(UNDATED) – Indiana University’s Presidential Arts and Humanities Program, which replaced IU’s long-running New Frontiers in Arts and Humanities program in early 2020, has made just over $400,000 in grants to 19 arts and humanities endeavors.
The new program acknowledges IU President Michael A. McRobbie’s longstanding commitment to supporting artists and humanists and increasing the reach of their work.
Funded projects include an examination of Syrian Muslim history in the Midwest. Edward Curtis, professor of religious studies at IUPUI, is writing a book exploring the little-known life stories of Syrian and Lebanese Muslim Americans in the Midwest from 1890 to 1965 and the way those lives reveal the nature of race, religion, ethnicity and region in 20th-century U.S. society.
Chopin’s influential approach to piano performance is the focus of Evelyne Brancart’s project. A professor of piano in the Jacobs School of Music at IU Bloomington, Brancart will produce a book and accompanying video demonstrating Chopin’s pianistic techniques on historic and modern pianos.
Lisa Zwicker, a professor of history at IU South Bend, will use her funding for a workshop affiliated with the IU Europe Gateway in Berlin on “Religion, Women, and the History of Emotions in Germany and Beyond,” to be held in June. The conference will explore how using a “history of emotions” can yield fresh insights into cultural, social, political and intellectual European history.
“Artists and humanists throughout history have played a critical role in expressing the needs and feelings of individuals and society; today, that role is even more necessary and pronounced,” said Fred H. Cate, IU vice president for research. “Now more than ever, universities have a responsibility to continue to foster the creation of new mechanisms for expanding understanding of race, culture, history and the human experience. IU’s longstanding but newly re-imagined IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Program is a testament to our ongoing commitment to fostering civil society and serving our communities, state and nation in this important way.”
Here’s a complete list of 2020 IU Presidential Arts and Humanities grant awardees:
- Liza Black, College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of History, IU Bloomington, “The Police Empire and Native America: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and the Murder of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind.”
- Evelyne Brancart, Jacobs School of Music, IU Bloomington, “Discovering Chopin’s Piano Performance Practice Through His Etudes.”
- Edward Curtis, Department of Religious Studies, IUPUI, “The Syrian Muslim History of the American Midwest.”
- Melody Deusner, College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art History, IU Bloomington, “Aesthetic Painting in Britain and America.”
- Valerie Eickmeier, Herron School of Art and Design, IUPUI, “Coastal Connection: The Rising Tide.”
- Simin Ganatra, Jacobs School of Music, IU Bloomington, “The Beethoven Project: Celebrations from Indiana University.”
- Jeffrey Gould, College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of History, IU Bloomington, “Dawn to Despair.”
- Cooper Harriss, Center for Religion and the Human, IU Bloomington, “Religion & Literature Workshop.”
- Julian Hook, Jacobs School of Music, IU Bloomington, “Exploring Musical Spaces.”
- Christoph Irmscher, Wells Scholars Program, College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English, IU Bloomington, “Audubon at Sea: The Coastal and Transatlantic Adventures of John James Audubon.”
- John Kaufman-McKivigan, Department of History, IUPUI, “Symposium: Race, Religion and Politics in the Age of Frederick Douglass (and Donald Trump).”
- Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, Department of Anthropology, IUPUI, “Toxic Heritage: International Perspectives on Sites of Environmental Injustice.”
- Rasul Mowatt, College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of American Studies, IU Bloomington, “The Critical Realities of Leisure: Culture, Health and Access at the Crossroads.”
- Jillian Rogers, Jacobs School of Music, IU Bloomington, “Resonant Recoveries: French Music and Trauma Between the Wars and Companion Website,” and Music, Sound and Trauma: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.”
- Julia Roos, Department of History, IU Bloomington, “The Black Other in German Society: Biracial ‘Occupation Children,’ 1920-1960.”
- Chi Wang, Jacobs School of Music, IU Bloomington, “Kinesthetic Modes of Enunciation: an electroacoustic music composition for electronic music ensemble.”
- Rachel Wheeler, Department of Religious Studies, IUPUI, “Music and the Boarding School Experience on the Stockbridge Munsee Reservation, Bowler, WI.”
- Lisa Zwicker, Department of History, IU South Bend, conference funding for an IU Europe Gateway workshop on “Religion, Women, and the History of Emotions in Germany and Beyond.”
The next deadline for Presidential Arts and Humanities program is Feb. 15.
Information by Lauren Bryant, News at IU
