2020 Celebration of Research

The Faculty of Arts and the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) will present the 2020 Celebration of Research on Thursday, March 5 at the Timms Centre for the Arts. This annual event brings together academics and performers from across a diversity of disciplines, voices, and mediums to share and reflect on research activities within the social sciences, humanities and fine arts.

Opening the celebration will be a performance by UAlberta’s Experimental Improvisation Ensemble, XImE. The core of the program will feature a series of short, thought-provoking presentations by faculty and graduate students who are leading the Faculty of Arts’ five established Signature Areas of Research and Creative Collaboration. The Celebration will conclude with the announcements of the Faculty’s final two Signature Areas and the 2020 Kule Research Cluster Grants. KIAS’ Acting Director, Natalie Loveless will also announce details of a new Kule Scholars Program. 

Initiated by Associate Dean Steve Patten in 2018, the Signature Areas of Research and Creative Collaboration supports existing and emerging networks of interdisciplinary research excellence across the Faculty of Arts. The initiative parallels the University of Alberta’s Signature Areas, but with a focus on facilitating Arts-based research collaborations that advance cross-disciplinary research and creative activity.

“We wanted to create a space for network building and research innovations that would profile research excellence while providing opportunities for both established and emerging researchers to network and collaborate in productive ways,” says Patten. “Our Faculty is home to important research and creative activity and we want the signature areas to recognize this while fostering productive new research exchanges and relationships, as well as enabling related teaching innovations.”

Each Signature Area of Research and Creative Collaboration receives funding and administrative support for five years. In total, there will be seven signature areas, with the previous five rolled out over the last two years: Digital Synergies; Language, Communication and Culture; Mediating Science and Technology; Shifting Praxis in Artistic Research/Research-Creation; and Stories of Change. The announcement of the final two signature areas will follow the presentations.  

The Signature Area presentations at the 2020 Celebration of Research will feature:

• Language, Communication and Culture: Xiaoting Li, Kim Noels, and Jennifer Dailey-O'Cain
  
• Stories of Change: Amy Kaler, Michael Frishkopf, Rezvaneh Erfani, Orly Lael Netzer, and Julie Rak
  
• Shifting Praxis in Artistic Research/Research-Creation: Natalie Loveless, Scott Smallwood, Beau Coleman, and Sean Caulfield
  
• Mediating Science and Technology: Jennifer Welchman and Marko Zivkovic
  
• Digital Synergies: Astrid Ensslin, Matthew Guzdial, and Chelsea Miya

“Faculty of Arts researchers and creative artists are advancing knowledge, reshaping research agendas, and producing contributions that impact positively on society,” says Patten. “The Celebration of Research is an opportunity to acknowledge this.”

The Celebration of Research will take place on Thursday, March 5 at 3:30 p.m. at the Timms Centre for the Arts, followed by a reception. The event is free and open to the public.

To RSVP, click here.

To read more about the presenters and their research, visit the Signature Areas of Research and Creative Collaboration website here.