts-Based Methodologies to AI

Maryanna Rogers, Independent and Eva Kozanecka, Google

We have been working collaboratively with creative communities to develop visual discovery tools that facilitate subjective and creative expression. In this workshop, we will bring our arts-based research methodology to conference-goers as we explore questions that might best inform this technology and best practices around arts-based research in industry settings.

Session 5 (11:00am-12:15pm)

Michigan League, Henderson Room, 3rd floor

Finches – Disciplinary Narratives in Interdisciplinary Arts Research

Fen Kennedy and Melissa Yes, University of Alabama

Finches uses the character of Atticus Finch to explore the complexities of life, history, and identity in the state of Alabama. This presentation focuses on different strands of the interdisciplinary arts research process, and how our various research methods, including interview, movement, and digital film-making, shaped our findings. We ask you, as we did our participants, to ponder the question: “How can we love a thing we know is flawed?”

Lunch (on your own)

Session 6 (1:45-3:00pm)

Michigan League, Koessler Room, 3rd floor

The Sustaining Power of Art: The Papel Corona & Miniprint Project

Carolina Larrea, Josefa Munizaga, and Vania Medina

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Papel Corona & Miniprint UC is a pioneer in Chile, creating a sustainable and replicable model through art practice, recycling and responsible consumption of hydric resources needed for papermaking. This project seeks on the generation of collaborative work inside the university community, projecting as an opportunity of arts-based research.

Session 7 (1:45-3:00pm)

Rackham Graduate School, West Conference Room, 4th floor

Interweaving Creative Work, Teaching, and Research: The launch of Tradition Innovation [in Arts, Design, and Media Higher Education]

Yvonne Houy, University of Nevada Las Vegas

Angela Brommel, Nevada State College

J.R. Campbell, Kent State University

Keli Dirisio, Rochester Institute of Technology

Nils Gore, University of Kansas

Felice Amato, Boston University

Perrin Teal Sullivan, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Fen Kennedy, University of Alabama

Explore the interweaving of teaching, research, and creative work in the new peer-reviewed open access eJournal Tradition-Innovations [in Arts, Design and Media Higher Education]. Meet the founding editorial board and discuss how current innovations support – or supplant – traditions. How can we build a future for teaching/mentoring creative work and research that honors and enhances core disciplinary traditions?

Session 8 (1:45-3:00pm)

Michigan League, Hussey Room, 2nd floor

Vibrant Things: Harnessing Material Spirits as Knowledge Guides

Perrin Teal Sullivan, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Emily Norton, The Design Thinking Initiative, Smith College

Explore a hands-on artmaking activity with four materials that are essential to modern society yet represent major obstacles to reducing carbon emissions and shifting our climate trajectory. Through creative experimentation, we will seek insight into their unique material agencies, and reflect on their potential for guiding us towards resilient futures.

Session 9 (Virtual Option) (1:45-3:00pm)

Michigan League, Vandenberg Room, 2nd floor

Improving Youth Health in Co-Designed Arts Spaces

Taylor Seale, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Youth need safe, opportunity-rich environments that support equitable opportunities to promote well-being. Arts settings can contribute to healthy physical, mental, and social environments for youth through creative expression and co-designing power with adults. Youth-designed environments can lead to healthier youth development outcomes, in addition to the benefits of participating in the arts.

Step Up to Art

Kate Bonansinga, Christian Huelsman, and Jenny Ustick, University of Cincinnati

Step Up to Art is a research project that is revitalizing public stairways to be indispensable walking paths, neighborhood connectors, and vibrant public spaces. Through the implementation of art we are recreating an urban pedestrian transportation network to encourage physical activity and neighborhood pride.

Bridging Disciplines in Flow Tuscaloosa

Julia Brock and Jamey Grimes, University of Alabama

Our panel explores collaborative research involving arts methodologies and other disciplines: public history, environmental science, and social scientific assessment methods. Working with a team from across these disciplines, we planned and implemented Flow Tuscaloosa, a multi-part, participatory arts project. The mission of the project was to connect our community to the unique histories and ecologies of local waterways in the hopes of inspiring placekeeping and stewardship.

