June

University of Michigan staffer donates $100K for new campus art piece
To commemorate 200 years of staff excellence at the University of Michigan, President Mark Schlissel announced a public art piece is scheduled to be installed on campus later this year. “We wanted to commemorate the amazing work of the past, but also recognize that our future goals through Michigan’s third century relies on the dedication, intellect and creativity of our dedicated staff,” he said.
Read more: MLive

Pulitzer Prize-winning civil rights historian to speak at Lawrence Public Library
U-M professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Heather Ann Thompson recently visited Lawrence, Kansas to speak about her book “Blood in the water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy.”
Read more: The University Daily Kansan

What Your Accompanist Wishes You Knew
Christian Matijas-Mecca, professor at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, teaches musicians how to play for ballet, modern and contemporary dance. He put together a list of things for dancers to keep in mind.
Read more: Dance Magazine

20 Years of L.G.B.T.Q. Lit: A Timeline
U-M professor of history and sexuality theory David Halperin’s book “How to be gay” was recently featured in a list of works that have shaped the L.G.B.T.Q. literary genre over the last two decades. The book is based on a class Halperin taught, in which he explored how gay men develop “a conscious identity, a common culture, a particular outlook on the world, a shared sense of self.”
Read more: The New York Times

Miss Michigan Wants To Use Her Platform To Support The Arts In Areas Such As Washtenaw County
Miss Michigan Heather Kendrick says her platform is keeping art in education while advocating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math programs, also known as STEAM. The U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance graduate plans to work with the Ann Arbor Art Center to advance her platform.
Read more: WEMU 89.1

U-M professor’s high-tech art part of Haworth’s NeoCon showroom
U-M Stamps School of Art & Design professor Osman Kahn created two interactive pieces that are currently on display in Haworth’s showroom in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. The artwork highlighted the ideas behind the Holland company’s latest office furniture and products.
Read more: MLive

O say did you see the Ford Library’s “Banner Moments: The National Anthem in American Life”?
“O say can you see” takes on a whole new meaning at the Gerald R. Ford Library’s Banner Moments: The National Anthem in American Life. The exhibit, curated and organized by U-M musicologist Mark Clague, traces the 200-year history of America’s national anthem.
Read more: Pulp

University of Michigan alums win big at 71st Tony Awards
Gavin Creel (Musical Theatre ’98) dedicated his award to the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance; Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Musical Theatre ’06) added a Tony (or 6) to their monumental 2017 awards season run; and James Earl Jones (BFA ’55) accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Read more: MLive

Michigan is the common thread
From Nobel Prize winners and astronauts to noted actors and athletes, U-M alumni have made an impact on the world. They come from different countries and different cultures; they studied different subjects and entered different professions. But all have one thing in common: The University of Michigan.
Read more: Detroit Free Press

UM program lets teens explore architecture field
ArcPrep, a program headed by the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, allows teens to explore the architecture field. Since its launch in 2015, more than 170 students have completed ArcPrep, which works to boost diversity in the field.
Read more: The Detroit News

Dear Evan Hansen Tony winners Benj Pasek & Justin Paul: ‘This is the best feeling in the world’
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Musical Theatre ’06) had a big night at the Tony Awards. Their original musical, “Dear Evan Hansen,” won in six categories, including Best Musical, Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Orchestrations.
Read more: Broadway.com

Speeches From Cynthia Nixon and Others at the Tony Awards
When Gavin Creel (Musical Theatre ’98) won Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Cornelius Hackl in “Hello, Dolly!,” he dedicated his award to the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance’s Musical Theatre department. “My education there as a young person changed my life forever.”
Read more: The New York Times

What’s hidden behind the walls of America’s prisons
Professor of History and Afroamerican and African Studies Heather Ann Thompson exams the current state of America’s criminal justice system. “Prisons are built to be out of sight and are, thus, out of mind. Somehow, even though these institutions contain human beings, including children, and even though we are the ones who cough up the billion of dollars that it costs to run them, we are expected simply to trust that they are operated humanely and that they in fact make our society safer,” says Thompson.
Read more: The Conversation

How Abandoned Baby Bottles Will Outlast Trump’s Wall
U-M anthropologist and professor Jason De León directs the Undocumented Migration Project, an archaeological study aimed at preserving and analyzing the migrant experience. “People say, ‘It’s just child molesters and atomic bombs coming across the border.’ Well, you know what, that’s not what I’m finding out here, and that’s not who I’m talking to who’s coming through the desert,” says De León.
Read more: Bustle

