Whiting fellowships for 2 VMA faculty

Two Visual and Media Arts Department faculty members have been awarded fellowships from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, which is based in New York City.

Associate Professor Jean Stawarz, who teaches screenwriting courses, said the fellowship will allow her to travel to England and Italy to conduct essential research and development for a new screenplay project, The Lost Messiah, a fictionalized account of a violin made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari in 1716, during what is known as his Golden Period.

The other faculty member receiving the fellowship is Associate Professor Kathryn Ramey, a filmmaker and anthropologist. The fellowship will help fund a trip to Puerto Rico, where Ramey will conduct research and film principal photography for Pluto, a feature-length documentary that will be a cinematic essay that examines the stories of the demoted planet of Pluto, the disenfranchised U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, and the disappearance of an Army general.

Ramey says she will incorporate her findings in Puerto Rico into classroom examples for the Documenting Visual Culture course.