Funded Projects For Academic Year 2016-2017

BRIDGING THE GAP: THE PUBLIC VOICE IN ADAPTATION PLANNING

Daniel Blaeuer, Ph.D., Communication Studies (Principal Investigator)

Alice Gray, Ph.D., Architecture & Tiffany Troller, Ph.D., Biological Sciences

Bridging the Gap between science and practice: The public voice in adaptation planning is an experimental pilot project testing strategies to encourage meaningful public deliberation on local adaptation strategies and adaptation pathways for climate change and sea level rise for South Florida.  The researchers will design a series of public forums that provides citizens the opportunity to discuss the value tensions in community adaptation to sea level rise and environmental change.  The researchers will also pilot methods to assess the efficacy of these forums at promoting public argument and disagreements.

MAPPING FIU’s INTERCULTURAL CLIMATE

Maria Elena Villar, Ph.D., Advertising & Public Relations(Principal Investigator)

María Mercedes Vigón, Ph.D., Journalism & María Ines Marino, Ed.D., CommunicationArts

Recent incidents on college campuses have brought to light the need for a more profound understanding of cultural identity and intercultural communication to ensure equity in access and opportunity in higher education. The purpose of this study is to research intercultural behaviors and differences among culturally diverse college students and examine how these differences enhance or interfere with educational opportunities. This will be achieved by identifying facilitators and barriers to cultural competence among college students through focus groups and in-depth interviews with
students and faculty in Miami’s public research university, FIU. The project will integrate research appro
ches from journalism, social sciences and humanities to examine the issue from diverse research angles. Complementary activities will include social media content analysis, filming for a documentary, and dissemination of the results to students, media, researchers and educators. The research will yield scholarly presentations and publications, a 1-minute documentary video, and pilot data for grant proposals to continue the project.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD: A TWO-DAY SYMPOSIUM ON DRAWING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Michael Naming, MFA, Fine Arts (Principal Investigator)

Nick Gelpi, MSAAD, Architecture & Gwen Davies, Ph.D., Archaeology

This project will bring an emerging international cross-disciplinary dialogue on drawing to South Florida. Using our collective expertise and academic networks, our team will invite leading voices on drawing practice and research to FIU for a two-day symposium in the Fall of 2016 called Back to the Drawing Board. The symposium will include a keynote lecture, panel discussions, performances, and hands-on drawing workshops that address drawing practice from a multiplicity of disciplines. Symposium proceedings will be published online, shared widely, and become a public resource that highlights contemporary drawing practice both within and outside of the art world. The project will cultivate new research collaborations and begin to position FIU as a preeminent center of drawing practice and scholarship. Following the symposium, we will leverage the new knowledge and new relationships formed to organize a larger scale international conference and drawing exhibition in 2018.

EYES ON THE RISE: CITIZEN STORIES, SCIENCE, AND EXPRESSION

Robert E. Gutsche, Ph.D., Mass Communications (Principal Investigator)

Marta Canaves, Phillip M. Church,Susan Jacobson, Kate MacMillin, Marilyis Nepomechie, Ebru Ozer, David Rifkind, Roberto Rovira & Maria Elena Villar

Through collaborative, interdisciplinary work on sea level rise in South Florida, this project develops communication models, engagement projects, scholarship, and pedagogy that interconnect sea level rise and changes to quality of life. The 11 team members across five departments will now amplify and sustain current projects, including the interactive Sea Level Rise Toolkit (eyesontherise.org/app). Faculty involved in this project come from the Departments of Journalism and Broadcasting, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Environmental + Urban Design, Theatre, and Advertising and Public Relations. As the participating faculty members continue to receive international recognition for their work related to rising seas, this new collaboration will support innovative and expressive projects that engage South Florida students and communities to communicate insights and solutions through robust research in science, art, journalism, and design.