News
TWO WHEATON PROFESSORS RECEIVE WHITING FELLOWSHIPS
Two professors in Wheaton's Art and Art History Department have won Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation fellowships for off-campus study. Associate Professor of Art Evelyn Lane's Whiting Fellowship will take her to Italy, France and Baltimore, where she will pursue research on the architecture, sculpture and stained glass in medieval buildings. Assistant Professor of Art History Allison Levy will use her Whiting award to travel to Florence, where she will study the early development of tomb sculpture. The research will enhance her manuscript, Grave Sites: Memorial Culture and Monumental Absence in Early Modern Florence, an interdisciplinary text on commemorative practice and monument-making in early modern Italy. Levy also won an American Association of University Women Fellowship for the next academic year. Of the 12 recipients, she is the only art historian.
ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION GRANTS $200,000 AWARD FOR CURRICULUM RESEARCH
Wheaton has received a $200,000 award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to promote faculty research in support of curricular evolution. The Mellon grant endorses the pursuit of faculty research within and on the borders of their respective disciplines that will, in turn, generate exciting new intellectual directions to feed back into the curriculum. This initiative stems from the results of the Wheaton Curriculum, introduced in 2003, which capitalizes on the cross-fertilization of interdisciplinary and multicultural approaches to learning. The grant will also help sponsor collaborative workshops for faculty and consultants, and provide funds to engage in assessment activities.
RENOVATION OF PAPPAS FITNESS CENTER UNDERWRITTEN BY THE THOMAS A. PAPPAS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
The Thomas Anthony Pappas Charitable Foundation awarded a grant of $202,000 to underwrite the total renovation of the Thomas Anthony Pappas Fitness Center into a modern fitness facility. The renovation includes new flooring, repainting, a sound and vision system, and the installation of state-of-the-art strength, conditioning and aerobic fitness equipment. With major advances in technology, fitness equipment has become more streamlined and multi-functional to provide more efficient, user-friendly workouts.
WHEATON TO EXPLORE USES OF QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM WITH SUPPORT FROM THE TEAGLE FOUNDATION
Wheaton has won a grant of $99,500 from the Teagle Foundation to expand the reach of quantitative analysis (QA) in the college's multidisciplinary curriculum. A Wheaton working group will develop a variety of initiatives to encourage faculty members to incorporate new quantitative dimensions into their teaching and help students strengthen their QA skills and understanding.
GEORGE I. ALDEN TRUST AWARDS WHEATON $150,000 GRANT FOR KNAPTON HALL TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENT
A grant in the amount of $150,000 from the George I. Alden Trust will underwrite the transformation of two rooms in Knapton Hall from traditional classrooms into flexible, technologically-enhanced learning spaces. Equipping a classroom and the main lecture hall with instructional technology and modular furniture to enable more flexible configurations will promote new levels of sophistication in using a range of complex information tools and resources. The new smart classrooms will empower faculty to access ever-evolving technology-based information resources and to create adaptable learning spaces that are conducive to a range of teaching scenarios.
SHELBY CULLOM DAVIS FOUNDATION AWARDS WHEATON $75,000 GRANT
The Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation provided a grant of $75,000 for the following programs: $40,000 is directed to provide expendable operating support for Wheaton's Center for Global Education. The Center administers a wide range of international programming both on- and off-campus. It provides support for the faculty to internationalize the curriculum; organizes on-campus lectures and events of international scope; administers semester, academic-year, and short-term study abroad programs; and advises international students enrolled at Wheaton. The balance of $35,000 augments the endowment of the Davis International Fellows Fund that provides support for stipends and travel expenses for overseas internships and research projects.
ASIAN ART AT WHEATON ATTRACTS CARPENTER FOUNDATION SUPPORT
The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation has made a grant of $25,000 to help underwrite the costs of conserving 57 Chinese and Japanese woodblock prints from the 17th to the 20th centuries that are an important component of Wheaton's permanent collection. Works by most of the significant Japanese woodblock print designers of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Hiroshige, Hokusai, Kiyonaga, Shunsho, Utamaro, and Eishi are represented in the collection. The Chinese prints provide examples of East Asian motifs and genres of great importance to the development of woodblock prints in Japan. The prints are an indispensable teaching tool and students examine and sketch the works as well as study print techniques, embossing, artists' signatures and seals, and thematic and stylistic elements for a broader understanding of East Asian history and culture.
WHEATON RECEIVES GRANT FROM THE KEEFE FAMILY FOUNDATION TO SUPPORT OF KEEFE HALL
The Keefe Family Foundation awarded a grant of $10,000 in support of maintenance of and improvements to Keefe Hall. Keefe Hall opened in fall, 1998 and it has eleven suites and 37 rooms. Keefe Hall is one of Wheaton's theme houses and it is dedicated to the theme "Learning Communities." This theme is explored as students engage in discussions and programs that enhance the environment of learning, both in and outside the classroom. Students living in Keefe Hall pursue activities that foster an enriched appreciation of the college experience, including health, spirituality, athletics, meditation, academic integrity, and individual and group responsibility.