Story courtesy of NOW ConcordiaWorking
with Aboriginal communities to make online connections, repairing
familial trauma through drama therapy, and exploring the ethical, social
and cultural issues surrounding heart transplants are three innovative
Faculty of Fine Arts research projects to receive major funding in 2011.
The
awards demonstrate how fine arts professors have been successful in
disseminating their research, attracting new forms of funding and
positioning the arts at the forefront of societal issues and debates.
Bonnie
Harnden, associate professor in the Department of Creative Arts
Therapies, received $87,885 for one year from the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research to film her performance piece, You Arrive.
From left: Natasha Amendolara, Shea Wood, Londa Daniel and Chloe Frisina in You Arrive. Photo by Max Beer.The
play, based on Harnden's work with traumatized children and their
families at the Montreal Children's Hospital, serves as an engaging
guide to identifying and treating dysfunctional relationship patterns
between parents and children. Rather than limiting the reach of her
clinical theories and research findings to journal articles, Harnden
used an innovative research method called performance autoethnography to
create a deeper kind of learning opportunity that other forms of
qualitative research cannot achieve.
At the encouragement of
front-line mental health professionals and therapists, Harnden will film
this new therapeutic resource to reach the widest possible audience of
practitioners and parents.
Jason
Lewis, associate professor in design and computation arts and
Hexagram-Concordia researcher, received a three-year partnership grant
of $376,086 from the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council
(SSHRC). His project, Skins, Storytelllers and Second Lives: A
Partnership for Developing Aboriginal New Media, is conducted in
partnership with the Kahnawake Education Centre, York University,
imagineNATIVE and UBC Okanagan.
TimeTraveller
TM/AbTec
is a virtual reality adventure about a young Mohawk man living in the
22nd century who travels through time and relives historical conflicts
that have involved First Nations.
TimeTravelleTM/AbTeC
is a virtual reality adventure about a young Mohawk man living in the
22nd century who travels through time and relives historical conflicts
that have involved First Nations.Lewis will expand
the Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) research network to
investigate innovative methods for First Nations, Inuit and Métis to
participate in a networked culture to tell their stories and, in so
doing, strengthen their communities and shape cyberspace itself. Lewis'
work is ideally suited to the collaborative opportunities created by the
SSHRC grant.
Ingrid Bachmann, associate professor in studio arts
and Hexagram-Concordia researcher, received a three-year
research/creation grant of $185,985 from SSHRC. Her project is entitled
Hybrid Bodies: An Artistic Investigation into the Experience of Heart
Transplantation.
As principal investigator, Bachmann will work
with fellow artists and a team of medical researchers to creatively
explore and publicly debate the emotional and psychological issues that
arise around heart transplantation. By involving artists as active
researchers rather than simply interpreters of scientific data, the
project represents a new strategic approach to research/creation and
knowledge transfer strategies across the arts and the sciences.
Read more about these and other research grants awarded in 2010-11.
