In the College of Arts + Architecture, research encompasses a wide array of activities, from scholarly articles to the development of new systems and materials, to groundbreaking performing practices. See below some examples of research from each of our units.
Research in the College of Arts + Architecture
Research in the College of Arts + Architecture creates new ways of seeing, creating, designing and inhabiting our world. Our research supports our students in becoming inquisitive, self-reliant, hardworking and aware of the challenges that shape the world they share with others.
Research & Creative Practice Spotlights
See research highlights from all five of our creative disciplines and click through to read the full stories.
Advancing Urban Farming Through Agricultural Design and Community Engagement
Funded by a Gambrell Faculty Fellowship through the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, Assistant Professor of Architecture Kyle Spence brought together 45 architecture and urban design students across three semesters to help develop, refine and build a unique vertical planting structure at Deep Roots CPS Farm. Their community-engaged research fostered a collaborative partnership with the urban regenerative farm.
Today the EcoDome greets visitors at the entrance to Deep Roots, growing herbs and edible flowers while serving as signage, gathering space and a prompt for conversation.
Curating Context: Reinstalling African Art Galleries
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 museum’s chief curator.
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.
Recovering and Reimagining Korean Modern Dance
Professor of Dance Kim Jones received a 2026 Creative Renewal Fellowships from the Arts & Science Council to continue her exploration of Korean music, dance and performance practices through the project “Echoes of the Drum: Reconnecting Korean Folk Lineage in Contemporary Dance Practices.”
Her immersive, embodied study with Korean master artists will build upon her research of the life and work of Choi Seung-Hee, an artist who is regarded as the first Korean modern dancer. Begun in 2019, that research has been supported by a Faculty Research Grant, a New York Public Library Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute.
Circus Arts as a Methodology for Social and Cultural Research
The Nouveau Sud Circus Project, founded and directed by 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.
Expanding the Scholarship of Holocaust History Through Music
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. 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,” tells the story of Moshe “Uncle Misha” Gildenman, who, after losing his family and community to Nazi occupation, led one of the most successful partisan units in Ukraine’s resistance.
Recent Research News
“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. 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? 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.” —Dr. Jae Emerling, associate dean for research
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 through the support of the college’s research initiatives (both graduate and undergraduate) and the strategic pursuit of research and extramural funding.