Every year, the School of Humanities and Sciences invites proposals for the Fred L. Emerson Humanities Collaboration Award. This spring, the Review Committee made awards to Jade Ballard ’08, English; Priyam Banerjee ’09, history; Amanda Brownbridge ’08, art history; and Charles P. Hogle ’08, writing. The awards recognize collaborative work the students will undertake with H&S faculty.
The Emerson Collaboration awards are granted to meritorious H&S students who are eligible for financial aid to collaborate directly with a member of the Humanities faculty on a scholarly project.
Jade will be working with Prof. Anjali Nerlekar (English) during the summer on a project entitled “Postcolonial Poetry: Studies in India and the Caribbean.” She will learn to navigate databases housed in the South Asian Collection at Cornell University, and she will use these to identify and locate publications from South Asia relevant to this project, and produce an annotated bibliography to support Prof. Nerlekar’s book project on postcolonial poetry. This is an emerging field of study, where scholars have a good chance of making significant original contributions. Jade’s work will also support the development of a new course on Indo-Caribbean poetry.
Priyam will be working with Prof. Michael Trotti (History) during the summer on a project entitled “ ‘Terror in the Heart of the Superstitious African: Race and Public Execution in the Postbellum South”; she will research the laws regarding capital punishment, and when they were passed by the Southern states, using materials at the Cornell University Law Library. In addition, she will explore newspaper accounts from Southern states about changing capital punishment laws during this period. Priyam’s work will be integral in supporting Prof. Trotti as he develops a scholarly article on this important topic, a preliminary step in a larger book project.
Amanda will be working with Prof. Cheryl Kramer (Art History, Director of the Handwerker Gallery) during the fall semester on a project entitled “Filling in the Gaps: A Research Project to Augment the Handwerker Gallery’s Collection Database.” Amanda will identify gaps in the current collection database, and conduct research to fill in these gaps. Working closely with Prof. Kramer to develop a more comprehensive record of collection artifacts, Amanda will explore archival sources on the cultures from which the objects originated and conduct interviews with members of the Ithaca College community to fill in gaps about the collection’s provenance. This project will also help make the underutilized collection of the Gallery more accessible to IC students and faculty.
Charles will be working with Prof. Gigi Marks (Writing) during the summer on a project entitled “Lay of the Land: A Series of Connected Personal Essays.” Charles will research different areas related to environmental science and environmental conservation that Prof. Marks explores in her essays, and provide her with abstracts of this research for her to develop the topics further in her writing. Through his collaboration with Prof. Marks in this project, Charles will gain important insight into how a professional writer exercises her skills with an eye towards producing a publishable manuscript.
This type of collaborative research is a routine part of experiential learning in the natural sciences, as faculty and students work side-by-side in the laboratory on a faculty member’s research project, but it has been less routine for scholarly work in the Humanities at IC. The funds generously donated by the Fred L. Emerson Foundation make such opportunities available to H&S faculty and students. Such collaborations require a commitment from both parties: faculty members mentor the students as they take on major responsibility for an independent component of a scholarly project, while students devote significant time and intellectual effort to these projects as they aim to meet the high expectations of their faculty mentors. The Award offers a stipend of up to $3,000 in the summer and $1,500 during the semester to enable student recipients to devote time and attention to the work required to succeed in such scholarly projects.
Proposals for projects that will take place during the spring 2008 semester will be invited in fall 2007. Please direct any questions about this program to Stacia Zabusky, Interim Assistant Dean of H&S, 274-3409, szabusky@ithaca.edu. More information on the Emerson Humanities Collaboration Award application process can be found at https://www.ithaca.edu/hs/community/fundingopps/emersoncollabawards/.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20070330100359664