Research
research
In the College of Arts + Architecture, research encompasses a wide array of activities, from scholarly articles to groundbreaking performing practices. See below some examples of research from each of our units, and click through to learn more.
Professor of Art History Jae Emerling is the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Arts + Architecture. The Associate Dean for Research serves as the Dean’s senior research officer and works to advance the mission of the College of Arts + Architecture through the support of the college’s research initiatives (both graduate and undergraduate) and the strategic pursuit of research and extramural funding.
“The College of Arts + Architecture engages in a wide variety of historical, performative, and design-based research. We are in a small set of unique colleges of art and architecture in the nation. We pride ourselves on confronting difficult questions such as: What is the value of practice-led research? What are its strengths and distinctions? What types of knowledge, modes of understanding and insight does our research render visible and intelligible? Research in the CoA+A is recognized for the ways in which theoretical, intellectual, scientific, economic, and historiographic investigation takes place through artistic practice itself. The CoA+A works with faculty to raise the national and international stature of all our research activities through external grant awards as well as building national and international reputations within faculty research fields. We articulate the value of practice-led research for academia and the general public in terms of knowledge-production, social discourse, and economic advancement. The primary goal being to identify the differences involved in artistic research as positives, that is, as unique and invaluable ways that aesthetic, epistemic, and affective solutions to macro-level societal problematics are presented by artists, musicians, actors, painters, etc. Such research confirms that we create new ways of seeing, creating, designing, and inhabiting our world. These goals are also the foundation of our pedagogy. Interdisciplinary arts and architecture education is an essential means of inquiry and knowledge acquisition. Our research efforts aid our students in becoming inquisitive, self-reliant, hardworking, and aware of the differences that comprise the world they share with others.”
—Dr. Jae Emerling, Associate Dean of Research
Research & creative practice spotlights
Associate Professor of Architecture Jefferson Ellinger and his partners at Fresh Air Building Systems have been working for years to develop the AMPS (Active Modular Phytoremediation System), a “probiotic” plant wall air filtration system. The AMPS is connected to an HVAC system, and as air moves through the plants’ root rhizosphere (the micro-ecosystem surrounding the root ball), microbes on the roots eat contaminants that are in the air.
Recently, Ellinger installed an AMPS into the new uptown offices of Gresham Smith design firm, where it will provide an opportunity to research its performance.
Professor of Digital Media Heather D. Freeman was awarded a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce her podcast, Magic in the United States: 400 Years of Magical Beliefs, Practices, and Cultural Conflicts.
The $389,000 grant has funded the production of three seasons of the podcast, which explores how magical beliefs and practices have evolved in the U.S. from the 1600s to the present. The podcast was marketed and distributed by Public Radio International (PRX) and made available for free through all major podcast outlets.
Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones was awarded a 2024 research fellowship from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Jones was one of six fellows chosen to receive this prestigious grant, which this year focuses on modern dance pioneer Martha Graham and her company as it celebrates its 100th anniversary. Jones’s research has centered around “lost” works and aspects of modern dance. Most recently, in 2019, Jones began to research the life and work of Choi Seung-Hee, an artist who is regarded as the first Korean modern dancer. Learn more about Jones’s creative investigations into the life and legacy of Seung-Hee.
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. Cruz has also begun to develop new work investigating gun violence, Violenza, funded by a Cultural Visions Grant from the Arts & Science Council.
In both her performance and her research, Assistant Professor of Voice Sequina DuBose explores the intersections of contemporary classical and commercial music, musical theater, and music of the African diaspora. In 2022 she released her debut album, Blurred Lines: 21st Century Hybrid Vocal Literature on the Albany Records label. Blurred Lines presents the works of seven 21st-century composers who blur the distinctions between opera, classical art song, and other musical genres. DuBose’s vast and varied musical tastes were cultivated from childhood, but she formalized her musical investigations while in graduate school. Her dissertation investigates the impact of genre fusion and improvisation in 21st-century operas on vocal pedagogy and performance practice. It was through that research that she developed relationships with several of the composers represented in Blurred Lines, whom she commissioned to write for the album.