Session 10 (1:45-3:00pm)

Michigan League, Henderson Room, 3rd floor

Arts-Based Grief Research: A Dual Approach

Katina Bitsicas, University of Missouri

A dual perspective from an artist whose work is about grief and who also conducts research on grief, both utilizing digital media. This talk highlights how similar artistic skillsets can be applied to arts-based projects and scientific research, both individually and collaboratively across varying academic departments.

Transcending Transaction in Art-Science Collaboration

Lissy Goralnik, Liz Ivkovich, and Megan Halpern, Michigan State University

Art-science interactions often focus on product at the expense of process, without attending to the relational dynamics of co-inquiry. As a result, collaborative relationships can become transactional, e.g. artists interpret science. In this presentation, we will share our ongoing multi-institutional project to consider methods for facilitating more meaningful exchange.

Coffee Break (3:00-3:30)

Michigan League Concourse, 2nd floor

Session 11 (3:30-5:00pm)

Michigan League, Henderson Room, 3rd floor

Jazz Dance: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Practice

Barbara Angeline, Rutgers University

Laudable goals of equity, diversity, and inclusion are central to hiring practices, curriculum, and student experiences in myriad dance communities. Enlightening dancers about the African American origins of Jazz dance forms, AND helping ALL students understand the benefits of Black African Diasporic dance forms to their dance training is imperative to the expansion of ideas surrounding what is art. Jazz dance workshop participants will embody, experience and discuss strategies for including previously othered histories.

Session 12 (Virtual Option) (3:30-5:00pm)

Michigan League, Vandenberg Room, 2nd floor

The Moods of Dotts Johnson in Song

Luvada Harrison, Erin Stoneking, Robin Behn, and Claudia Romanelli, University of Alabama

We will share our collaborative research project on the life and career of under-recognized actor, singer, and composer Hylan “Dotts” Johnson. A contemporary and close friend of Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, Dotts Johnson made cinematic history as the African American GI in Roberto Rossellini’s 1946 neorealist Italian film Paisan, but he also had a long and wide-ranging career in American theatre, TV, film, radio, and music recording that has largely fallen out of the view of performing arts historians.

Poetics of Black Inheritance: Writing Other Americas Between History, Genealogy, & Imagination

Aaron Coleman, University of Michigan

This presentation and discussion of poems reimagines Black inheritance and the potentiality of a creative archive by crafting a poetic trajectory of familial histories and genealogies, beginning with the history of the presenter’s ancestor, a formerly enslaved veteran of the U.S. Civil War, and moving forward to our present day.

Can Researcher-Artists Help us Decolonize the Academic Library?

Sommer Browning, University of Colorado Denver

What can academic libraries learn from researcher artists who subvert and expand the notion of librarianship? Can librarians learn from these artists and use their ideas to make academic research emancipatory and inclusive? This presentation seeks to answer these questions through the work of three “researcher-artists.”

Melitona Delgado: Family Trees, Ships, and Argentina’s Master Narratives of National Identity

Marisol Fila, University of Michigan

In Argentina, since the mid-nineteenth century, the indigenous and African contributions to Argentinian identity have been dismissed through diverse mechanisms of negation and social invisibilization. I seek to bring awareness to the presence of Afro-Argentines, their past, present, and future in the country by presenting a work in progress of a podcast and an exhibit of my grandfather’s grandmother, Melitona Delgado, an Afro-Uruguayan woman who arrived in Argentina in the nineteenth century, whose existence has been long erased from my family tree.

Session 13 (3:30-5:00pm)

Rackham Graduate School, East Conference Room, 4th floor

Using Visual Language to Communicate the Voice of Comfort Women: Human Rights & History

Do Gyun Kim, Purdue University

In this project, the designer focuses on how to represent, through visual language, the violation of “Comfort Women’s” human rights. The project features the activism of Kim Bok Dong who came forward in 1992 to testify about her experience as a wartime sex slave and fight for victims’ rights. Drawing on narration given by her Korean tongue and historical documents, photographs, and videos, the designer created the “Unfinished Story” project.

Practice Based Research, Activism and Transmedia creation in the search for Justice in Nicaragua

Emilia Yang, University of Michigan

As an answer to the brutal state repression during popular uprisings that took place in Nicaragua in 2018, the community of victims created a participatory museum as a way to collectivize our demands for truth, justice and integral reparations. This talk presents the participatory, decolonial and feminist research methodologies implemented to collaborate with this activist victims’ organization and create a Transmedia Museum project.

