Eight faculty members from a range of disciplines will pursue research, develop creative projects, and host academic conferences using grants funds from the Arts and Humanities Initiative (AHI).
AHI is a competitive, internally reviewed grant program administered by the Office of the Vice President for Research that supports scholars in the humanities or creative, visual, and performing arts. AHI provides up to:
- $30,000 for a major project grant
- $10,000 for a major conference grant
- $7,500 for a standard grant
The application deadline for the fall 2026 cycle is Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.
The spring 2026 award recipients are:
Major Project Grant
Stephanie Miracle, assistant professor in dance, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS)
Imagined City: a live cinema traveling choreography for the city of Gießen
Imagined City combines dance, film, and stylized narrative into a series of new site-specific live performances for Stadttheater Gießen, a prestigious state-funded theater in Hessen, Germany. Miracle will orchestrate several international teams of interdisciplinary collaborators across multiple public sites throughout the city for a four-episode performance series designed to reconnect audiences with a sense of place. The AHI Major Project Grant will support travel and honoraria for Miracle’s collaborators.
Major Conference Grant
Kate Hinshaw, assistant professor in cinematic arts, CLAS
Analog Cookbook Symposium
Hinshaw’s three-day symposium, slated for April 2027, will bring together readers of Analog Cookbook, a biannual film publication dedicated to making celluloid filmmaking accessible to artists. Filmmakers and artists will screen and discuss films featured in the publication’s Spring 2027 issue, lead workshops, and engage with students and the community. Hinshaw will partner with the Iowa City International Documentary Festival (ICDOCS) and graduate students in cinematic arts to organize the symposium. AHI funding will support event costs.
Standard Grants
Matthew Arndt, associate professor, School of Music, CLAS
Semes
Arndt will collaborate with David Cyzak, visiting assistant professor of oboe, on a combined lecture and recital focused on semes, or snippets of sound or other frequencies that resemble one another, planned for fall 2026. The program will feature the premiere of an expository video and musical compositions by Arndt and Cyzak. The event is the fifth in a series of seven public-facing complements to Arndt’s in-progress book on musical poetics and the cosmos and is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 14, in the Stark Opera Studio. AHI funding will support Cyzak’s composition for the recital.
Samantha Barbas, Aliber Family Chair in Law, professor, College of Law
Into the Vortex: Public Figures and the Making of the Free Press
Barbas’ forthcoming book, Into the Vortex: Public Figures and the Making of the Free Press (University of California Press), provides the first historical account of how the Supreme Court expanded the concept of public figures beyond public officials to include influential private actors who must endure a higher risk of media scrutiny under libel law. Barbas examines the cases that shaped this doctrine in the context of the 1960s and the current campaign to overturn it. AHI funding will support light manuscript review and final archival work before Barbas delivers the manuscript to the publisher this fall.
Ali Hasan, associate professor in philosophy, CLAS
A Philosophical Framework for Interpreting Algorithmic Fairness
Hasan is developing a philosophical framework for fairness metrics — statistical tests for bias in algorithmic systems — a pressing and much-debated issue in AI ethics. AHI funding will support a research assistant who is pursuing both a PhD in philosophy and an MS in data science to assist with the project.
Elke Heckner, associate professor of instruction in languages, linguistics, literatures, and cultures, CLAS
Denied: Art Restitution in Crisis in Munich
Heckner is producing a documentary film focused on Nazi-looted art held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Germany, as reported by German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung in February 2025. The project will explore the aftermath of this revelation, the Bavarian institutional response, and its parallels with other Nazi art restitution cases. AHI funding will support international travel, post-production editing, and sound design.
Thalassa Raasch, assistant professor, School of Art, Art History, and Design, CLAS
In Over My Head
Raasch’s nonfiction manuscript chronicles the life of gravedigger Everard Hall, one of the last Americans to dig and fill graves by hand. Raasch combines her writing, photography, and scholarship with Hall’s photographs and ephemera to explore the disappearing role of the traditional gravedigger. AHI funds will allow Raasch to collaborate with graphic designer Elizabeth Goodspeed on two professionally designed chapters for peer review by university presses and a complete manuscript designed for submission to photography presses.
Steph Rue, assistant professor, Center for the Book, Graduate College
Hanji: Contemporary Approaches to Traditional Korean Papermaking
Rue is writing an immersive guide to the history, process, plants, tools, and applications of hanji, Korean handmade paper. This ancient craft has migrated among the Korean diaspora, but lack of support endangers the practice. Rue’s book will fill a gap in English-language scholarship on the history and technique of Korean papermaking beyond Korea. AHI funds will support Rue as she researches the craft of hanji in the United States, including collaboration with two experts at the Oakdale Paper Facility.