Syracuse University

Several Syracuse University professors will receive grants from
Imagining America:
Artists and Scholars in Public Life to help their creation of new course work or
expansion of existing classes that emphasize public scholarship and practice,
incorporate the arts, humanities or design, and serve a democratic purpose.

Imagining America (IA), based at SU, is a national consortium of more than 80
colleges and universities committed to public scholarship in the arts, humanities and
design. The annual IA grants are awarded to SU courses that exemplify the above
criteria and demonstrate the likelihood of being sustainable. The money can be used
toward supporting community members facilitating components of the course;
administration and planning expenses incurred by part-time employees and/or
contractors; modest honoraria for guest lecturers; special and necessary course
materials; and transportation.

The 2009 Imagining America grant recipients and their respective courses are:

• John Burdick, professor of anthropology in the Maxwell School, and Steve
  Parks, associate professor of writing in The College of Arts and Sciences, for
  "Strategizing with Syracuse: Engaging Community Through Collaborative
  Action Research": The course will train five teams of undergraduate
  researchers in collaborative action research and place them in projects with the
  following community-based partners: the Detainment Task Force, the
  Syracuse Alliance for a New Economy, the Center for New Americans and the
  Onondaga Nation. The fifth team will work with the Service Workers'
  International Union to improve relations with SU undergraduate students.
  

  
  

• Marjorie DeVault, professor of sociology in The College of Arts and Sciences,
  and Michael Schwartz, assistant professor in the College of Law, for "Social
  Action Research: Campaign for Access" (DeVault) and "Disability Rights
  Clinic" (Schwartz): Students in the course will participate in research and
  outreach activities concerned with the legal, social and organizational
  foundations of access to health care for the deaf community.
  

  
  

• Marilyn Plavocos Arnone, associate professor in the School of Information
  Studies, for "Digital iCreation in the Context of Community": Students will
  strive to meet information needs of underfunded Syracuse-based community
  organizations by addressing "information gaps" and producing digital media
  designed to resolve these gaps. Final products will be mounted on Digital
  iCreation for Community, a website that will provide participating
  organizations with a conduit for their newly developed information products
  and support materials. The site will become a showcase for the students and
  the community.
  

  
  

• Brian Lonsway, associate professor in the School of Architecture; Matthew
  Potteiger, a professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and
  Forestry; Kathleen Brandt, an environmental artist; and Jonnell Allen, a
  community geographer, for "Syracuse Eats: Designing the Urban Food
  System": This course will engage the local community in interdisciplinary
  design thinking aimed at a more sustainable and democratic food landscape
  in Syracuse. The course seeks to resolve the serious problems of lack of access
  to healthy, affordable food choices in many neighborhoods, the loss of
  regional food infrastructure and the environmental consequences of an
  increasingly global system of food production and distribution.
  

  
  

• Anda French, assistant professor in the School of Architecture, for "Spatial
  ConTXTs: Mobile Technologies as a New Medium for Spatial and Art
  Practices": The course will address the cultural and spatial potential of
  ubiquitous portable technologies. Students will explore the use of text
  messaging in downtown Syracuse, examining historical and contemporary
  shifts in social organizations and cultural narratives, and then develop projects
  in multidisciplinary groups, based on the 160-character limit of the text
  message, through which they might design, map and produce different events
  (stories, informational campaigns, atmospheric installations) to produce public
  engagement in the community.
  

  
  

• Marion Wilson, director of community initiatives in the College of Visual and
  Performing Arts (VPA), for "Social Sculpture: 601 Tully": This is a
  collaborative course involving the Partnership for Better Education and fifth-
  year architecture student Zachary Seibold. The course will be cross-listed in
  VPA and Architecture. Students will learn how to practice community-based,
  collaborative and interdisciplinary design-build work through engagement in
  the design and construction of a sustainable storefront and art/literacy
  community center on Syracuse's Near Westside. Students and faculty of
  Fowler High School Business Academy will serve as clients, design partners,
  building collaborators and eventual co-managers of the small business to be
  housed in the storefront. Participation in the project may serve as college or
  high school credit.