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During the 2020/21 academic year, the Mellon Initiative was pleased to award five student mini-grants, two of which were awarded for innovative projects, and the first ever Arts Lab, "Academic Making for the Built Environment," which will launch in Spring 2022! We were also proud to see Mellon students present their summer research during the Fall Research Symposium and at conferences outside �԰�����. In March, from a total of 30 proposals received, the Mellon Steering Committee selected 21 SURF projects, as well as the 2021 Mellon Institute, an oral history project, titled “The �԰����� Women’s Athletic Oral History Project: Missing Records and Perspectives” for the upcoming summer research period.

We are proud of these student presenters!
After completing their summer research entirely remotely, the following Mellon students participated not only in the Summer Symposium concluding the research period but also presented (in some cases updated) summer research at the Fall Symposium organized by Experiential Learning: Kathleen Arbogast, Jessica Metcalf, Elena Nusloch, Cecelia Turkewitz, Stephen Ford (all �԰����� ‘21) and Peyton Tvrdy (�԰����� ‘20). In March, 2020 Mellon SURF Ben Falcon (�԰����� ’22) received a special citation for Best Poster in the Coates Library "Research Thing" Prize competition. Two Mellon students presented or co-presented their research at virtual conferences outside �԰�����: In December, Tryne Vander Straten (�԰����� ‘21) presented her summer research at the Institute of Modern Languages Research (UK) conference called . And in April, Elisa Barrera (�԰����� ’22) co-presented her summer research paper, “'Beyond "La Bamba': Mexicanidad and Border Identity in San Antonio's WPA Orquesta Típica, 1936-43,” at a chapter meeting of the American Musicological Society.

We can’t wait to see what amazing research our 2021 Mellon students will produce this summer! This year’s �԰����� Summer Symposium is scheduled for July 28.

Elisa Barrera (Mellon ‘20) is co-presenting at the Spring 2021 AMS-SW chapter meeting on April 10, 2021.

Congratulations to these 2020/21 student mini-grant recipients!
Last fall, 2020 Mellon SURF Elena Nusloch (�԰����� ‘21) received a mini-grant to support research for her honors thesis, titled “Shakespeare, Universality, and High-Profile Legal Proceedings: The Case of Othello and O.J. Simpson.” Mariana Suarez Claure (�԰����� ‘21) received a mini-grant for her innovative Communication honors thesis project, titled “A study on the challenges blind and visually impaired face when using online platforms for fashion.” Although Mariana was not able to complete the study as she had envisioned due to not being able to survey her target population with a currently available survey platform, she did hit upon a need for such survey services to be developed, not to mention the need for improving accessibility to online fashion platforms for visually impaired and blind individuals, which was the goal of the study. “Seems like Mariana's work is even more important than we first thought,” remarked Mariana’s advisor, Dr. Jennifer Henderson.

This spring, the three Art majors received mini-grants to support their Senior projects. Art and Spanish double major Stella Luck (�԰����� ‘21) was awarded funds toward purchasing textile supplies for her innovative Senior Art Major Exhibition project ”to watch myself sink and disappear.” B.A. candidate Stephen Sumrall-Orsak (�԰����� ‘21) received a mini-grant for the printing and mounting of 40 pieces titled “Routine” as part of the same exhibition. Finally, Studio Art and Psychology double major Bella Peters (�԰����� ‘21) also received funds to cover framing costs for her drawings to be exhibited in the Art Major Exhibition. The exhibition, called , opens on April 29th and will run until May 22, 2021. It will take place in the Neidorff Art Gallery in the Dicke Smith Art Building, and will be open to the campus community M-F from 1-5pm. A limited number of visitors will be allowed in the gallery at one time, and social distancing will be required.

Applications for mini-grants can be submitted again at the start of the fall semester.

Stephen Sumrall-Orsak, "Routine"

We are excited to be supporting the first-ever Arts Lab at �԰�����!
After a short hiatus during the fall of 2020, the Mellon Initiative was very pleased to reopen applications for all Mellon faculty grant opportunities this January. Although interest in these opportunities was not as strong as in previous years, one proposal submitted titled, "Academic Making for the Built Environment,"��stood out and was awarded the first-ever Art lab grant! This Arts lab will “immerse students in the hands-on process of conceptualizing, prototyping, and constructing interactive experiential spaces for virtually any field ... [and] aims to interweave the arts with engineering science and technology to reimagine how human spaces are utilized in the 21st century.” The lab is a collaboration among three departments—Art & Art History, Human Communication and Theatre, Department of Engineering Science—and the Center for the Sciences & Innovation and will be created and run collaboratively by Kate Ritson, Scott Neale, Wilson Terrell Jr., and Ryan Hodge. The lab will be offered as a 4-hr course starting Spring 2022.

Faculty grant proposals will again be accepted at the start of the fall semester.

Engineering science professor Wilson Terrell Jr., Ph.D. (center), with students

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