Fund for Multimedia Documentation of Engaged Learning

The 2017 application period is now over. Take a look at the awardees’ project descriptions below and stay tuned for future opportunities!

DEED (Development through Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Design) Research Lab.  DEED, founded in 2008, applies humanitarian design methods and models to foster more sustainable ways to support artisans globally. Through international study programs in Guatemala and Colombia, strategic institutional partnerships, and academic research, faculty and students in the DEED Lab work with artisans to increase their income-generating opportunities and also to challenge companies who buy products in the artisan sector to become truly, “fair.”  After working for a decade, DEED has developed tested principles of horizontal pedagogy which it will be documenting for the Collaboratory Digital Platform. Inspired by the writings of Paulo Freire and John Dewey, the DEED team has developed an approach to socially- engaged learning that harnesses local knowledge and creates highly reciprocal learning contexts. Current faculty collaborators include Fabiola Berdiel, PhD Student, Milano School for International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy; Pascale Gatzen, formerly Associate Professor of Fashion, Parsons School of Design and Cynthia Lawson, Associate Professor of Integrated Design, Parsons School of Design.

Healed People, Heal People: Institute for Transformative Mentoring is a new program at The New School’s Center for New York City Affairs. The Institute for Transformative Mentoring (ITM) is a dynamic new training program focused on the development of Credible Messengers (formerly incarcerated men and women) working in the social services fields throughout New York City. These mentors help young people navigate community violence and avoid the criminal justice system. Shifting communities from punishment models to restorative practices and other healing models is critical for the transformation needed in marginalized communities. Sajjadur Rahman, an expert in Clinical and Community Psychology, is the ITM Program Director.  Organizational partners include the Good Shepherd Services, Osborne Association, Children’s Village, and LifeCamp, Inc.

Incarceration: A Podcast for Change will preserve, re-frame, and disseminate audio content from the States of Incarceration initiative developed by the Humanities Action Lab in 2015-16. Interviews, field recordings, performance elements, and public panels and debates will be shaped as compelling narratives in three pilot podcast episodes, bringing the work of students and institutional partners to a national audience. Collaborators include: Sarah Montague, an Assistant Part-time Professor at the Eugene Lang College at The New School and an award-winning producer in public radio; Liz Sevcenko, Director of the Humanities Action Lab; and Assistant Professor Tanya Kalmanovich, College of Performing Arts at The New School, who is a musician and ethnomusicologist.

Mentoring through Making: Designing with Refugee and Immigrant Youth is a collaborative seminar and studio project through which students will use critical thinking and reflective practice to develop mentoring skills and engage with a refugee-serving organization. Students will document their volunteer experiences through a digital media project. Collaborators include Jessica Walker, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, Art, Media, Technology at Parsons School of Design and Bernadette Ludwig, Part-time Lecturer in Global Studies and sociologist at Eugene Lang College at The New School. The project’s organizational partner is Masa NYC, an organization that partners with Mexican and Latino children, youth, and families in the South Bronx to develop strong learners and leaders who fully participate in and contribute to the larger community.

REPLAY Sound the Mound is a course that addresses complex issues of climate, waste management, landfill reclamation, cellular technology, public art, parks and the visualization and sonification of data. Collaborators include: John Roach, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, School of Design Strategies, Parsons School of Design; Andrew Shea, Assistant Professor of Integrated Design, School of Design Strategies, Parsons School of Design: Aaron Hill, Assistant Professor of Data Visualization, School of Art, Media and Technology, Parsons School of Design; and Ben Rubin, Director of the Center for Data Arts, Parsons School of Design. The project organizational partners are Freshkills Park and Arable Labs.

Visualizing Pipeline Impacts will support the multi-media documentation and public dissemination of two public scholarship projects that mobilize community-based action against gas pipeline impacts within the Tri-State area. Collaborators include Jess Irish, Assistant Professor of Design and Technology, School of Art, Media & Technology, Parsons School of Design, and Stephen Metts, Part-time Assistant Professor, Milano School for International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy. The project organizational partner is Delaware Riverkeeper Network

WriteOn NYC is a recent New School initiative undertaken by the Schools of Public Engagement Creative Writing Program in partnership with George Jackson Academy, in which MFA candidates teach creative writing workshops to middle school boys whose families are lower-income. WriteOn NYC also provides graduates of the Creative Writing Program hands-on experience in producing and running a nonprofit initiative in the role of advisory board members. Collaborators include: Helen Schulman, Professor of Writing and Fiction Chair, Creative Writing Program, Schools of Public Engagement (SPE) at The New School; Alison Osworth, Part-Time Faculty, Creative Writing, SPE; and Phineas Lambert, MFA Creative Writing ’16 from the Creative Writing Program at SPE.

The Fund for Multimedia Documentation of Engaged Learning (The Fund)  provides support to The New School community to document projects that involve socially engaged learning and public scholarship. The Fund’s main goal is to enhance documentation practices by faculty and students engaged in projects that address real world issues and collaborate with external partners and communities.

The Fund for Multimedia Documentation of Engaged Learning is the result of a partnership between the Schools of Public Engagement and the Provost’s Office, and it will be managed through The New School’s Collaboratory.

Resources

Download a pdf with the call for proposals and an appendix including referential rates for project budgets here.

Download a preview of the application form here.

Questions?

Please email us at collaboratory@newschool.edu with any questions or comments.