Research

EXPLORE COA+A RESEARCH CENTERS

DIVISION OF RESEARCH

FACULTY RESOURCE SUPPORT

Professor of Architecture Kyoung Hee Kim began developing microalgae-filled window systems years ago, prompted by an environmental science class in graduate school.

The algae’s greens and blues provide shading from the sun, and a pump circulates air through the system, filtering out carbon dioxide and impurities and releasing fresh, oxygen-rich air. Periodically, the algae can be harvested for other uses, such as biodiesel fuel.

Kim’s work has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the American Institute of Architects. Currently, Kim has an installation at the Innovation Barn in uptown Charlotte, where she and her research team have been testing its performance for six months and are continuing to make improvements.

For Associate Professor of Art History Lisa Homann, two years of curatorial scholarship recently came to fruition in the newly opened African Art Galleries at Charlotte’s Mint Museum. A specialist in West African masquerade practices, Homann was invited to serve as the curator for the reinstalled African art by the chief curator at The Mint Museum. With a detective’s focus, Homann combed through every physical file that the museum had on its African objects and worked directly with collectors to verify as much information about each work as possible. She organized the works into three broad thematic categories and wrote the exhibition panels and labels for every object.

Assistant Professor of Dance Ashley Tate’s research explores dance as a vehicle for community advocacy and a tool for social change. She has presented research at the European Hip Hop Studies Network Conference in Cork, Ireland, and the Dance Studies Association Conference in Washington, D.C. Tate recently organized “To the Beat Y’all: A Hip Hop Symposium,” in which artists, educators, scholars and community members delved into the transformative power of Hip Hop to shape culture, identity and activism.

Tate received a 2025-26 North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship from Trillium Arts to develop a work inspired by Hazel M. Johnson, known as the “Mother of the Environmental Justice Movement.” As she expands the work, she will prepare it for presentations both on the concert stage and in alternative venues.

The Nouveau Sud Circus Project, founded and directed by Associate Professor of Theatre CarlosAlexis Cruz, explores topics of social and political importance through community engaged research and circus arts. Funded by a New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Creation and Touring Grant, Nouveau Sud began touring La Bestia, which addresses immigration and migration in the U.S., in summer 2023 and produced a new version at the Booth Playhouse, Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, in uptown Charlotte in fall 2025.

A decade ago, Professor of Musicology James A. Grymes received a National Jewish Book Award for “Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust—Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour,” published by Harper Perennial in 2014. Since then he has lectured about the book all over the country – including at the United Nations – and has been interviewed by preeminent news outlets such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Grymes’s newest book, “Partisan Song: A Holocaust Story of Resilience, Resistance, and Revenge,” chronicles the story of Moshe “Uncle Misha” Gildenman. After Nazis occupied his hometown in Ukraine and killed 2,200 Jews, including his wife and daughter, Gildenman formed one of the most successful partisan units in the guerilla war to liberate Ukraine.