AUSTIN, Texas — Jan. 23, 2008 — Two graduate students in the College of Communication have won fellowships to create oral histories about race, identity and history in Texas.
Peter Kovacs, in the Department of Radio-TV-Film, and Leah Ross in the Department of Communication Studies, have won fellowships in Interpreting the Texas Past, an initiative of the Intellectual Entrepreneurship (IE) Consortium.
Fellowships in Video Documentation and Editing of the African American Texans Oral History Project
Graduate students from three different disciplines at the University of Texas will work collaboratively with community members to create digital video oral history interviews with African Americans in Austin. The students will edit the oral histories for Web broadcast and create a short film.
Fellowship recipients:
Margaret Gibson, Department of Anthropology ($1,500)
Erica Lies, Performance as Public Practice, Department of Theater and Dance ($1,500)
Peter Kovacs, Department of Radio, Television and Film ($1,500)
Fellowship in Oral History and Performance
A graduate student in the MFA Acting Program in The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theater and Dance will work with oral history interviews from the African American Texans Oral History Project and the Oral History and Identity Oral History Project to develop a performance that explores issues of race and identity. The theater piece will be performed for members of the Austin and University of Texas communities and for Austin public schools.
Fellowship recipient:
Shaun Patrick Tubbs, MFA Acting Program, Department of Theater and Dance ($1,000)
Fellowship in Documenting the Lives of African Americans on Robertson Hill, Austin, Texas (in cooperation with the French Legation Museum)
A graduate student in the master’s program in Library and Information Science will conduct in-depth research on African Americans who lived in the area once owned by the French Legation, known as Robertson Hill. She will create a database based on information in the Austin city directories from 1872-1900, identify bird’s eye view maps and create an interactive home map for an online exhibit for the French Legation Museum.
Fellowship recipient: Jill Morena, School of Information ($1,000)
Fellowship in Deepening Understanding Across Race: Oral History in the Public Schools
A graduate student in the College of Communication will develop a model for an oral history project in the Austin schools that assists students of different races and ethnicities to listen to each other’s life stories. She will research model programs in the United States and adapt them to the Austin environment, identify possible participants, create a budget and describe the mechanics of the Austin project.
Fellowship recipient:
Leah Ross, Department of Communication Studies, College of Communication ($1,000)
Fellowships to Construct a Bibliography on Slavery in Austin/Travis County (in cooperation with the Austin History Center)
A graduate student in the Department of Anthropology will create a detailed, annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources relating to slavery in Austin/Travis County. She also will create a series of simple ‘how to research slavery in Austin’ materials for school children visiting the Austin History Center, and a template for identifying enslaved persons in Austin.
Fellowship recipient:
Nedra Lee, Department of Anthropology ($1,000)
Related Sites:
Project in Interpreting the Texas Past
https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie/itp.html
Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium
https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie/index.html
Division of Diversity and Community Engagement
http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/
Martha Norkunas
https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie/norkunas.html
UT WEB Feature: Listen in on History
http://www.utexas.edu/features/2007/listen/
Doctoral student awarded interdisciplinary fellowship promoting community engagement
http://www.utexas.edu/news/2005/05/02/ie/
Contacts:
Dr. Richard A. Cherwitz
512-471-1939
Dr. Martha Norkunas
512-471-4206