Category: 2016

Vincent Longo

PhD ’20, Screen Arts and Cultures

In 1946, entertainment legend Orson Welles adapted Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days into Around the World, a multimedia Broadway musical extravaganza. Unfortunately the production quickly fell under financial disarray, and, just as quickly, the details of the production faded from cultural memory.

However, using materials from the Orson Welles archive here at the University of Michigan, over the past two years I reconstructed not only the play itself, but also the six missing film sequences that Welles shot for his it. This research revealed that, in several sequences, Welles blended film and live performance together so that both media interacted and depended on each other to function. Though this type of production became fairly popular after the 1970s, when Welles did it in 1946, this sort of multimedia production was nearly unheard of in America.

In order to give contemporary audiences a sense of what these film sequences may have looked like during a Broadway performance, this project aims to create animated visualizations that accurately portray all six film sequences. Simultaneously, this project aims to demonstrate creative and innovative uses for the University of Michigan’s unparalleled archival collections, outside applications in traditional research.

Library Mentor: Phil Hallman

Kevin Jiang

BSE ’18, Biomedical Engineering

Our team is developing a solution to a healthcare problem for rural Guatemalan clinics. We conducted a needs assessment, through observations and interviews with stakeholders, in Guatemala during March 2015, and now are focusing our literature review on respiratory diagnostics and breathing facilitation, both problems that we saw in country. Although technologies already exist for respiratory diagnostics and breathing facilitation, current technologies are not adapted for low-resource settings. We are working closely with community partners in Guatemala to understand the socio-economic and cultural landscape in which our device will be implemented to improve the sustainability of our device. Respiratory diseases are some of the most prevalent in Guatemala. Our device can help improve early diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases, leading to improved outcomes for patients. We plan on returning to Guatemala during May 2016 to discuss specific design concepts and prototypes with our stakeholders. Outside of collaborations with community partners, we are also collaborating with students in the School of Public Health with experience in and ties to Guatemala.

Library Mentor: Leena Lalwani

Alison Jensen

MPH ’16, Health Management and Policy

Roughly 48 million Americans, fully 14% of all households, lack access to healthy, affordable food. At the root of this problem is a landscape of unreliable transportation. CARt coordinates rides for low-income, low-vehicle access individuals to get to and from supermarkets, which are stocked with healthy, affordable food. We use existing rideshare infrastructure to coordinate these rides. Providing convenient, affordable, reliable transportation has benefits for supermarkets and rideshare companies, in increased customer base, as well as implications for society. The end users have increased access to healthier foods. By purchasing and consuming healthier foods, the burden of chronic disease will decline.

In May, we ran a month-long pilot with the Eight Mile Meijer in Detroit, where we were able to validate the needs of our customers. To attract customers, we partnered with MOSES, a faith-based organization with a large network in Detroit. We also collaborated with other community organizations, supermarkets, rideshare organizations and other stakeholders. The University of Michigan Library will be a great addition to our team.

Library Mentor: Pam MacKintosh

Katherine Irani

BA ’16, Women’s Studies

The purpose of this study is to learn from students enrolled in the University of Michigan, Washtenaw Community College, and Eastern Michigan University who have experienced or currently experience intimate partner violence in romantic and/or sexual relationships about what services they used and if they ever have reached out to anyone for help in their situation. Through interviews with participants, I hope to better understand how and where college student survivors sought help, their comfort levels with the services they used, and whether or not they faced any difficulties with seeking help. The objective of this study is to better understand the accessibility of sexual violence prevention services on college campuses for students and if there are sufficient, comprehensive services available to students of all social identities. It is the hope with this study that service providers for survivors may better understand any barriers or restrictions survivors may face relating to their different social identities in seeking help, and that from there they can better serve more underprivileged communities and create more inclusive resources for college students in abusive romantic and/or sexual relationships.

Library Mentor: Meredith Kahn

Rachel Goldstein

BA ’17, Sociology

Each year, the Muslim Jewish Interfaith Dialogue Group, also known as MuJew, collaborates with the Ginsberg Center to organize an Alternative Spring Break Trip. This service learning experience functions as a way to give back to the broader community while strengthening bonds between the two religious communities. This year, we will be returning to the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, a refugee resettlement center in Utica, New York.

During the week of spring break, we will be doing a variety of jobs at the center, including setting up apartments for newly arrived refugees, working with refugee children, and other general housekeeping projects. We will also be attending talks and classes to help us learn more about the resettlement process and the experiences of immigrants in the United States.

The MuJew Alternative Spring Break also has a religious component. We’ll be observing the dietary laws of both religions, attending Jumma and Shabbat services at a local Mosque and Synagogue, and engaging in nightly dialogues about the differences and similarities between the two faiths.

