Posting Date: May 19, 2009
College of the Arts and staff receive QEP grants
By Jarmea L. Boone
As part of its institutional accreditation in 2006-2007, Kennesaw State University launched a Quality Enhancement Plan with a focus on global learning for engaged citizenship that will be implemented from 2007 to 2012. Over the next five years, there will be a focus on providing more visibility to KSU’s current global learning opportunities and increasing opportunities for students, , staff, and administrators. The “Get Global” and QEP initiatives support KSU’s 2007-2012 strategic plan of “preparing students to be leaders and creating a campus culture that assures an appreciation of diversity.”
Several College of the Arts and staff received QEP grants for the 2009-2010 school year to fulfill various phases of new and existing projects. These employees and their particular projects reflect the purpose and ambition of the “Get Global” and QEP initiatives.
Margaret Baldwin, lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies and
Jim Davis, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, will acquire research and presentational materials for a project centered on Korean theater and performance traditions for the fall 2009 and spring 2010 sections of TPS 1107: Arts in Society.
Steve Burton, manager of the Performing Arts Library in the College of the Arts School of Music, will undertake a program of collection development to supplement and expand library holdings in support of multicultural learning in the COTA subject areas of theatre and performance studies, dance, visual arts, and music.
Valerie Dibble, associate professor of art, and Jeanne Sperry, associate professor of art, will use funds for an intercultural service learning project focusing on health issues in South America and African populations and encourage global citizenship, awareness and action.
Lin Hightower, professor in the Department of Visual Arts, will supervise a project for fine arts and graphic design students from KSU and Bilkent University in Turkey; the students will submit work to be juried by their professors for an exchange exhibition between the universities to be shown in the university galleries.
Alison Mann, assistant professor of choral music education, will aim to explore the similarities and differences of pre-service educators from KSU and Nanjing University in China; utilizing the International School Connection’s MOODLE learning management system, students will create an “ideal classroom” project that explores potential high school classrooms in the United States and China.
Joe Remillard, professor and director of the Montepulciano, Italy study aboard program, will use funds to purchase art supplies for the study abroad program’s second year course offerings in multi levels of painting and drawing, The History of Italian Art, Italian Language and Geography.
Karen Robinson, associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, is working on the production of a revised and internationalized edition of “Moby-Dick” that incorporates French and Arabic text, live music, and enhanced movement sequences, as well as performance ethnographies, developed in collaboration with Hassan II University students in Casablanca, Morocco, for this summer’s International Festival of University Theatre.
Laurence Sherr, associate professor and composer-in-residence for the KSU School of Music, will expand an existing section of his website to add and integrate new material and multi-media such as video, audio, and score samples that support global learning outcomes.
John Gentile, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, and Ivan Pulinkala, director of the KSU Program in Dance, received grant monies for the development of global learning courses. Students in Gentile's course, "Performing Irish Myth," will study the mythology of Ireland through storytelling performance. The course emphasizes the importance of Ireland’s mythic foundation and how it informs that country’s culture, literature, art, history, and politics. In Pulinkala's DANC 1107 course, students will examine the role of arts in society and do an in-depth study of selected dance events. This interactive course provides an understanding of the creative process and develops skills in creativity and critical analysis and yields heightened perceptual abilities .