New York University

The Gallatin Newington-Cropsey Foundation Fellowship Program helps select graduate students in Gallatin's Interdisciplinary Arts Program advance toward the completion of their master's thesis projects by giving them special opportunities to pursue their research and writing. Fellows attend the Academy of Art at the Newington-Cropsey Foundation in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, to utilize the research library, grounds, and facilities; participate in seminars throughout the year; and take an annual research trip to Washington, D.C.

Fellows are chosen from graduate students whose concentrations are in the areas of the performing arts, the creative arts, Shakespearean studies, the classics, and art history. Meet the 2008-2009 Newington-Cropsey fellows:

Charles Q. Drexler is completing his master's thesis on the subject of film authorship. During his tenure at NYU, Drexler directed a performance piece from the play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds for the Gallatin Arts Festival and developed several short film projects. Prior to entering NYU, Drexler worked as a professional actor, with credits including the Williamstown Theatre Festival, SLANT Theater Project, and Chesapeake Shakespeare Company; he also produced for the theater, founding the New Lions Theater Company. Drexler expects to complete his M.A. studies at Gallatin in the fall of 2009.

Nancy Kujawinski is a singer/songwriter who has performed in Haiti, Israel, France, and throughout Africa. Originally from Alabama, she moved to New York from Paris, France, more than two years ago. As a cultural ambassador for the U.S. State Department, Kujawinski has toured African countries using songwriting workshops to discuss difficult topics and to celebrate life through music. With an undergraduate degree in French and elementary education, she has taught elementary school in Haiti, English in France, and songwriting in Harlem. Her thesis work focuses on the use of songwriting, music improvisation, and music composition in the elementary grades. Kujawinski is working with a children's yoga organization, Little Flower Yoga, to create a children's book and CD project that will explore the use of music and story to expand cultural awareness and to plant seeds of inspiration, curiosity, and respect for diversity in young children.

Janice Liao's Gallatin concentration is in history, art history, and Asian subaltern studies. Through the influences of Gallatin professors such as Clyde Taylor, Judith Sloan, Antonio Rutigliano, Greg Wyatt, and Jack Tchen, she is attempting to bridge the study of Western classical traditions with Eastern culture and identity. Exploring methods of decolonization, she aims to peel away Western ascription and mystification imposed on Asians, revealing the true essence of “Asianess.” To enhance her research, Liao is examining all sorts of art— ranging from kitsch to esteemed antiques—as valuable primary sources in the translation of beliefs to aesthetic values. As an Asian woman who has taken time to appreciate the true roots of her identity, she hopes that her discoveries will provide a pathway for others in the Asian community to embrace themselves as they are. Liao is also a visual art editor for The Gallatin Review and senator for the NYU History Club.

Marina Libel is a performance maker, artist, and scholar originally from Porto Alegre, Brazil. She holds a B.A. in theater/dance and mathematics from Amherst College and is currently pursuing her master's degree at Gallatin with a concentration in performance studies. Her choreography and writing have been presented at such venues as Williamsburg Arts neXus, Dance New Amsterdam, Galapagos Art Space, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. As an actor, dancer, and collaborator, she has performed at The Chocolate Factory, HERE Arts Center, The Flea Theater, Dixon Place, Judson Memorial Church, The Public Theater, and P.S. 122.

Elizabeth Mirarchi is pursuing her master's studies in performance composition with a focus on political comedy. At NYU, she has studied performance composition with Lenora Champagne, Anna Deavere Smith, and Karen Finley. As an actor with Hipgnosis Theatre Company, Mirarchi appeared most recently in The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Bleecker Street Theatre and in Macbeth at the Clemente Soto Velez Center. She also works regularly with the College and Community Fellowship's (CCF) Theatre for Social Change Group at the CUNY Graduate Center. CCF is a program that provides support to previously incarcerated college and graduate students. Mirarchi holds a B.A. from Smith College, where she studied theatre and Italian language and literature. She has worked for several years as a teaching artist in New York City schools.

Joi M. Sears is focusing her Gallatin graduate studies on black theatre and social change. She is interested in discovering the ways in which theatre can be used as a vehicle for social change and as a tool for community development. Her specialization is in Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed technique and she has studied with Boal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As an actress, Sears has performed in productions of Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade and Suzan Lori-Parks's 365 Days/365 Plays with the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and she has trained with Alvin Ailey and the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She has also studied with playwright and NYU professor Anna Deavere Smith, who inspired her to realize the power of community engagement. Sears has been fundamentally changed by her work in this field and hopes to inspire the same sentiment in others.

In the fall semester the fellows travelled to Washington, D.C., guided by Gallatin professor Laurin Raiken and part-time faculty member Antonio Rutigliano, to visit major museums and research libraries such as the Folger Shakespeare Library. Throughout the 2008-2009 academic year, these students have enjoyed special seminars coordinated by Rutigliano, Raiken, and Gallatin professor Michael Dinwiddie. This spring they will learn from guest speaker and performance artist Karen Finley in their fourth symposium.