Library Mentor: Sue Wortman

Linda Grace Fisher

BA ’16, Organizational Studies

This project will provide resources for tutors in Proyecto Avance: Latino Mentoring Association, a free tutoring program for members of Washtenaw County’s Latino community. The purpose of this project is to find and provide access to academic, ESL, and culturally-specific resources for our tutors. Our tutors have demonstrated the need for more resources by making many requests for support relating to questions such as how to tutor students learning Common Core Math (because our generation of tutors never learned Common Core). Since our organization serves around 100 Latino students and has more than 50 tutors, this project will provide a huge benefit by enabling us to make valuable resources available to everyone in our organization. This project is unique in that it will provide students not only with basic tutoring resources but will also focus on helping tutors understand multicultural tutoring strategies they can apply when working with Latino students. Our tutoring program operates at the Ann Arbor District Library, so this program will allow us to collaborate with and combine the resources of both AADL and U-M Libraries in order to provide tutors with access to the greatest possible number of resources.

Library Mentor: Angie Oehrli

Maxwell DeNies

PhD ’19, Cell and Molecular Biology/Mechanical Engineering

Cells are composed of highly interconnect complex networks of proteins, nucleic acids and metabolites. Within these networks, proteins are largely responsible for cellular function. To better understand which proteins are involved in specific pathways and how they modulate cell function, we use mass spectrometry based proteomics to identify proteins and quantify their abundance. However due to cellular complexity, traditional proteomic data can be difficult to interpret and is fundamentally limited by temporal resolution.

In this proposal, we will build upon recent technological advancements in spatially resolved proteomics and use our knowledge of chemical isotopes to design novel compounds to add temporal resolution to mass spectrometry based proteomics experiments. Similarly to live cell imaging, the addition of temporal resolution to our experiments will allow us to study how protein dynamics change overtime—without the visual constraints associated with microscopy.

In collaboration with the chemistry department, we will develop a synthesis strategy to create structurally identical chemical compounds with different masses that we can distinguish by mass spectrometry. Consequently, by enzymatically tagging proteins with differentially massed compounds we will add temporal resolution to mass spectrometry based proteomics. We believe that our new technology will be widely applicable in cell biology research.

Library Mentor: Ye Li

Lauren Darnell

PhD ’20, Romance Languages & Literatures

In 2003, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru released a final report on investigations of internal conflicts from 1980 to 2000. Although gender-based violence was recognized, the report excluded testimonies of the forced/coerced sterilization of approximately 300,000 women and 20,000 men—largely from rural, poor, and indigenous communities. This omission granted impunity to Alberto Fujimori’s regime, evading their responsibility for perpetuating systemic violence. In 2014, the Quipu Project was founded in collaboration with victims of forced/coerced sterilization, providing an alternative platform where these victims’ oral testimony could be heard.

The Quipu Project raises awareness of impunity and institutionalized violence in global and neoliberal frameworks, and needs the help of volunteers to translate collected testimonies, making them accessible in English, Spanish, and Quechua. As a form of expressing transnational solidarity with the victims in Peru and other parts of the world, in January of 2016 we will screen the interactive documentary developed by the Quipu Project and present a multimedia exhibition, which will display in Shapiro Library. In early February, to assist the Quipu Project with the testimonies, we will sponsor a weekend translation-solidarity event at the Language Resource Center through which we hope to connect with various locally-based solidarity networks.

Library Mentor: Gabriel Duque

Rebecca Chung

MSI ’16, Information

What does it mean to see a rare book online, but not touch it? Why not reconsider the book as a made object and edit for significant physical properties? These questions drive the Wolverine Press’s edition of a famous sheet of paper: Hamlet’s “to be or not to be speech,” as printed in the Second “Good” Quarto (1604). The sheet, called the “G” gathering, contains eight pages of the third act when folded. Unlike a digital image, our sheet is meant to be handled by readers so they can experience the design and material features of handpress books. The letterpress work is done by University students, who learn printing as emerging creative writers, artists, librarians, and researchers.

The University of Michigan 2016 Shakespeare Exhibit coincides with the Folger Shakespeare Library First Folio 2016 tour. In addition to the Hamlet edition, the Press will print a keepsake for the gala dinner. Both projects include printer’s ornaments reproduced using the MLibrary Design Lab’s 3-d printers. This use of 3D printing is experimental, and further presses on the boundaries of editing and surrogacy for works of high intrinsic value, by bringing together both the preservation and the makerspace resources of the library.

Library Mentor: Sigrid Cordell

Ruth Burke

MFA ’17, Art

This socially-engaged art project explores acts of storytelling and mark-making through the experiences of marginalized women in Detroit. I will collaborate with 20 women who utilize the YWCA, the only domestic abuse shelter in Metropolitan Detroit, and record anonymous video narratives that illustrate a memory in or at a specific location in Detroit. We will create a mark from powdered pigment at the specific places and, through photographic documentation, record its evolution over a four-week period. The YWCA does not currently have arts planning. As we engage in this collaborative creative gesture, this work allows women and their stories to be heard, respected and acknowledged as active and valuable members of the community.

Library Mentor: Meredith Kahn