Spring 2011 Cycle
Eight projects have been awarded FaCE grants totalling $65,723 in the Spring 2011 funding cycle.
Applications for the Psychology of Forgiveness
Presentation Grant
- Loren Toussaint, Associate Professor of Psychology, Luther College
- Asani Seawell, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Grinnell College
- Grant amount: Up to $7,207
In December 2010, Loren Toussaint and Asani Seawell received a FaCE grant for a project to investigate the effects of writing about forgiveness on the physical and psychological health of undergraduate students and the impact of meditation on forgiveness and health. Through their project, they aimed to develop a collaborative research model that incentivizes research, provides a steady source of accountability, and fully engages students in all stages of the process. Their research has already begun to be broadly disseminated, and they are now well-positioned to submit additional conference abstracts and research papers. They will submit a symposium for presentation at the April 2012 national meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in New Orleans, LA, which is one of the primary organizations for researchers with interests in health, psychology, and medicine. Following the conference, they will submit manuscripts from their project for publication in peer-reviewed journals that are widely read by professionals with expertise in health.
Dhiban Excavation and Development Project
Presentation Grant
- Knox College: Katherine Adelsberger, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies; Danielle Fatkin, Assistant Professor of History
- Grant amount: Up to $3,295
In 2009, two ACM faculty received a FaCE grant for an interdisciplinary project in Jordan as part of the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project (DEDP), an established archaeological project in the area. The funding allowed for initial investigations and a surface survey of the site, and the collection of pilot data, which has led to some conclusions and the need to present results at a national meeting.
DEDP is affiliated with The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), an organization that supports and encourages the study of the peoples and cultures of the Near East, from the earliest times to the present. At their November 2011 meeting in San Francisco, CA, DEDP team members will present a series of papers based on their recent work at Dhiban. Adelsberger has submitted a paper to the “Archaeology of the Natural Environment” session (first author), while Fatkin has submitted one paper to the session entitled “Imperial Peripheries: Archaeology, History, and Society on the Edge of Empire” (first author) and one to the session, “GIS and Remote Sensing in Archaeology” (second author). These papers are likely to be accepted, since DEDP is an affiliated project with long-standing ties to ASOR and archaeological work in the region.
New Realities Beyond the Classroom and the Teaching of Spanish in the 21st Century
Workshop on Fostering Collaborations and Exchanging Ideas within ACM Liberal Arts Colleges
- Beloit College: Oswaldo Voysest, Associate Professor of Spanish; Sylvia Lopez, Professor of Spanish; Amy Tibitts, Assistant Professor of Spanish
- Palmar Álvarez-Blanco, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Carleton College
- Galo Gonzáles, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, Macalester College
- Gizella Meneses, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Lake Forest College
- Grant amount: Up to $7,222
This two-day workshop, to be held at Beloit College in Spring 2012, will bring together ACM faculty members in Spanish and staff working with resources related to Spanish with the aim of fostering and exchanging ideas, practices, and experiences that may help participants in their teaching of Spanish or in better supporting faculty at teaching. The workshop will be structured around four topics that continue to impact the teaching of Spanish: use of technology; the combination of community-based learning with regular course work; the integration of study abroad; and the greater urgency of determining clearer linguistic-related objectives in language classes.
The overall goals of the workshop are:
- To discuss the current state of the teaching of Spanish in liberal arts education, specifically at ACM institutions
- To work collaboratively on the four topics of the workshop in order to generate ideas that we can build upon for our teaching and service
- To share information and resources that can perfect and enrich our teaching and service
- To discuss effective means of meeting and addressing the challenges and fast-changing realities that may impact the teaching of Spanish
- To learn how to best prepare students for their future personal and professional endeavors in regard to their learning of Spanish.
The Past, Present, and Future of the Book
Collaborative Event
- Cornell College: Michelle Mouton, Associate Professor of English; Kirilka Stavreva, Assistant Professor of English; Jen Rouse, Humanities Research Consultant
- Faculty/staff from 8 other ACM colleges
- Grant amount: Up to $15,000
The explosion of new digital book technologies has paradoxically energized more traditional studies of the book. This conference, to be hosted by the Cornell College Department of English and Creative Writing in Spring 2012, aims to nurture cross-curricular work and to foster on-going collaborations in scholarship and teaching by bringing together scholars, artists, and librarians from multiple disciplines who are interested in the past, present, and future of the book. The conference will include panel presentations on scholarly explorations of the book (presentations of collaborative faculty research and student-faculty collaborations will be encouraged); artistic demonstrations and workshops; two keynote speakers, focusing on the topics of book history and design and book arts; and an ongoing rare book exhibit. The schedule will also provide ample time for interdisciplinary break-out sessions that will help identify and develop pedagogical best practices and may lead to team-taught courses or publications in scholarly journals. Participants will leave with innovative plans for scholarly collaboration, new courses and assignments related to the book, and a book art object for inspiration; after the conference, they will help build and participate in an interactive website.
