A dozen student- and faculty-led interdisciplinary projects have received 2023 Arts Integration Initiative grants, totaling about $100,000, from the Hopkins Center for the Arts and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.

The grants are designed to support research with the arts at its core, foster interdisciplinary projects, and promote faculty-student mentorship.

Selected from among 53 applications, this year’s recipients include cross-campus and community collaborations and represent an array of fields, from a project pairing ethnographic research on energy justice with the creation of a mural in White River Junction, Vt., to using arts to help teach English in Ukraine.

The initiative reflects the Hop’s commitment to advancing interdisciplinary connections across campus, enhancing myriad fields of study through the arts, says Mary Lou Aleskie, the Howard L. Gilman ’44 Director of the Hop.

“We are thrilled to support these innovative, forward-looking projects which harness the synergistic power inherent in arts-infused research,” Aleskie says.

Now in its second year, the initiative is seeing a growing pool of applicants. And more is on the horizon. In the future, the Arts Integration Initiative will expand to serve as a hub for scholars engaged in research with the arts at its core.

2023 Arts Integration Project Grant Recipients

• Envisioning and Enabling a Just Energy Transition in the Upper Valley: Sarah Kelly, research associate at the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society and postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Geography, and Maron Greenleaf, assistant professor, Department of Anthropology.

• The Art of Conversation: Mark Thornton, assistant professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
• The Poster Performed: Tricia Treacy, associate professor of print media and co-chair, Department of Studio Art, and Wylie Kasai, Guarini ’24, computer science student with a concentration in digital arts.
• The Art of Human Biology in Health and Disease: Lee Witters, Eugene W. Leonard 1921 Professor of Medicine, Medical Education, and Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine.
• TikTokBox: Improvisatory Embodiments of Sonic and Kinesthetic Memetics on Tiktok: Digital musics student Mac Waters, Guarini ’24.
• Trazar Sonido y Luz/Tracing Sound and Light: Digital musics student Rodrigo Martinez Torres, Guarini ’24, and Emily Hass, composer and visual artist.
• Cyborgs of Ukraine: Teaching English Through Art in Ukraine: Master of Arts in Liberal Studies student Caleb Newton.
• The Transmedial Translation Of Sofia Andrukhovych’s Novel Amadoka: How Text Becomes Clay and Clay Becomes Music: Comparative literature student Veronika Yadukha, Guarini ’23.
• Triple Helix: AI-Artist-Audience Collaboration in a Performative Art Experience: Computer science student Xuedan Zou, Guarini ’23, digital arts student Kyle Huang, Guarini ’24, and computer science student Ziang Ren, Guarini ’24.
• What Is Happening to the “Afro” in Afrobeats?: John Ejiogu ’23 and Mark Gitau ’23.
• A Botanical Embrace: Erik Seigel ’26.
• The Body Is Permeable: Human Health in a Time of Climate Change: Gaia Yun ’25.