SGS to present the Distinguished Creative Exhibition today

It’s Reading and Review Day at the University of North Dakota, which means it is also the day that the School of Graduate Studies recognizes the outstanding research and scholarship of graduates in the categories of Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Exhibition.

Our 2013 Distinguished Creative Exhibition Award will be presented to Patrick Awotwe, MFA today at 10am in the East Asia Room of the Chester Fritz Library. A Ghanaian native, Patrick’s exhibition, Adinkra the Messenger, reflected aspects of his own cultural heritage through the use of metals and fibers in Jewelry design. He used Ghanaian traditional symbols to convey social, political, religious and historical issues that have impacted his country.

Read our Grad Story with Patrick here, and read more about the awards here.

Others recognized today, though unable to be present, are Eric Netterlund (Master of Arts in Communication) and John Degenstein (MS Chemical Engineering). Both are now pursuing PhD programs at University of Colorado and Purdue University respectively. Advisors Dr Timothy Pasch and Dr Yun Ji will accept the awards on their behalf.

All are welcome and a reception will follow.

Four University of North Dakota graduate students recognized for distinguished contributions.

UND’s School of Graduate Studies will recognize four graduates for their research and scholarship at the annual Distinguished Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Exhibition Awards on Friday, May 3 at the Chester Fritz Library.

The culmination of a graduate degree results in a dissertation, thesis or creative project and is the student’s opportunity to synthesize the body of knowledge with which they have worked closely for several years. It may also, in the case of a dissertation, demonstrate the contribution of new knowledge to the field of study.

The School of Graduate Studies recognizes the outstanding work for students who graduated the previous academic year. Academic departments nominate their best graduates, and a committee of emeritus faculty reviews the nominations for award selection.

Ghanaian native, Patrick Awotwe, receives this year’s Creative Exhibition Award. Awotwe’s Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Adinkra the Messenger, reflected aspects of his own cultural heritage through the use of metals and fibers in Jewelry design. He used Ghanaian traditional symbols to convey social, political, religious and historical issues that have impacted his country.

The first of two Distinguished Thesis Awards is presented to John C. Degenstein who earned a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering for his thesis, Lewis Acid Co-Catalyzed Dilute Sulfuric Acid Pretreatment and Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Lignocellulosic Biomass.

Also receiving a Distinguished Thesis Award is Eric Netterlund who explored the fast changing world of social networking platforms and how fan culture can drive fundraising for non-profit organizations and political campaigns. Eric graduated with a Master of Arts in Communication.

The Distinguished Dissertation Award will be presented to Dr Blake McCann in a separate award ceremony when he visits UND in the Fall. Dr McCann received his PhD in Biology for his work on the genetic relationships of wild pigs in the United States.

The 2013 Distinguished Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Awards will be held in the East Asia Room of the Chester Fritz Library at 10am on 3 May. All are welcome to attend.

2012 DDTCE Awards

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the 2012 Recipients of the Distinguished Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Exhibition Awards. The recipients were selected from Doctoral Dissertations and Master’s Theses/Exhibitions nominated by departments and completed between June 2010 and May 2011.

The 2012 Awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 4, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. in the East Asia Room of the Chester Fritz Library and a reception will follow. All are welcome to attend.

The awards and recipients are:

Distinguished Creative Exhibition:
Five Songs of Northeastern Brazilian Folklore by Ernani Braga, Harmonized for Voice and Piano: A Performance Guide, Sérgio Anderson De Moura Miranda, MM, Department of Music

Faculty Advisory Committee: Dr Gary Towne (Chair), Dr Laurine St. Pierre
Distinguished Thesis Award:
Self-Objectification and Its Effects on Body Dissatisfaction and Cognitive Performance in Young and Older Women, Lauren Chilian, MA, Department of Psychology

Faculty Advisory Committee: Dr Ric Ferraro (Chair), Dr Joelle Ruthig, Dr Jeffrey Holm

Distinguished Dissertation Award:
Finding Your Home in a Book: Sociocultural Influences on Literacy Learning in a Rural School, Rachel Engle Waller, PhD, Department of Teaching & Learning

Faculty Advisory Committee: Dr Shelby Barrentine (Chair), Dr Anne Walker, Dr Margaret Zidon, Dr Kim Donehower-Weinstein

TGS’s Matt Anderson finds his artwork in new campus building

I was told by our new co-worker, Eric, that one of my drawings is on display in UND’s new education building. So I went to check it out.

To put things in context, I graduated with my MFA from UND in 2009. Instead of a thesis, MFA students are required to have an exhibition. Mine included six digital drawings and two animations. The department of Art and Design decided to purchase the drawing/print Adaptation to include in their permanent collection. During the last two years I was aware the department was showing my drawing in various places, but this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity and time to see it again.

