Humanities and Arts
Three U-M researchers named 2011 MacArthur Fellows
Three University of Michigan researchers— historian Tiya Miles, chemist Melanie Sanford and stem cell biologist Yukiko Yamashita—are among the 22 new MacArthur Fellows announced today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Each will receive $500,000 in "no strings attached" support over the next five years from the MacArthur Foundation. Read More
U-M Daugherty wins Grammy
Michael Daugherty won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition for his three-part homage to trains, “Deus Ex Machina,” recorded by the Nashville Symphony on his “Metropolis Symphony” CD. The award was presented in afternoon ceremonies Sunday, Feb. 13, prior to the national broadcast of the Grammy Awards. The album also received Grammys for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album in the classical music category. Daugherty is a professor of music composition at the U-M School of Music, Theatre and Dance. Read more
U-M faculty named Fulbright Scholars
Three U-M scholars from the Ann Arbor campus and one from UM-Dearborn were awarded U.S. Department of State Fulbright Scholar grants to conduct research abroad. The recipients are Farina Mir (Department of History), Pieter Smith, (Department of Chemistry), Molly Yunker, (School of Education), and William DeGenaro (Department of Language, Culture and Communication, UM-Dearborn). The Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad each year. These prestigious grants provide funding for recipients to lecture or conduct research abroad for periods of two to 12 months in 140 countries. [Read more...]
Digitization ushers new era in scholarship
Until recently, scholars who wanted to view any of the 1,100 items in the University of Michigan’s Islamic manuscripts collection had to come to the Special Collections Library where they would likely begin their search with the box of cards that served as the collection’s catalog. But the information on the cards in many instances lacked sufficient detail about the remarkable manuscripts they described, and in other instances was simply incorrect. Now, thanks in part to a grant awarded by the Council on Library and Information Resources and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, MLibrary has embarked upon a three-year collaborative cataloging project that will, by means of technology, assemble the necessary expertise. [Read more...]
U-M poet, translator named among top in generation
Acclaimed poet, teacher and translator Khaled Mattawa has been awarded a United States Artist Fellowship for 2010. The unrestricted $50,000 grant is one of 52 awards presented this year to visual, design, performing and literary artists from 18 states and Puerto Rico. Mattawa teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at the University of Michigan. He has written four volumes of poems and translated eight books of contemporary Arabic poetry, most notably a translation of the work of renowned Syrian poet Adonis. [Read more...]
Art & Design students, faculty travel to Madagascar, help to build much-needed water pump
In the summer of 2010, a group of fourteen undergrads and four graduate students led by School of Art & Design professor Joe Trumpey visited Madagascar for a course called EcoExplorers. During the trip, Stephanie Starch worked with Chris Parker on designing a treadle water pump for the small village of Ranobe. Little did she know how a new environment would change her design problems and solutions. [Read more...]
Taubman College Faculty Awarded Three Architect Magazine R+D Awards
Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning faculty were presented with three of the seven Architect Magazine Fourth Annual R+D Awards, announced August 17, 2010. The awards recognize the importance of research and development as defining principles in architecture, as “savvy clients expect buildings to be ever-smarter and more efficient, and architects are continually pushing materials beyond their known limits to reimagine the very nature of shelter.” The Taubman College faculty research projects awarded:
Digital Steam-Bending: Developing a Parametrically Adaptable Wishbone Structural System, by Assistant Professor Steven Mankouche; Lecturers Josh Bard and Matthew Schulte
Shadow Pavilion, by Associate Professor Karl Daubmann (PLY Architects)
North House: Responsive Envelope Prototyping, by Associate Professor Geoffrey Thün; Assistant Professor Kathy Velikov (RVTR / Team North)
[Read more...]
Whistler exhibition opens at the U-M Museum of Art
A comprehensive special exhibition, entitled "On Beauty and the Everyday: The Prints of James McNeill Whistler," will be on view August 21 through November 28, 2010 at the U-M Museum of Art (UMMA). This major exhibition will feature more than 100 works of art from UMMA’s rare and important Whistler collection, which covers the artist’s entire career in Europe, ranging from his student days and exposure to the vanguard artistic movements of the 19th century to the groundbreaking and atmospheric lithographs and etchings of his mature style. [Read more...]
U-M researchers part of team that discovered rare gold coin in Israel
Sharon Herbert and her team were wrapping up their dig at the Tel Kedesh site in Israel, sweeping the site in the 140-degree heat, when a student showed University of Michigan doctoral instructor Lisa Cakmak what he first thought was a gold candy wrapper. The candy wrapper turned out to be what researchers believe is the heaviest and most valuable gold coin ever found in Israel, according to Herbert, director of the U-M Kelsey Museum of Archeology and co-director of the dig. [Read more...]