2021-2022 Research and Creative Action
Each year, the Center for Arts and Humanities solicits proposals from all WSU faculty for projects that advance knowledge in and public awareness of the arts and humanities. Through a competitive process, a small group of Faculty Fellows is then selected and provided with significant support to bring their projects to life. In addition to pursuing their individual projects, fellows meet monthly to share their progress and reflect on the broader work of the arts and humanities in the public sphere.
Avantika Bawa
Associate Professor of Fine Arts, WSUV and Commissioner, Oregon Arts Commission
This project is part of an ongoing series of installations reflecting the artist’s interest in responding to the built and natural environment, through the language of drawing and construction.
Troy Bennefield
Director of Athletic Bands, Associate Director of Bands, and Associate Professor of Music
The project seeks to explore and publish information on the life and works of Dutch composer Julius Hijman, whose career was interrupted by the Nazi regime. The team also intends to produce the first-ever recordings of his important compositions.
Dennis DeHart
Associate Professor Lens Based Media Department of Fine Arts
Confluences is an interdisciplinary, lens based series of works focused on the Columbia River drainage basin and more specifically, the Snake River. Funding will support the photography and an exhibition, in collaboration with the WSU Department of Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections.
Martin King
Associate Professor Horn and Music Education
This project will commission a new horn tuba piano trio, record an album of music for this ensemble, and give performing tours of this music to expand and diversify the repertoire and promote this ensemble.
Laurie Mercier
Claudius O. and Mary W. Johnson Distinguished Professor of History
The fellowship will support the completion of research for a book project about gendered occupational segregation in the US and Canadian Wests, 1930-2020.
Melissa Nicolas
Associate Professor and Director of Composition
This project seeks to create an open-access digital archive of personal narratives about living through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jeffrey C. Sanders
Associate Professor Department of History
Funding will support travel and archival research as well as the development of a book proposal for a cultural and environmental history of strontium 90.
Jacqueline Wilson
Assistant Professor of Bassoon
This project endeavors to create, for the first time, an album of Classical works by Indigenous composers for solo bassoon utilizing a decolonized approach.