May

US Museum Returns Ancient Egyptian Stele Missing Since WWII
An ancient artifact lost in the chaos of World War II is being returned to the original owner after being rediscovered in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology by Dutch Egyptologist Nico Staring.
Read more: The New York Times

Place-Based Education Empowers Students to Make Change
Students from the Brightmoor Maker-Space in Detroit collaborated with the U-M Stamps School of Art & Design and the Ross School of Business to create Water Cycler trikes. The Brightmoor Maker-Space is an after school and summer program that focuses on entrepreneurship, sustainability and social justice.
Read more: Getting Smart

The song that had one British politician wishing for the Sex Pistols’ ‘sudden death’
Karen Fournier, associate professor of music theory at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, discusses why the famous punk rock anti-anthem “God Save the Queen” was greeted with widespread, visceral condemnation.
Read more: The Conversation

University of Michigan buildings get ‘tattooed’ for new art exhibit
U-M Stamps School of Art & Design Professor Jim Cogswell created an ambitious mural, ‘Cosmogonic Tattoos,’ on the glass windows of the U-M Museum of Art and the Kelsey Museum of Archeology. The mural features reassembled fragments from a selection of artworks in the collections at both museums. “I’m using objects from one museum and combining them with objects from another museum,” Cogswell said. “That’s a way of talking about the two different institutions but also the different origins between archeology and art. It also creates a story about dialogue transmission across time and space between these two institutions.”
Read more: MLive

Amateur treasure hunters recover the lost things we hold dear
“Our brains essentially have two parts — the part for people and the part for everything else. When we treat an object like a person, neurologically speaking, we shouldn’t be doing that … (but) in a literal sense, it becomes a part of who you are,” said Aaron Ahuvia, professor at the Stamps School of Art & Design and professor of management studies at UM-Dearborn.
Read more: CBC News

Interview | Marialaura Ghidini and Rebekah Modrak.
Arshake recently published a two-part interview with U-M Stamps School of Art & Design Associate Professor Rebekah Modrak and her collaborative partner Marialaura Ghidini. The conversation between them and Arshake Editiorial Director Elena Giulia Rossi explored the nature of the curatorial project #exstrange and its relationship with the art market, the contemporary art system, the concept of site-specificity on eBay, the economics of the auctions, and exchanges between artists and bidders.
Read more: Arshake

Jonathan Massey named dean of University of Michigan Architecture and Urban Planning
Jonathan Massey, dean of architecture and professor at California College of the Arts, has been named the next dean of the U-M Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. “Taubman College has excelled by taking Detroit, the Great Lakes region and other sites around the globe as frameworks for research on the challenges and opportunities posed by processes of modernization. I am excited to work with U-M students, faculty and staff to generate architecture and planning strategies that expand economic opportunity, increase equitable access to resources, design better health and create the operating system for smart cities,” Massey said.
Read more: The Architect’s Newspaper

This Graphic Shows Why President Trump’s Border Wall Won’t Stop Immigrants From Crossing
“As soon as security is increased (in one place), it’s the balloon effect — you grab one area and the flow goes to another area,” said Jason De León, assistant professor of anthropology, who believes that a wall, like the fences that are in place now, won’t deter immigrants already risking their lives to cross the border.
Read more: Time

Michigan Bookmark: In “States of Motion,” small town residents defend a world that’s vanishing
Author Gloria Whelan reviewed the book “States of Motion” by Laura Thomas, head of the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan’s Residential College. “
Read more: Michigan Radio

Cincinnati Symphony’s European tour to include stops in U.K., France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain
The U-M Gershwin edition of ‘An American in Paris’ will be premiered on September 9th by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The edition was prepared by musicology professor and head of the U-M Gershwin Initiative Mark Clague.
Read more: Cincinnati.com

You’re going where? Ann Arbor
The U-M Nichols Arboretum and the U-M Museum of Art were highlighted in this Ann Arbor travel feature.
Read more: The Washington Post

Detroit has a thriving arts community, but no official way to encourage its growth
Anya Sirota, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Taubman School of Architecture, spoke with StateSide about the the art community in Detroit. Sirota hopes Detroit policies could be changed to promote the arts.
Read more: Michigan Radio

