University of South Florida

College of The Arts

University of South Florida

Arts Faculty Receive Grants to Support Summer Research Projects

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

USF College of The Arts faculty members Cesar Cornejo, Elisabeth Fraser, McArthur Freeman, and Eunmi Ko have been awarded Summer Research Grants by the College to advance their research projects in the disciplines of art, art history, and music.

Cesar Cornejo

studio portrait of Cesar Cornejo

Cesar Cornejo, associate professor of sculpture and extended media, will use his research grant to attend artist residencies at The Bellagio Center and the Dora Maar House in Italy and France, respectively.

In Italy, Cornejo will work on artwork for an exhibition in Puno, Peru hosted by the Puno Museum of Contemporary Art, an ongoing project that he created in 2007 which offers free repairs to houses in low-income areas in the town in exchange for temporary exhibition space in the homes.

Cornejo will work on designs, sculptures, and digital renderings for 10 Puno venues that take into account the history and community roles of each family. He will form his works based on information he gathered in Puno during a research trip in October 2018. Cornejo will also elaborate on a program that will focus on some of the key social and environmental problems that Puno is facing today.

In France, Cornejo will work in sculpture, painting, and photography to address the refugee crisis and examine the role of France as a strong supporter of human rights in the international political arena. Cornejo will present his work to the community in the town of Menerbes, France. 

Elisabeth Fraser

studio portrait of Elisabeth Fraser in front of a blue background

Professor of Art History Elisabeth Fraser will investigate Ottoman costume albums in order to connect Ottoman and European costume album images in a systemic manner.

Her research will be the first to document this link. Her research is concerned with European costume albums, an early form of ethnography that included prints depicting Europeans along with peoples of the world, identifying geography, ethnicity, religion, and gender through costume. This research will be a part of her upcoming book, Dressing the Ottoman Empire: Early Modern Costume Books and Transculturation.

She will travel to six museums or libraries in Europe to gather information for her research. Fraser will view actual, original albums for authenticity, materials, and construction.

McArthur Freeman

USF art professor McArthur Freeman draws with a computer

McArthur Freeman, associate professor of animation & digital modeling, will use virtual reality (VR) technology to create animated scenarios that allow users to be randomly assigned to an embodied identity, which will allow them to experience race, ethnicity, and gender. The user is able to make decisions, adapt, respond to others, and manipulate objects within their environment as they encounter narrative vignettes.

The scenarios will simulation the daily navigation of social interactions, and give the user the chance to see how identity, perceptions, and stereotypes work to shape individual choices.

The grant money will be used to contract a programmer to work on the primary interactive game mechanics.

photo of Eunmi Ko

Eunmi Ko

Assistant Professor of Piano Eunmi Ko’s premiere recording of Unus Mundus: Tributes to Isang Yun will be enhanced through audio master thanks to a summer research grant from the College of The Arts.

The album is a premiere recording of eight new solo piano works by contemporary composers. The album, commissioned and performed by Ko, is dedicated to Korean-German composer Isang Yun to celebrate the centennial of his birth.