This week on Zoom – COFAC Colloquium 53 – Friday, December 2
The College of Fine Arts and Communication will hold its COFAC Colloquium 53 on Friday, December 2, at 3:00pm on Zoom. Two faculty members’ sabbatical reports, a report from a DEI award, and a report from grant research will be presented.
The Zoom link may be found here (passcode Colloquium).
Kyongseok Kim
Associate Professor | Department of Mass Communication
A Systematic Review of CLT-grounded Research on Climate Change Communication
This study presents a systematic review of 10 years of empirical research grounded in Construal Level Theory (CLT) about climate change communication. In the study, the major challenges in communicating climate change and the core concepts of CLT are explained. An analysis of factors found to intervene in the effects of psychological distance on pro-environmental intention and behavior is offered. An important research gap is identified, and future research opportunities are discussed.
William Kleinsasser
Professor | Department of Music
Completing Composition Draftworks – Software Tools for Musical Composition
During his sabbatical project, Kleinsasser completed and published online the seventh installment to his Shared Software Project called Composition Draftworks. The new addition is a set of 70+ composition utilities and tools all combined using a matrix approach for all of the composition drafting modules so that any of their processes can run independently, in parallel, or in serial relation to all other processes in order to help create and develop musical composition ideas. His hope is that the collection will more fully open his compositions, creative process, and musical thinking to those who might be interested and curious about similar exploration and creativity. In an important and personal way, Composition Draftworks, and the larger Shared Software Project, in addition to his compositions themselves, are a direct reflection of how he has thought and worked as a composer. Kleinsasser sees this collection as an unorthodox text illuminating his evolving take on creating music.
Courtney Kalbacker
Lecturer | Department of Music
A New Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Breath-based Fusion at the Heart of Operatic Creation
This presentation from Kalbacker’s DEI award will describe the innovation and radical inclusion involved in the creation of an operatic breath-based Midsummer Night’s Dream, commissioned by the Towson University Department of Music. Inspired by the original concept of l’opera as a combination that welcomes all types of arts at hand, this project blended classical opera theatre with Shakespearean text, Breath Art/beatboxing, a capella singing, and more.
Amy Sowder Koch, Associate Professor
Kim Sels, Lecturer
Department of Art + Design, Art History, Art Education
From Western to Global: Expanding Art History Discourse in the College Curriculum
Transitioning the art history survey to a global, more inclusive perspective is a first step in realigning the college-level curriculum with the diversity and values of today’s student body. The idea of a global survey is not new, but in practice, it is a fraught exercise. Textbooks focusing on global art history struggle with this endeavor as well, often retaining traditional frameworks while including new geographies as standalone chapters within a chronological organization. This paper chronicles Koch and Sels’ endeavor to globalize Towson University’s art history survey by expanding discourses to integrate non-western art and works created by historically underrepresented artists, introducing discussions to contextualize disparities, and confronting financial inequities in textbook assignments by shifting from expensive textbooks to OERs. In moving to a global perspective, their goals are to present varying cultural traditions with equal esteem, to highlight contributions of women and BIPOC artists while articulating reasons they have historically been devalued, and to be forthcoming about the impacts that actions of the West have had on the art and cultures they colonized. By broadening the focus of the class(es) from the foundational level, Koch and Sels aim to reframe the study of art history and engage students in understanding the past and contextualizing their own experiences. In this Colloquium, they will discuss their motivations and aims for the curriculum shift, some of the complex issues they researched in considering how to structure content and identify resources for the updated courses, and the current solutions they’ve created for the new classes.
Categorised in: General
This post was written by Zyne, Paula C.