Apply to Be a Collaborative Arts Research Initiative Fellow

The University of Alabama’s Collaborative Arts Research Initiative, or CARI—which is a new research incubator dedicated to interdisciplinary, arts-focused inquiry—is announcing applications for its inaugural faculty fellowships.

Applications will be open Feb. 4 through March 6, and information sessions for the fellowships will be held in January and February.

“The faculty fellowships are a critical mechanism by which CARI and The University of Alabama are supporting high impact, interdisciplinary research and creative projects led by faculty with the interest and talent to engage across campus and across disciplines,” said Dr. Russell J. Mumper, UA’s vice president for Research and Economic Development. “Moreover, the fellowships are an integral piece of UA’s strategic goal to increase creative activities that impact economic and societal development.”

Sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, CARI Fellowships are open to faculty from all colleges and departments interested in exploring how collaborative research across disciplines can enrich the scope and impact of their work. Four information sessions for interested faculty will be offered in January and February, each of which will include a short presentation by a prominent arts researcher, the opportunity to network with other UA faculty and detailed information about the application and selection process.

Ben Knapp
R. Benjamin Knapp

R. Benjamin Knapp, the director of the Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology, or ICAT, at Virginia Tech will be a guest speaker during information sessions for UA faculty held at 4 p.m. on Jan. 28 and noon on Jan. 29.

CARI also will host guest speaker Norah Zuniga-Shaw, the director of dance and technology at Ohio State University Department of Dance and Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, or ACCAD, during sessions at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Feb. 13. All sessions will be held in Maxwell Hall.

Knapp is the founding executive director for ICAT and a professor of computer science at Virginia Tech. ICAT seeks to promote research and education at the nexus of art, design, engineering and science. For more than 25 years, Knapp has been working to create meaningful links between human-computer interaction, universal design and various forms of creativity. His research on human-computer interaction has focused on the development and design of user-interfaces and software that allow both composers and performers to augment the physical control of a musical instrument with direct physiological interaction.

Shaw is an artist and creative director best known for her award-winning digital projects that center choreographic ideas as catalysts for interdisciplinary and intercultural discovery. Her newest project, Livable Futures brings together faculty and students from across the arts and humanities for creative resistance and collective resilience in response to planetary conditions of crisis. Since 2004, Shaw has been director for dance and technology at The Ohio State University Department of Dance and ACCAD where she is a professor and teaches interdisciplinary research, improvisation and intermedia.

Applications for inaugural CARI Faculty Fellowships can be found at www.cari.ua.edu beginning Feb. 4.

CARI is led by department of theatre and dance faculty member Rebecca Salzer, with assistant director Michelle Bordner.

“We are excited to see this collaborative research community taking shape with the selection of our first faculty fellows” Salzer said.  “We hope the campus community as a whole will quickly feel the benefits and energy generated by this Initiative.”