Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Announces Collaborative Research Project Awards for 2011-12
The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities has awarded funding to five interdisciplinary faculty teams for projects that will engage scholars in the humanities, arts, and social sciences during 2011-12. These awards represent the second year of IPRH Collaborative Research Projects, an initiative that the IPRH announced in fall 2010.
The Collaborative Research Projects were selected through a competitive review of applications. The successful projects were chosen for their intellectual engagement with humanities scholarship and the cross-disciplinary appeal of the public events that will be undertaken.
The following projects have been selected for support for the 2011-121 academic year. Details of their projects will be listed on the IPRH website throughout the year, and announcements about all public events will be circulated on the IPRH listserv.
American Literatures, American Religions: Perspectives on the Future of the Humanities
Project Organizers:
Jonathan Ebel (Religion)
Justine S. Murison (English)
About the Project:
This two-day conference (scheduled for September 2012) will bring together scholars from the fields of American literature and religious studies who have worked extensively on the intersections of literature and religion. The aim of the conference will be sustained reflection on the dynamics, trends, and methods within and between the disciplines of literary and religious studies. We will bring together distinguished as well as emerging scholars to present papers that explore the relationship, past and present, productive and calamitous, between religion and literature in American society and the American academy.
Empirical and Experimental Approaches to Politeness and Impoliteness
Project Organizers:
Marina Terkourafi (Linguistics)
Kiel Christianson (Educational Psychology/Beckman Institute)
Andrea Golato (Germanic Languages and Literatures)
Michele Koven (Communication)
Adrienne Lo (Anthropology)
About the Project:
All languages have means of modulating the politeness of utterances, along with non-linguistic means. The interface between these linguistic and non-linguistic means, alongside the social norms of the culture and individual differences of any given speaker-listener pair, make for a complex dynamic outside of which the purely linguistic signal cannot be adequately understood. This project is a state-of-the-art conference that will address the latest developments in im/politeness research with the aims of producing a thoroughly social account of language and identifying new areas for international and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The conference will bring together faculty and graduate students from Linguistics, Psychology, Communication, Anthropology, Cognitive Science, and Foreign Language departments, and will take place from August 31 to September 2, 2012.
The Medieval Globe
Project Organizers:
Elizabeth Oyler (East Asian Languages and Cultures)
D. Fairchild Ruggles (Landscape Architecture)
Eleonora Stoppino (Spanish, Italian and Portuguese)
Carol Symes (History)
About the Project:
“The Medieval Globe” is a threefold collaborative project that comprises a symposium, a new journal, and a graduate seminar. The symposium will open with a keynote speaker on the evening of April 12, 2012 and be followed by two days of presentations, both by Illinois participants and guests, and a performance. Members of the University and local communities will be welcome at all events, and the opening keynote lecture in particular will address a general audience and will frame the symposium as a dialogue with contemporary significance. The planned events will offer a forum and model for dramatically re-envisioning and expanding medieval studies. They will draw national and international attention to the humanities at Illinois, and explore the ways in which the humanities can meaningfully address the issue of a changing globe.
The Odyssey Project Conference
Project Organizers:
Dale Bauer (English)
Cris Mayo (Education Policy, Organization and Leadership)
Spencer Schaffner (English/Writing Studies)
About the Project:
This cross-disciplinary project on humanities-based adult education focuses on lower-income and/or minority students, and will help us to develop stronger and more diverse bridges between the university and the community. For the last six years, the Odyssey Project (funded by the University of Illinois and the Illinois Humanities Council) has offered free introductory humanities courses to members of the Champaign-Urbana community who live at or slightly above the federal poverty level. This project will help us to better understand not only our own program but also the growing national focus on returning and nontraditional students, especially the needs of students to be prepared in humanities and critical thinking. A conference (dates to be announced) will allow local and visiting participants to discuss the integration of university research and teaching with public engagement, and to investigate models for growth and funding.
Queer Performance Series
Project Organizers:
Martin Manalansan (Anthropology/Asian American Studies)
Jennifer Monson (Dance)
Chantal Nadeau (Gender and Women’s Studies)
Richard T. Rodríguez (Latina and Latino Studies/English)
Siobhan Somerville (English/Gender and Women’s Studies)
About the Project:
The visiting speaker series on Queer Performance will feature two experimental performance artists, Jennifer Miller and Alina Troyano (as Carmelita Tropicana), both widely recognized for their important roles in expanding the possibilities for using performance to explore the politics of sexuality, gender, race, and social justice. Each speaker will present a lecture/performance that is free and open to the public; both events will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium of Spurlock Museum. Jennifer Miller will present a talk on Tuesday, October 25 entitled “How To Wear a Beard: Reflections on a Life in the Sideshow, the Circus, and the Academy.” Carmelita Tropicana’s presentation, "Ole/Ghost and Performance Art Manifesto," will take place on Friday, November 4.
Additional information about these events can be found at https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/xythoswfs/webui/_xy-41401544_2-t_bkBuS2Sh.