Research and Creative Activities

Faculty Work

Susan Mann, Dance, invited Tim Veach, artistic director and founder of Columbus Dance Theatre (CDT) and its school, to give a series of lectures and presentations in October 2010. Veach's guest residency was called “Surviving and Thriving Together.”

• Veach Instructs Amanda Larkin

  Tim Veach discussed creative solutions to cash flow problems and strategies for attracting young male dancers to the field.
• Veach provided anecdotal information to area artists through sharing his experiences and ideas, including creative solutions to fundraising and expanding responsibly.
• Tim Veach, worked with Charles Wetherbee, and Korine Fujiwara, Co-Directors of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, since the 1990’s to create innovative work designed to attract younger generations. Their discussion included the development of appropriate venues and styles of publicity, creative problem-solving for marketing a specific event, and suggestions for graphic design and alternative venues for advertising.
• The residency culminated with a showcase of the interdisciplinary work, "The String Machine," which was conceived and excused by Tim Veach and members of his CDT along with the four musicians of the Carpe Diem String Quartet.

Amy Becker, Mass Communication and Communication Studies, has published an article to appear in Social Science Quarterly exploring what factors influence public support for same-sex marriage. The article, "New Voters, New Outlook? Predispositions, Social Networks, and the Changing Politics of Gay Civil Rights," examines public acceptance of homosexuality and support for same-sex marriage across age cohorts.

Here are some of the key findings or take-aways from the study:

• Younger Americans' higher rates of personal contact with gay men and lesbians within their social networks (i.e., family, friends, co-workers) has the largest impact on attitudes. This is particularly true for those between the ages of 15-25, or those new "O" for Obama generation voters who took to the polls in record numbers in 2008.
• Younger Americans' (35 and under) have higher levels of deliberative engagement with the same-sex marriage debate than older voters.
• Older voters still rely most heavily on ideological and religious value predispositions when forming an opinion on the same-sex marriage debate.

This new piece of research expands upon a 2009 piece published in the International Journal of Press/Politics entitled, "Moral politicking: Public attitudes toward gay marriage in an election context" (PDF).

Dave Ballou, Music, invited Internationally acclaimed percussionist and composer Gerald Cleaver to present master classes, workshops and concerts during his week long residency December 4th to 8th.

Reviewed by Geoffrey Himes in the Baltimore City paper. This is an excerpt about the performance:

Gerald Cleaver by Patricia Lay-Dorsey

• The concert began with a 50-minute suite of four Cleaver compositions, often pitting the furious aggression of Formanek’s upright bass and Andrew Bishop’s tenor sax against the calming, sustained notes of Dave Ballou’s cornet and Jean Carla Rodea’s soprano voice...Cleaver’s drumming, controlled rolls and patterns that linked the tense understatement of Ballou’s playing with the rambunctious overstatement of Bishop’s. The suite’s final piece, “Hover,” climaxed with Cleaver’s unaccompanied drum solo, which triggered electronic chirping from a nearby laptop.
• After this long suite filled with freewheeling improvisation, the evening shifted to three structured, rewarding compositions: Cleaver’s easygoing swing number “22 Minutes,” his uptempo post-bop romp “Going Home,” and Ornette Coleman’s “What Reason Could I Give,” the only piece that allowed Rodea to sing actual lyrics.
  

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