Presentation Grant
- Liz Carlin Metz, Professor of Theatre, Knox College
- Grant amount: Up to $1,477
This presentation is a follow-up to the ACM Performance Educator’s Conference, organized by three ACM faculty in October 2010. On behalf of her colleagues, Liz Carlin Metz proposed to the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) a workshop session to further their research discussion on the topic of the integration of somatic learning as central to performance pedagogy. This session, which is based on the processes discussed and developed at the Performance Educators’ Conference, has been accepted for the conference. ATHE is the largest national body of theatre educators with over 5,000 members meeting every year.
Metz’s contribution to the session discusses the role of the brain in memory and emotion and applies that theory to physicalized rehearsal techniques; it will serve as a framing device for the entire session. This represents an emergent field of research in performance, and the original ACM conference confirmed that the research is not only relevant, but also urgent and not currently broadly disseminated. The unabashed goal of the whole project is to further articulate the nature of creativity and thereby change the face of American performance education.
The Power of Place: Facing the Challenges of On-Site Teaching and Researching
Collaborative Event
- Tom Sienkewicz, Coordinator of Off-Campus Study, Monmouth College
- Faculty/staff from 8 other ACM colleges
- Grant amount: Up to $14,915
The impetus for this conference is the publication of a Festschrift in Honor of Janet Smith, which will include academic studies, creative writing, and pedagogical reflections from former teachers and students on the ACM Florence Programs. Smith’s recent retirement as director of those programs provides an appropriate moment to look back at scholarship and pedagogy that has emerged from the faculty involved and to look ahead for ways to meet the ever-changing challenges of teaching and researching on-site in locations like Florence. The conference—an opportunity for collaboration between those who have been visiting faculty at off-campus programs and those who desire to be—will provide a forum to share innovative on-site activities that have enriched experiences of both faculty and students; a key goal is to examine how pedagogical models generated for the Florence program can also be applied to other ACM programs. Activities will include a keynote address by Janet Smith; a plenary talk by Jodie Mariotti, the new on-site director of the ACM Florence Programs; and panel presentations and break-out discussions on a variety of topics related to faculty development and the challenges and lessons of teaching and researching on-site.
Protecting Human Subjects in Student Inquiry Projects: Addressing the Educational, Ethical, and Legal Obligations of Liberal Arts Institutions
Working Group and Collaborative Event
- Jo Beld, Director of Evaluation and Assessment and Chair of the St. Olaf IRB, St. Olaf College
- Greg Buchanan, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Beloit College
- Nathan Grawe, Associate Dean of the College, Carleton College
- Grant amount: Up to $14,933
The protection of human subjects in student inquiry poses significant ethical, educational, institutional, inter-institutional, and legal challenges. The purpose of this project is to help ACM institutions meet these challenges more effectively and consistently, both within and across institutions. The project includes a research group component and a collaborative events component. In Fall 2011, a group of faculty and staff from St. Olaf, Carleton, and Beloit Colleges will investigate policies and practices in human subject protection across all ACM member institutions; review policy and guidance documents on the website of the US Office for Human Research Protections; and draft policy and procedure recommendations for ACM colleges and off-campus programs. In Spring 2012, St. Olaf will host a symposium on the protection of human subjects in student projects to which the ACM and all its member institutions will be invited to send participants. Symposium participants will review and revise the policy and procedure documents prepared by the research group and convey them as recommendations to their home institutions and to ACM staff.
Somatic Skills Synthesis and Assimilation in Embodied Performance Pedagogy: The Neuroscience of Physical Theatre
Presentation Grant
- Dennis Barnett, Associate Professor of Theatre, Coe College
- Grant amount: Up to $1,674
In October 2012, three ACM faculty convened the ACM Performance Educators’ Conference, which was based on the assumption that there is a shifting paradigm regarding the way performance is taught—that is, a move away from naturalistic approaches in favor of a more somatic perspective. The central example of this new paradigm was the work of Serbia’s DAH Theatre, who performed at the conference and gave a workshop detailing their approach.
As a way of continuing this collaboration, the three conveners will present a panel session at the August 2011 conference of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education in Chicago, IL. Dennis Barnett’s portion of the panel will involve a discussion of his current project, a production of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Barnett has approached this piece—a play consisting entirely of monologues—through a movement-based process learned directly from the DAH at the Performance Educator’s Conference; he will show video presentations of the creation process and the finished monologues for comparison and discussion and lead session participants through one of the exercises he developed following the initial conference.