A John Lennon Tribute for a Trump World at Kennedy Center Gala
U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance Dean Aaron Dworkin and his wife Afa were honored on May 8th with a Kennedy Center Award for the Human Spirit. The award recognizes leaders who present and produce the arts in their communities, and deepen the effect of the arts and arts education in a demonstrated, transformational way at the local, state, or national level.
Read more: Bloomberg

You twist. You turn. You move. (And you’re just the viewer.)
U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumna Lily Baldwin is creating a virtual-reality film titled ‘Through You.’ “Virtual reality can puncture what we think is real and return us to our body in a way that flatty cinema can’t,” Baldwin said in a recent interview. “It makes you feel alive, wakes you up. And it somehow makes you reckon with your mortality.”
Read more: The New York Times

How the University of Michigan’s Department of Musical Theatre Trains the next wave of Broadway stars
Vincent Cardinal, the new department chair at U-M’s Department of Musical Theatre, and Mark Madama, associate professor of musical theater, spoke about they ways in which the U-M Department of Musical Theatre is training the next wave of Broadway stars.
Read more: Backstage

Man who made Michigan must-stop for classical music tours leaves legacy of inclusion
Ken Fischer, president of the U-M’s University Musical Society (UMS) made Michigan a must-stop for classical musical tours. Fischer’s management style and ability to help people connect to each other will leave a legacy of inclusion at UMS. “His generosity and energy in connecting people with no thought for his own gain — always focused on how others will benefit — is the mark of a wise and visionary leader,” said Russell Willis Taylor, former president and CEO of the National Arts Strategies.
Read more: MLive

200 years of Detroit-University of Michigan bonds celebrated in Ann Arbor
Stamps School of Art & Design professor Nick Tobier commented on the relationship between the University of Michigan and the city of Detroit. “The relationships are continually complex,” Tobier said. “Much of that has to do with the legacy of the University of Michigan moving from the city out to Ann Arbor, and our regional relationships between cities and the areas that surround them. There are unanswered questions about race and class and how we contend with our inner cities and our suburbs and how we think of these things regionally, as well as locally.”
Read more: MLive

Russian Renaissance wins University of Michigan’s second M-Prize
The quartet of Russian Renaissance captivated the audience and jury on Thursday, May 4, inside Hill Auditorium to capture the second M-Prize chamber music competition. Russian Renaissance competed for the $100,000 grand prize in the Senior Open Category, along with Avido Duo and The Living Earth Show, who took home $8,000 and $5,000, respectively.
Read more: MLive

Why emojis – 👫🍣💍🎭 – might be your next password
Assistant Professor of Information Florian Schaub worked with a team of researchers to develop EmojiAuth, an emoji-based login application for Android smartphones, to test if emoji-based mobile authentication is practical and enjoyable.
Read more: The Conversation

A massive prize, unusual approach for U-M’s chamber music competition
Comments by Matt Albert, assistant professor of music, were featured in a story about this week’s M-Prize, the chamber music competition organized by the School of Music, Theatre & Dance that pays out a top prize of $100,000.
Read more: Detroit Free Press

April

How to preserve those dusty photos and VHS tapes in your basement, and why it matters
Shannon Zachary, head of the Department of Preservation and Conservation at the U-M Library, discussed the best ways to preserve “historical treasures,” both old papers and pictures and newer digital photos, videos and other recordings.
Read more: Michigan Radio

Top 10 Under 10: Top 10 Musical Theatre Programs
In a Top 10 ranking of musical theater programs based on successful alumni within the last 10 years since graduation, The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance takes first place. “The program produces successful performers every year from their “triple-threat” conservatory-style program situated within the historical School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, which was founded in 1880 at one of the top public universities in America.”
Read more: BuzzFeed

Scholars talk writing: Ruth Behar
“The problem with scholarly writing is that we need to prove we are working hard in order to maintain our status in the academic hierarchy, and the usual way to do that is by writing complex, convoluted prose that only an elite group can read. … And yet, at the same time, there is a growing movement among academics who seek to write more accessibly, more vividly, more clearly,” said Ruth Behar, professor of anthropology.
Read more: The Chronicle of Higher Education

Orson Welles’s diaries and scripts head to archive
“It’s sort of the missing piece of the Welles puzzle, it documents a period people haven’t had the opportunity to see original material from,” said Philip Hallman, curator of the Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers collections at the U-M Library, on the new acquisition of unpublished scripts from Orson Welles’ many incomplete projects from the 1950s and ’60s.
Read more: The New York Times