After Eric told me about it, I wanted to go right away. But for some reason, I was a little nervous to go by myself, so Anna and Evan agreed to come with me. Anna’s our Receptionist, if you’ve called The Graduate School you’ve probably talked with her. Evan’s our Graduate Director of Admissions. (He thought it would be a good idea to bring the camera.) We weren’t quite sure where the drawing was, so we started on the first floor and worked our way up. As we were walking around I was humbled to think that my drawing is among so many other amazing art works. We passed Peter Kuper’s This is not a pipe…, Kim Abeles’ Pile, and many others.

On the third floor, we spotted Adaptation. What a strange feeling to see it again. I spent hundreds of hours working on that drawing. Hundreds of hours spent drawing and listening to music, audio books, or just hearing the scratching of my pen on the computer tablet. Hundreds of hours spent arguing in my head with the questions I knew would inevitably come from my peers and professors. To see the drawing again was kind of like meeting an old friend. There was something familiar yet foreign.

Matt and Anna find Matt's Adaptation on display in the new Education building

I realized that I don’t know every line of the drawing any more. I don’t see all the mistakes and I don’t see all the little hidden pieces of “creative genius”.  I just see my drawing. And in that moment I’m still learning. I remember the chair of my committee, Professor Patrick Luber, telling me I would probably contend with the ideas I leaned in graduate school my entire life. Yep. In a very positive way, I’m still reflecting and learning from my grad school days. I turned to Evan and Anna, and not meaning to sound cliché said, “I couldn’t have done this without everyone else.” But it’s not a cliché.

There is no way that I would have grown as an artist, student, and person without all of the people that made up my graduate school experience. I’m so very thankful for the opportunities that were presented to me by the community that makes up the University of North Dakota.

Aside:

I am also very grateful for the support I have received from the North Dakota Museum of Art. The day after I finished this blog I received notification from the NDMOA that they would be showing their print of Adaptation in their upcoming Nov. 29^th – January 15^th exhibition Winged Shadows: Life Among Birds.

Distinguished Research and Scholarship recognized

Each year, The Graduate School at UND recognizes the outstanding achievements of three students. These are students who have excelled in a doctoral, masters and creative field. About 60 friends, families and faculty gathered at the North Dakota Museum of Art last Friday for the awards ceremony presented by Graduate Dean, Joseph Benoit.

The process of selection takes about 9 months beginning with nominations by the faculty. Departments may send one nomination by either a Masters or Doctoral student whom they regard to be the best in their program. The students graduated in the previous academic year. The nominations are distributed to emeritus faculty who are chosen according to their ability to provide expertise and feedback to The Graduate School. The final selection is sent to our Graduate Committee.

The exceptional quality of dissertations, theses and exhibits made the final awards very difficult, but ultimately three were chosen. Our winners received a check and an etched crystal book award.

Distinguished Dissertation: “Functional Regulartion of the Transient Receptor Potential Canonical 1 by Caveolin 1 and Stromal Interaction Molecule 1“, Biswaranjan Pani Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Faculty Advisory Committee: Dr Brij Singh, Dr Siegfried Detke, Dr Colin Combs, Dr James Foster and Dr John Watt.

Distinguished Thesis: “In Grain“, Lisa Linrud M.A., Department of English.
Faculty Advisory Committee: Dr Heidi Czerwiec, Dr Sherry O’Donnell, Dr Michael Beard

Distinguished Creative Exhibition: “(un)Natural“, Matthew Anderson M.F.A., Department of Art and Design.
Faculty Advisory Committee: Patrick Luber, Kim Fink, Anita Monsebroten.

"Adaptation" by Matthew Anderson

Dr Pani is continuing his research at UND with a Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Lisa Linrud collection of poems is in publication and will be available in a few short weeks. (Watch this space… we will post a link to her book very soon.)

And Matt Anderson was given an additional surprise at the awards ceremony with the presentation of his exhibition catalog that was expedited for the occasion. Here are a few photos from the day. We have also put more into our 2011 DDTCE album over on Picasa.

Dr Biswaranjan Pani shares his research in his Distinguished Dissertation

Dean Benoit presenting the Distinguished Creative Exhibition award to Matt Anderson

Lisa, Biswaranjan and Matthew with Dean Joseph Benoit

Lisa Linrud accepting her award for Distinguished Thesis

Announcing the 2011 DDTCE Awards

Distinguished Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Exhibition Awards

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the 2011 Recipients of the Distinguished Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Exhibition Awards.  The recipients were selected from 70 Doctoral Dissertations and  84 Master’s Theses/Exhibitions completed between June 2010 and May 2011. Independent studies were not included in the competition.

The 2011 Awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 6, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. in the North Dakota Museum of Art.  The awards and recipients are:

Distinguished  Creative Exhibition:
Matthew Bjorn Anderson,  MFA, Visual Arts; Title of Exhibition:  “(un)Natural”
Faculty Advisory Committee: Patrick Luber (Chair), Kim Fink, Anita Monsebroten.

Distinguished Thesis Award:
Lisa Linrud, M.A., English;  Title of Thesis: “In Grain”
Faculty Advisory Committee:  Heidi Czerwiec, Sherryl O’Donnell, Michael Beard.