A Study of How Three women Find Empowerment Through Art after Adverse Childhood Experiences

Melissa Leaym-Fernandez, Penn State University

Sharing outcomes of my study I present disruptive stories illuminating the empowerment women of color artists have in their lives after adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs. One important study outcome is the discovery of The Four Loves and how they impact re-balancing one’s life after ACEs through creative means.

Session 14 (3:30-5:00pm)

Rackham Graduate School, West Conference Room, 4th floor

Effectively Educating the Artist Technologist

David Long, Rochester Institute of Technology

The artist technologist is a key professional contributor to modern creative industries. With a literal insertion of artistic aptitude into STEM learning, artist technologist training demands universities innovate beyond traditionally disjointed academic programming in technology, art, and design by embracing professional production studio practices.

Reflexive software development toward counteralgorithmic imaginaries

Catherine Griffiths, University of Michigan

Reflexive software development is an arts research method that emerges from new media arts, creative and critical coding practices, and recent critiques of machine learning ethics. The practice-based research aims to contest the normative logics of machine learning algorithms and develop new counteralgorithmic imaginaries.

Making the Arts Count: the Performing Arts Information Representation Community Group

Sarah Bay-Cheng, York University; Mariel Marshall, Independent

This lightning talk introduces the work of the Performing Arts Information Representation as a model for productively and ethically engaging analytics in the performing arts. This presentation shares the background, collaborative process, and current efforts in building shared competencies, vocabularies, and collaborations to empower artists, educators, and audiences in developing sustainable and ethical practices for the arts in an increasingly data-driven world.

Mixed Reality Play, Nonbinary Tech

Leah Wulfman, University of Michigan

Through hands-on experimentation, live user testing, and iterative refinement, we use Mixed Reality as a new design medium. A presentation of using AR/VR hardware and game development software as a way to learn about new spatial affordances and creative processes. How might we experiment with these new digital affordances, tactility, spatial interactions, and materiality to enhance or disrupt the architecture process? How might the Mixed Reality framework and interactive, real-time technologies help us conceive of new ideas, stories, visuals, spatial and built scenarios that you wouldn’t have considered before?

Session 15 (3:30-5:00pm)

Michigan League, Hussey Room, 2nd floor

Positioning arts/design research in a research university

Mallika Bose, William Doan, Sita Frederick, Bryan Nichols, and Fouz Alzahran

The Pennsylvania State University

In this panel presentation, panelists will describe one project from their centers focusing on how these projects advance collaborative arts/design research. We will conclude with a discussion on lessons learned. The audience will be invited to participate in a dialogue on this important topic to develop a shared resource list.

Making Space: Increasing Interdisciplinary Arts Research within Traditional Higher Ed Paradigms

Deb Mexicotte, Dawn Gilpin, Roland Graf, and John Granzow, University of Michigan

How do faculty ‘make space” for interdisciplinary arts research without ready access to collaborative partners, skilled student research assistants, supportive administrative environments, or additional work time. Our panel of faculty researchers will describe their work with intentionally recruited interdisciplinary student teams and how a new program university program helped them make this “space” in their research practice.

Affinity Dinners

Various Locations

Realm of the Dead Performance (5:30-7:00pm)

School of Social Work (meet in main floor lobby)

This performance is currently sold out. To be added to the wait list, please visit: https://forms.gle/ySBfoBiZ5cwkypSP8

Affinity Dinners

Various Locations

Realm of the Dead Performance (8:00-9:30pm)

School of Social Work (meet in main floor lobby)

This performance is currently sold out. To be added to the waiting list, please visit this link: https://forms.gle/dSZMwTjodjs3e16a9

Steps Towards Change

Researching While BIPOC: Identity and Artistic Research (Virtual Option) (9:00-10:00am)

Rackham Graduate School, Ampitheatre, 4th floor

When shame motivates artistic research practice

Emerson Granillo, University of Michigan

Coup d’état, Reclaiming Form and Color

Mehran Aghazadeh, Purdue University

Exploring youth artistic voice and ability

Tae Hee Kim, The Pennsylvania State University

Coffee Break (10:00-10:30am)

Rackham Graduate School, Assembly Hall Alcove, 4th floor

Steps Towards Change

Possibilities for Anti-racist Artistic Research, A Dialogue between Administration and Faculty (Virtual Option) (10:30-11:30am)

