March 2017 College News

DANCE Dance Studies, Per formance & Choreography, Single Teaching Certif ication, & Dual Teaching Certif ications FACULTY ACCOLADES Ana Baer presented the video installation with live performance work entitled S.O.U.P. at the LookOut! Gallery, Michigan State University. [ 1 ] In February, Kaysie S. Brown was again invited to work with MindPop, Creative Learning Initiative, and AISD to work with High School PE, Science, and Math teachers on ways to use movement and dance in the classroom to teach concepts such as calculus and the nitrogen cycle. Nicole Wesley received one of two spots to participate in the Multicultural Curriculum Transformation and Research Institute sponsored by the Center for Diversity and Gender Studies in May 2017. Nicole’s choreographic work entitled “Matter” was performed by the Muscle Memory Dance Theatre for their concert Unfolding: The Disclosure and the Unveiling of Dancemaking that is meaningful to its makers at Life in Deep Ellum in Dallas, February 24 and 25. [ 2 ] Nicole was also nominated by the Theatre and Dance Department for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching (Lower Level) this spring. ALUMNI ACCOLADES Roman Morgan [ 3] is a permanent sub as a dance specialist with the Creative Learning Initiative at different AISD Elementary Schools. Every day he teaches 4-8 classes (pre k and 2nd) Creative Movement + Class Curriculum for 30-45 min. He also teaches after school programs for Forklift Dance Works, Leap of Joy, and BTruArts in Austin and continues to dance with the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company. Ana Baer’s video installation entitled S.O.U.P. Unfolding: The Disclosure and the Unveiling of Dancemaking featuring Nicole Wesley’s work Dance alumnus, Roman Morgan 6 | March | College News C3 The Center for Communication, Collaboration & Creativit y (C3) DR. REBEKAH FOX AWARDED $20K After meeting at the 2015 CoSearch event, Dr. Rebekah Fox (Communication Studies) and Dr. Aimee Roundtree (English) continue to collaborate on multiple research projects, including Dr. Fox’s recently funded City of Austin Urban Forest grant for developing better communication surrounding healthy urban forests. BLACK & LATINO PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE LAUNCHES CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN With help from junior theatre student Matteo Ybarra and C3, Eugene Lee launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to match a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for the Black and Latino Playwrights Conference. Ybarra has gathered an enthusiastic team of over 30 theatre students to create a video and special events advertising the campaign. Their connection to the local library led to an opportunity for Lee and Ybarra to be interviewed by the San Marcos Daily Record about the library event they have organized where students will perform both new, original and published works by black and latino authors for the local community. Check out all the university’s crowdfunding campaigns here . RESEARCH ON THE ROCKS Research on the Rocks continues! This spring, on the fourth Friday of each month faculty from the C3 Advisory Board organize a happy hour from 4-5pm at Elevate Bar + Table. March spotlighted Steven Rayburn from the College of Business and his team researching food insecurity in college students on the topic of “Research as Service,” and April 28th, the dean and colleagues will share strategies for writing a book proposal. MERMAID SOCIETY SMTX July Moreno, Mermaid Society SMTX Founder, met with the dean and college faculty in March to discuss opportunities for collaborating on projects related to arts and culture, small business and entrepreneurship, and river preservation. So far, fourteen faculty have proposed ideas ranging from holding a mariachi singing competition for the community to having art students design floats for the annual mermaid parade and sell pieces of art at the festival raising money to send students to conferences. Faculty are invited to submit ideas for collaboration with Mermaid Society to C3 Research Coordinator Ruthi Caldwell . Ruthi Caldwell ruthi.caldwell@txstate.edu For more information about The Center for Communication, Collaboration & Creativity (C3), please visit: c3.finearts.txstate.edu College of Fine Arts and Communication | 7 1 2 3