Distinguished Dissertation Award:
Biswaranjan Pani, Ph.D., Biochemistry & Molecular Biology;  Title of Dissertation: “Functional Regulation of the Transient Receptor Potential Canonical 1 by Caveolin 1 and Stromal Interacation Molecule 1.”
Faculty Advisory Committee: Brij Singh, Siegfried Detke, Colin Combs, James D. Foster, John Watt.

Congratulations to each of the recipients and their committees. The Graduate School will post photos of the awards ceremony here on the blog!

Distinguished Creative Exhibition Awardee showing in Fargo

For those who are regular readers of our blog, you will remember that The Graduate School presented the annual Distinguished Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Exhibition awards at the North Dakota Museum of Art last Friday. Unfortunately, one of the recipients was not able to be there to collect his award. Andrew David Stark was recognized for the Creative Exhibition after graduating last year with an MFA from the Department of Art & Design.

The good news, however, is that Andrew is currently exhibiting his work at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo. His show will be up until late June, so there is plenty of time to see and appreciate his work. Here’s a link to the Plains Art Museum’s blurb and to their blog post of his show.

Some photos from our Awards on Friday

Last Friday, The Graduate School recognized the Distinguished Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Exhibition Awards from the last academic year. Two of the recipients, Louella Lofranco (Dissertation) and Holly Rusinko (Thesis), were able to travel to the University of North Dakota to accept the award and to share their research with an audience of thirty or so friends and family. Here are a few photos from the event. Andrew Stark was not able to be there, but was awarded the Distinguished Creative Exhibition Award.

Grad School & Art Dept Staff enjoying the reception

Louella Lofranco (Dissertation) with Dean Benoit

Louella (L) and Holly (R) with Dean Joseph Benoit

Holly accepts her award for Distinguished Thesis

Louella Lofranco was awarded the 2010 Distinguished Dissertation Award

Chester Fritz Professors announced

Spring classes are officially done for 2010, and we are heading into finals week and graduation. So, I wanted to share a nice announcement from the University Letter this week and to congratulate the three professors who received the esteemed title of Chester Fritz Professor and highlight some other announcements.

UND will award its highest honor for faculty—the Chester Fritz Distinguished Professorship—to Holly Brown-Borg, associate professor, Pharmacology, Physiology, and Therapeutics; Birgit Hans, professor and chair, Indian Studies; and Mary Ann Sens, professor and chair, Pathology, during the general commencement on Saturday, May 15, at 1:30 p.m. in the Alerus Center.

UND will also UND will confer an honorary Doctor of Letters on UND alum and Gwinner, N.D., native Howard Dahl, an internationally known businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Dahl will join the ranks of more than 200 recipients, including President John F. Kennedy, famed heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, philosopher Mortimer Adler, and basketball legend and UND alum Phil Jackson.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will give the main address. About 1,600 students, including law and medical candidates in separate events, are eligible to cross the stage when UND President Robert O. Kelley presides over his second spring commencement ceremonies. UND annually graduates a total of about 2,700 students in ceremonies in May, August, and December.

Today, we will also recognize the best dissertation, thesis and creative exhibition from the last academic year.

Awards Announced

The Graduate School is thrilled to announce the recipients of this year’s Distinguished Dissertation, Thesis and Creative Exhibit Awards. Each year, the departments are invited to nominate the one outstanding candidate eligible for one of these awards, and the recipients are recognized with a plaque and a monetary prize.

The recipient of this year’s Distinguished Dissertation Award is Louella Lofranco Ph.D., Communication Program. Her work, entitled “The Meaning of Development for Filipinos by Filipinos in Diaspora: Rhetorical Vision in Participatory Communication“, was nominated with the highest praise by her committee and program. In her analysis of award eligibility, Dr Lana Rakow (Communication Program) wrote, “[it] is an excellent piece of work demonstrating sound and original scholarship, an innovative research design, and a sophisticated understanding of the multiple layers of communication, development, and identity.” Dr. Lofranco is now an assistant professor in the Department of Art, Music, Speech Communication and Theatre at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Holly Rusinko, M.A. Psychology will receive the Distinguished Thesis Award for her work, “An Examination of the Effects of Assertiveness on Women’s Attributions of Blame Towards Victims of Sexual Assault“. Dr. April Bradley, chair of Ms. Rusinko’s committee highlighted the quality and importance of the research, her original approach to data analysis and far reaching application of her results. The research has produced a publication in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma with further publications certain to follow.

The third award, a category added in recent years, is the Distinguished Creative Exhibition Award. The Department of Art and Design’s Andrew Stark, recently graduated with his Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts with a Major Media Area. In his letter of nomination, Donovan Widmer expressed Mr Stark’s, “high level of competence in the areas of originality, scholarly significance, and advancing the field of art”. His style is described as “Modernist with conceptual traditions associated with the Abstract Expressionist Movement  and the Op Art Movement”.  He was recently featured on the front cover in the UND Discovery magazine (Summer ’09).

The awards will be presented to each of the recipients on May 7, 2010 at the North Dakota Museum of Art. More details will follow.

Congratulations to each of the 2010 awardees.