Rackham Graduate School, Ampitheatre, 4th floor

Amber Benton, University of Michigan

Antonio Cuyler, University of Michigan

Mallika Bose and B. Stephen Carpenter II, the Pennsylvania State University

Rochelle Sennet, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Realm of the Dead Exhibit

School of Social Work, ECC (Lower Level)

open for viewing

Session 16 (11:45am-1:15pm)

Rackham Graduate School, Assembly Hall, 4th floor

Theatre Techniques Used in Prisons, Hospitals, and Communities

Advance Sign-Up Required; Limited to 15 participants

The participants in this workshop will be introduced to models of artistic and social actions that take place in prisons, hospitals and favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The projects Teatro na prisão (Theatre in Prisons), Teatro em comunidades (Theatre in Communities) and O Hospital como Universo Cênico (The Hospital as a Universe of Scenes) da Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), led respectively by professors Natália Fiche, Marina Coutinho and Miguel Vellinho, seek through art to provoke transformations in their different contexts. In the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to experience some practical activities, such as games and improvisation, which are part of the repertoire of projects in Brazil.

Session 17 (11:45am-1:45pm)

Using Relatable Storytelling Approaches to Create Effective Tenure and Promotion Dossiers

Rackham Graduate School, West Conference Room, 4th floor

Michael Gibson, Keith Owens

The University of North Texas

Two tier-one university professors who between them have reviewed over 100 dossiers for tenure and promotion from design and studio arts faculty will facilitate a hands-on workshop to help faculty from these areas use a relatable storytelling approach to plan, write and design an effective tenure and promotion dossier.

Session 18 (1:00-3:00pm)

Michigan League, Henderson Room, 3rd floor

Lines of Communication: Using Expressive Masks to Generate Embodied and Experiental Knowledge

Felice Amato, Boston University

Alexandra Simpson, York University

This workshop explores experientially how the mask can be a tool of embodied arts research, with the capacity to generate unique insights. We will begin with a presentation describing the work of the Expressive Female Mask Collective and then offer an interactive experience with masks, which uses specific female archetype masks created by the Collective to explore how archetypes can function as lines of communication; their limitations and their productive frictions.

Session 19 (1:00-3:00pm)

Michigan League, Koessler Room, 3rd floor

Asking Differently:Feminist Approaches to Art and Design Research

Meredith Tromble, San Francisco Art Institute

Jane Prophet, University of Michigan

Heidi Kumao, University of Michigan

Holly Hughes, University of Michigan

The artist-researchers on this panel have each used feminist and intersectional research approaches in combination with artistic research methods to ask different questions and answer differently. This panel starts with a brief overview of different models for art and design research. Each panellist then presents their creative practice as a case study of different feminist research approaches. In closing, the panel considers the individual artist stories within an intersectional “art is research” model, proposing it as an intellectual structure forwarding a fruitful balance of flexibility and rigor.

Reco(r)ding CripTech: a Ground Works project documenting collaborative creative process (Virtual Option) (1:45-3:00pm)

Michigan Union, Rogel Ballroom, 2nd floor

Moderator:

Stephanie S. Rosen, University of Michigan Library

Panelists:

Daragh Byrne, Reco(r)ding CripTech Technical Lead, Carnegie Mellon University

Elizabeth McLain, Reco(r)ding CripTech Cross-disability Facilitator, Virginia Tech

JS Shokrian, CripTech Incubator Artist and Artist in Residence, UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts

The new Ground Works project, Reco(r)ding Criptech, documents the creative, interdisciplinary processes of six artists from the disability community in their art-and-technology residencies with the CripTech Incubator.

Reco(r)ding CripTech supports the artists’ evolving practices, captures the experience to inform future access-centered artmaking and archiving, and centers diverse ways of knowing and instantiating knowledge. Our working process emphasizes voice, agency, and aesthetic access, and is based on principles of disability justice. The resulting archive will be fully accessible on the Ground Works online platform. We are keen to engage a2ru conference attendees in this wide-ranging discussion, fielding the questions that matter to the various populations involved in the project.

This session will be freely accessible via livestream at https://ummedia01.umnet.umich.edu/umich/a2ru110422b.html. As this session centers values of disability arts and justice, we request that in-person attendees wear masks to collectively enable access for participants who are at high risk.

