2012-13 Recipients Of James F. Harris Arts And Humanities Visionary Scholarship Announced

Three ARHU students awarded first-ever James F. Harris Visionary Scholarship for outstanding achievement in the arts and humanities.

Last Updated: 4/19/2013

By Ashley David

The College of Arts and Humanities would like to congratulate the following students on receiving The James F. Harris Arts and Humanities Visionary Scholarship:

Emily Jane Warheit, Doctoral student in Theatre, the School of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

Emily’s area of specialization is in applied theatre as a tool for education, therapy, community building or other avenues of social change. Her master’s level work began as an investigation into theater and arts-based learning as a way to raise consciousness and learn employment skills, as well as life skills. This project led Emily to work with an NGO in Uganda over the summer that used the arts to educate members of small rural communities about environmental, ecological and health issues. As part of her current doctoral research, she hopes to return to east Africa to conduct an in-depth investigation into the crossroads of arts education, applied theater, economics, cultural policy and politics. At the same time, Emily has been developing an interdisciplinary, project-based course on the Arts and Society for the College Park Scholars- Arts program, where she mentors students on capstone projects in service learning, artistic projects and peer leadership. Emily has also directed collaborative projects such as the recent staged reading of The Dybbuk for a symposium in the Jewish Studies department and she has worked as a dramaturg on two dance pieces in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Emily’s interdisciplinary work makes clear her goal of using arts and theater as a jumping off point to learn about the world and to engage with the broader community on intellectual and social issues in practical ways.

Lina Morales-Chacana, Master’s student in Spanish, the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

A native of Chile, Lina’s interests lie in researching, promoting, cultivating and preserving Hispanic cultural expressions across cultures in multiplicity of settings. She has worked at the Embassy of Chile in Washington D.C. with the GALA Hispanic Theatre as the Marketing and Public Relations Director, assisted Professor Jorge Aguilar-Mora in writing a short play about emancipation in Latin America and created a bilingual digital archive of Chilean dramaturgy. As a Spanish cluster mentor in the Language House, Lina developed a multicultural curriculum that primarily takes into account cultural practices and sociopolitical issues in literature, theater, dance, music and the visual arts. For her master’s thesis she is developing a digital bilingual journal to focus on Hispanic theatre outside of its linguistic and geographical boundaries in a contemporary, globalized world. Lina has also assisted with symposia and film festival on Latin America and has been pivotal in transforming the Language House Multipurpose Room into a multi-cultural photography exhibit. Off campus, Lina has worked with the organizers in Langley Park on artistic projects to promote local participation in broader initiatives. Through the array of activities and experiences that Lina has pursued, she has sought to promote various viewpoints and schools of thought and has become a real ambassador of Hispanic and Latino culture in the university community and beyond.

Alexander Clayborne, Undergraduate student in the Departments of Classics and English 

Alexander J. Clayborne, or AJ to his friends, is a Classics/English double major. In his time at UMD he has helped to form the Classics Club, an academic club for the promotion of Ancient Greek and Roman culture on Campus. During his time as Consul of the club he has personally operated two poetry contests, which aim to encourage modern student-poets to place their work in conversation with the ancients. When he is not helping to promote the Classics on campus, AJ works at Scriptsmith, a small media production company, helping to create training videos for various federal agencies such as FEMA and the FAA. His favorite pastime however, is practicing kung fu at the U.S. Jow Ga Martial Arts Academy. As a representative of the Academy, AJ has won several medals at local tournaments, and has also participated in the D.C. Chinese New Year Parade. Next semester AJ plans to continue his education at Harvard Law School.

ABOUT THE JAMES F. HARRIS ARTS AND HUMANITIES VISIONARY SCHOLARSHIP:

In honor of Dr. James F. Harris, former Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, this endowed scholarship has been established in recognition of his visionary leadership. The students awarded have a GPA of 3.6 or higher and demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and interest in activities that exemplify key principles of an arts and humanities education.