ATLANTA—The College of the Arts congratulates three outstanding faculty members on their receipt of recent Georgia State University awards. Dr. Deanna Joseph, Associate Professor and Director of Choral Activities in the School of Music, has been awarded the Alumni Distinguished Professorship. Ruth Stanford, Associate Professor of Sculpture in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, has received the Provost’s Faculty Study in a Second Discipline Fellowship. And, Christina West, Associate Professor of Ceramics also in the Welch School of Art & Design, has received the Provost’s Faculty Research Fellowship. Presented by the Office of Faculty Affairs and the Office of the Provost, the university-level faculty awards help faculty realize their full potential as teachers, researchers, scholars and creative artists.
“We are extremely proud and congratulate Dr. Joseph, Professor Stanford and Professor West for their creative and scholarly achievements,” said Dean Wade Weast. “These awards draw attention from across the university to the work of our outstanding faculty.”
The university characterizes recipients of the Alumni Distinguished Professorship as individuals who embody the balance of both teacher and scholar, and who exhibit noteworthy achievements in scholarship, teaching and service.
Deanna Joseph, Associate Professor and Director of Choral Activities, recipient of the Alumni Distinguished Professorship
Dr. Joseph, a 2014 Grammy Award nominee in the Music Educator category, is an established national leader in the field of teaching and continues to make a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education at Georgia State University. She provides first-rate experiences for her students that have resulted in numerous invitations to perform locally with nationally recognized artists such as Andrea Bocelli, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Ballet and the Atlanta Opera. Most recently, Dr. Joseph led the Georgia State University Singers to a first prize win at the 2017 Marktoberdorf Chamber Choir Competition in Marketoberdorf, Germany – an internationally significant choir competition.
According to Dr. Nickitas Demos, Interim Director of the School of Music, “We are most fortunate to have an artist of her stature on our faculty. Dr. Joseph is a gifted conductor and pedagogue who continually brings distinction to the choral program and to the entire School of Music. We are grateful for all of the incredible work she has offer to our students."
Ruth Stanford, Associate Professor in Sculpture, recipient of the Provost’s Study in a Second Discipline Fellowship for Fall 2018 and Spring 2019
Professor Stanford is the first arts faculty member to receive the Provost’s Study in a Second Discipline Fellowship, which promotes interdisciplinary research at Georgia State University by providing faculty a semester-long teaching release to engage in intensive and structured study of a discipline other than their own.
Professor Stanford’s proposal supports nascent collaborative research focusing on African Studies with Dr. Jennie Burnet, Associate Director of the Global Studies Institute (GSI). The fellowship will develop a second area of scholarship that bridges the fine arts and humanities, and add a broad-based, international foundation. Professor Stanford explores themes related to collective traumas (e.g. cultural weight of disaster and the issues of race within the criminal justice system, etc.) and the lingering and complex relationship of place, history and individuals.
Director Michael White of the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design states, “Professor Stanford is no stranger to interdisciplinary exploration. She came to the arts following a career in the sciences and is now taking that same curiosity to GSI where she will sate her thirst for continual growth and learning through expanded scholarship, travel and art making. We are incredibly proud of Ruth and appreciate the interdisciplinary exploration that this fellowship supports."
Christina West, Associate Professor in Ceramics, recipient of the Provost’s Faculty Research Fellowship for Fall 2018 and Spring 2019
The Provost’s Faculty Research Fellowship promotes interdisciplinary research at Georgia State University by providing faculty a semester-long teaching release to facilitate their completion of applications for preeminent international and national fellowships or awards.
Professor West will use the research award to develop new sculptural work in support of her application for a Guggenheim Fellowship. This new work will further develop her body of work that explores domestic spaces as context for sculpture that questions our relationship to the home and the roles we associate with it.
“This opportunity will allow Professor West to continue the expansive production and exhibition record that has brought her much acclaim over the past decade,” said Michael White. “Christina’s work explores ideas of interiority and intimacy through highly provocative and expressive figurative sculpture, and we look forward to witnessing this logical next step in the evolution of her art. By providing the necessary time and resources needed to create new works in preparation for a major external fellowship application, this opportunity evidences the university’s support of accomplished faculty in all areas."
For information about the continuing faculty awards, fellowships and past award recipients, please visit: https://faculty.gsu.edu/for-continuing-faculty/