2019 Student Challenge Grant Recipients Announced

Two interdisciplinary student teams were awarded Student Challenge Grants by the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) to pursue projects that were inspired by the 2019 Emerging Creatives Student Summit hosted by James Madison University on the topic of Food + Place. The summit convened interdisciplinary teams from various a2ru partner research universities to address issues around the theme.

“RAN DMG (Raising Awareness among Neighborhoods about the Dotte Mobile Grocer” was awarded $2,500 to empower community residents to directly engage with one another and build trust within their neighborhoods. Community mobilizers will be paid a living wage for door-to-door canvassing that promotes the Dotte Mobile Grocer in each of its fifteen community-supported locations to connect not only with the Dotte Mobile Grocer, but also with essential health and city services with an overarching goal to enable residents to meet one another and build relationships in pursuit of a healthier community. The team includes Cora Burgoyne, University of Kansas Medical Center, Masters in Public Health; Matthew Kleinmann, University of Kansas, Ph.D. in Architecture; Evan Reitter, University of Kansas Medical Center, Masters in Public Health; and Kolia Souza, Kansas State University, MS Architecture and MS Community Development.

“Food Bites Infozine” was awarded $2,000 plus travel expenses to attend and present at the 2019 a2ru National Conference, to create a series of infozines, which cover an assortment of diverse aspects of food and place. Of the project, the group states: “Through these curated collections of stories, resources and works of art, we hope to offer ways to think about and consider the role food plays in our personal, communal, and environmental experiences and relationships. We intend to use these working understandings to explore the ties we feel to the places (physical & intangible, grounded & transient) that we occupy.” The team includes Laura Ney, University of Georgia, PhD., Crop and Soil Sciences; Irasema Quezada Hammock, University of Alabama at Birmingham, BFA, Graphic Design; Sarah Whittmeyer, University of Colorado, BS, Music and Music Business; Stephanie Bonnell, University of Cincinnati, major in Communications and minor in Environmental Studies; Sydney Mathis, University of Virginia, double major in Commerce and Global Environments and Sustainability; and Emma Kornegay, VCU School of the Arts, BS Fine Arts.

The teams will work over the course of the summer and present on their projects at a gathering of research university administrators, faculty, staff, and students this fall at the 7th Annual National a2ru Conference, knowledges: artistic practice as method, November 7-9, 2019, hosted by University of Kansas.

“Stories of Our Food” was also recognized by the review committee as an honorable mention. This project team includes Özlem Ayse Özgür, University of Arizona, School of Geography and Development, PhD Student, Critical Human Geography & Visual Anthropology; Leah Netsky, The University of Arizona, Master of Fine Arts in Photography; Dianna Taylor, University of Arizona, Masters in Art and Visual Culture Education; and Jakub Rojek, University of Arizona, Fred Fox School of Music, Doctor of Musical Arts.

Many thanks to our faculty advisors at the summit from a2ru partner universities including The University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Colorado Denver, University of Cincinnati, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Virginia, and VCU. Special thanks to guest artists and speakers including Ian Cheney, Kate Daughdrill, Ross Gay, Michelle Hesse, Michael Snell-Feikema, and Stephanie Williams.