All your favorite cartoon characters are black
Is Bugs Bunny black? Lisa Nakamura, a professor at the University of Michigan whose work focuses on race and how it’s portrayed online, comments on the concept of racializing cartoons.
Read more: VICE

University of Michigan unveils 1,500 pound Rubik’s Cube
University of Michigan mechanical engineering students have made one of the most popular puzzle games much larger. Seven former and current students unveiled a 1,500-pound Rubik’s Cube during a ceremony Thursday inside the G.G. Brown engineering building on the Ann Arbor campus. The massive, mostly aluminum structure is meant to be played by students and others on campus.
Read more: The Washington Post

David Chung interviewed for PBS program
Stamps Professor David Chung was interviewed for a segment on Asian American Life, a Emmy-nominated magazine show focusing on the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Chung discussed the recent immigration of Soviet Koreans to the U.S. and their history in relation to his documentary feature film, “Koryo Saram”.
Read more: CUNY TV

Engaging offer: Some museums ditching membership fees
The University of Michigan Museum of Art has joined a small but growing group of art institutions that have eliminated paid membership fees. “If someone walked through the museum, had a great time and then left without visiting the store, without signing up for our newsletter, without joining, they may never hear from us again,” said Justin Reash, UMMA’s assistant director of development, annual giving, and events. “This [move] cements and produces a relationship, free of charge, for us to communicate to them, and hopefully they reciprocate by coming back to the museum and becoming an annual donor.”
Read more: The Toledo Blade

Chinese dance history on show in U.S., tells different collection story
A story about U-M’s Chinese dance exhibition and collection features Emily Wilcox, assistant professor of Asian languages and cultures; Liangyu Fu, associate librarian at the Asia Library; and Xiaobing Tang, professor of Asian languages and cultures and comparative literature.
Read more: New China

Unexpected findings: 100 years of cultural exchange
In 2016, History of Art graduate student Allison Martino undertook a research trip to London to work on a dissertation-related project with the UK National Archives. In this blog post, she describes how her research revealed “the potential of the material to tell an important history about the UK textile trade in Africa.” Click on the link below to read the entire post.
Read more: The National Archives

Jason De León Dares You to Look Away From the Items Border Crossers Leave Behind
Professor Jason De León has been taking his students into the Sonoran as part of the Undocumented Migration Project, an anthropological study documenting the lives and legacies of those who cross from Latin America to the U.S. Working with U-M curator Amanda Krugliak and artist Richard Barnes, De León has translated this data into the sobering new exhibition “State of Exception/Estado de Excepción” at the Parsons School of Design.
Read more: The Village Voice

U-M professor’s book on Attica uprising wins Pulitzer Prize
Professor and historian Heather Ann Thompson‘s book “Blood in the the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy” has won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for history. Thompson spent more than a decade researching the 1971 prison uprising in upstate New York in which armed troopers and corrections officers killed 39 men — hostages as well as prisoners — and severely wounded more than 100 others during a four-day showdown inside Attica.
Read more: New York Times

University of Michigan’s star alums share stage during True Blue!
“True Blue! A Tribute to Michigan” brought a number of U-M alumni onto one stage for a multimedia presentation on Saturday, April 8 inside Hill Auditorium to tell the story of UM as part of its UMich200 Spring Festival. Jim Harbaugh, Sanjay Gupta, Darren Criss, Jeffrey Seller and Cecilia Munoz were among a laundry list of distinguished alumni participating in the UM bicentennial event.
Read more: MLive

At the University of Michigan, confronting controversy to move forward
“Stumbling Blocks” is an intriguing, pop-up exhibition in seven parts — organized by professor Martha S. Jones— that invites passers-by to consider “difficult moments” in the university’s history as it celebrates its bicentennial. “Understanding the stumbling blocks of the past is an opportunity to pave a better future, if we have the courage to confront them,” said Jones.
Read more: Detroit Free Press

Zany art event called FestiFools ready to buzz through Ann Arbor
FestiFools, created by U-M art professor Mark Tucker, is an annual community public art spectacle in which colorful, bizarre, human-powered papier-mache puppets parade about downtown Ann Arbor. The theme for this year’s festival is “WishFOOL Thinking.”
Read more: MLive

An Uncommon Education: Celebrating 200 Years of the University of Michigan
Episode 3 of the short-form documentary series “An Uncommon Education: Celebrating 200 Years of the University of Michigan” explores U-M’s great musical legacy. A new vignette will air every month, culminating in the airing of a broadcast special in December 2017.
Read more: Detroit Public TV