Coffee Break (3:00-3:30pm)

Michigan Union, Rogel Ballroom, 2nd floor

Keynote: “We Demand the Right to Opacity:
Art & Artifacts at the National Public Housing Museum” (Virtual Option) (3:30-4:45pm)

Michigan Union, Rogel Ballroom, 2nd floor

Lisa Yun Lee, Executive Director, National Public Housing Museum

The making of The Realm of the Dead: An installation performance (5:00-6:15pm)

School of Social Work, Room 1840, 1st floor

Rogério M. Pinto, University of Michigan

Erwin Maas, New York-based international theater maker, curator, and educator from the Netherlands

Sarah Tanner, University of Michigan

Jerome Rork, University of Michigan

David Newton, Co-founder of Sly Pup Productions; Videographer and Editor

Reception

School of Social Work, ECC, Lower Level

Session 20 (Virtual Option) (9:30-10:45am)

Rackham Graduate School, Ampitheatre, 4th floor

Performance and Activism in Action: Theatre in Prisons in Brazil and the United States

Session 21 (9:30-10:45am)

School of Social Work, B770, Lower Level

Advancing the Science of the Arts for Health and Wellbeing

Tamara Underiner, Arizona State University

Zöe Linteris, Arts and Mind Lab

This session highlights a global multi-year initiative spanning the full spectrum of art modalities and research methods. Participants will learn about opportunities to help build the emerging field of neuroarts and also about an innovative, collaborative higher education research project that incorporates multiple art forms.

Session 22 (9:30-10:45am)

Rackham Graduate School, Assembly Hall, 4th floor

Sensing Borders: Mapping, Media and Migration

Lee Rodney, University of Windsor

Michael Darroch, York University

Christina Dovolis, York University

Cleo Sallis Parchet, York University

Donna Akrey, Brock University

This panel will discuss an ongoing arts research project entitled “Sensing Borders: Mapping, Media and Migration” from the perspective of counter-cartography as both participatory, collaborative research and as a method of knowledge mobilization that is unique to the arts.

Session 23 (9:30-10:45am)

School of Social Work, B780, Lower Level

Frontline Covid Nurses: An Animation Project

William Doan, the Pennsylvania State University

Jacob Okulewicz, Michigan State University

Our team, a group of interdisciplinary scholars at Michigan State University, will be presenting on how our project—Creativity in the Time of COVID-19: Art as a Tool for Combating Inequity and Injustice—offers new opportunities to research pandemic art at the intersection of cultural studies, disability studies, and art-based mental health.

#BlackLivesMatter Art: Exploring Deep Community Engagement

Lawrence M. Jackson, George Mason University

Antonio C. Cuyler, University of Michigan

This presentation will explore the question, in what ways might artists and arts leaders collaborate to foster impactful community engagement initiatives in support of #BlackLivesMatters? Co-moderated by an arts leader and a dance artist, the discussion will focus on using culture as a meaning-making system to advance racial justice in communities by using the arts to ask provocative questions in service to envisioning and actualizing an anti-racist world.

Unrest in America

Joshua McFadden, Rochester Institute of Technology

Created during a tumultuous US presidential election year and the global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, this art-based research details the aftermath of police-involved shootings of Black people. Unrest in America concentrates on four sufferers of state brutality and the resultant fallout in their respective cities: Breonna Taylor of Louisville, Kentucky; Daniel Prude of Rochester, New York; George Floyd of Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Rayshard Brooks of Atlanta, Georgia.

Session 24 (9:30-10:45am)

Rackham Graduate School, West Conference Room, 4th floor

Shifting Institutional Culture to Fortify Public Scholarship and Support Engaged Graduate Student Scholars

D. Romo, Syracuse University

Trina Van Schyndel, Imagining America

In this presentation/panel, we will share research, results, and products oriented toward understanding and better supporting public and activist graduate student scholars, which emerged from the Mellon Foundation funded “Leading and Learning Initiative” (LLI) launched by Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life in 2019.

Coffee Break (10:45-11:15am)

Rackham Graduate School, Assembly Hall Alcove, 4th floor

Closing Keynote Conversation (Virtual Option) (11:15am-12:15pm)

Rackham Graduate School, Ampitheatre, 4th floor

Carlos Jackson and Lisa Yun Lee