Recent honors collected by the UNL community include recognition for faculty Bedross Der Matossian, Rumiko Handa, Robert Trempe and Matt Waite; students, Michelle Ingle and Nolan Sullivan; and a 30th anniversary for a student exchange program between the College of Business Administration and Senshu University in Tokyo, Japan. Read on for more information about each award.
Faculty/Staff
Bedross Der Matossian, assistant professor of history, was among the first winners of the Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies. Der Matossian won the award for an academic monograph for his book “Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire.” Published by Stanford University Press, the book examines Ottoman revolution of 1908, which was ultimately a negative event, opening ethnic, religious and political conflicts between the Arabs, Armenians and Jews involved. The award was presented at NAASR’s Leadership Circle honor event, held Dec. 4 in Boston.
Rumiko Handa, professor of architecture, contributed to a collaborative publication titled “Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality.” The book explores how architecture has been understood as a cultural discipline, able to articulate the human condition and lift the human spirit; yet, the spirituality of architecture is rarely directly addressed in academic scholarship. In Handa’s chapter, “Experiencing the Architecture of the Incomplete, Imperfect and Impermanent,” she asserts that even though architects hope that their creations are permanent, it seems inevitable that its historical purpose and meaning will change over time. Handa proposes that change for these structures is more the norm than the exception. She emphasizes the significance of a structure’s incompleteness, imperfection and impermanence.
Robert Trempe, professor of architecture and design researcher, is one of two designers from the United States selected to participate in Canada’s “Warming Huts: An Art + Architecture Competition on Ice.” Trempe’s design, “Shelterbelt,” will be featured on the Red River Mutual Trail in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as part of a system of warming huts and ice trails for the area’s tourist attractions. Trempe designed his submission to meld with the surrounding Winnipeg riverfront environment with steel rebar that resembled a prairie shelter-belt with barren trees and tall grass. This is Trempe’s second design to be selected for Warming Huts. The last selection was in 2010.
Matt Waite, professor of journalism and mass communications, traveled to Chile this fall to collaborate with a drone journalism class at the Universidad de Concepcion. The multi-disciplinary class was started by an engineering and a journalism professor and brings aerospace engineering and journalism students together in one room. One aerospace engineering student and one journalism student are paired together. Waite worked with the Chilean students as they built drones and time-lapse robots in their pairs. At UNL, Waite founded the first drone journalism lab in the country in November 2011.
Students
Michelle Ingle and Nolan Sullivan, playwrights in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, have been selected to participate in the Kennedy Center’s Region V American College Theatre Festival. They will take part in the festival’s national playwriting program, Jan. 17-23 at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn. Ingle, a junior theatre major, submitted a 10-minute play, “Boxed Wine,” which was selected as one of six productions to be staged at the festival. Sullivan’s play, “Love at Lightspeed,” earned an honorable mention award. Sullivan is a senior English major. Two plays performed at the Region V festival will be considered for an invitation to the national festival in Washington, D.C., in April.
Departments/Units
The College of Business Administration and Senshu University in Tokyo, Japan, celebrated the 30th anniversary of their student exchange agreement on Nov. 19 during International Education Week. Launched in 1985, the partnership gives students from each university the opportunity to study for a semester in a different culture. Alumni from the program, including five from the first UNL/Senshu class, attended the event. For more information about the exchange program, click here.
This column is a regular feature of UNL Today. Faculty, staff and students can submit their achievements to be considered for this column via email to achievements@unl.edu. For more information, call 402-472-8515.
