Accessibility Options:
Mellon Foundation CREATE First-Round Awards Announcement
October 6, 2017
Academic Spring Term 2018
We are pleased to announce the first two awards resulting from the Mellon Foundation-funded initiative Leveraging Cultural Resources through Intra-Institutional Collaboration. The award recipients are Professor Gauri Gaonkar Agarwal in the Miller School of Medicine and Professor Scotney Evans in the School of Education and Human Development. Information regarding their successful project proposals is outlined below. These two projects were selected through a peer-review process overseen by the Committee on Cultural Resources, Engagement, Academics, Technology and Enhancement (CREATE), a University-wide committee representing all schools and colleges. The Committee will be sponsoring workshops later this fall for potential applicants during a second round.
“Using Visual Thinking Strategies to Enhance Clinical Skills.”
Grantee: Agarwal, Gauri Gaonkar, M.D., Miller School of Medicine
Team members: Caban-Martinez, Alberto, D.O., Ph.D., M.P.H.; McNulty, Meaghan, M.D., M.P.H.; Torrents, Hope, Lowe Art Museum
Proposal Summary (excerpt): Many medical schools around the country have started to include visual arts training in the medical school curriculum. Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) has been employed as a facilitated method of guiding students in analyzing a preselected piece of visual art. A few studies have shown that employing VTS can improve clinical skills in medical students. VTS has been utilized at the Lowe Art Museum for the past three years with University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) medical students as part of their “Introduction to the Medical Profession” course. This study will collect objective data regarding the outcomes of these sessions by enrolling fifty medical students from the entering MD/MPH class in August, 2017. Objective data on the impact of the VTS sessions is important for decision making regarding the inclusion of such programs in the curriculum at UMMSM and nationally.
Amount Awarded: $6,000
“Developing a Rich Narrative History of Social Justice Activism in South Florida.”
Grantee: Scotney D. Evans, PhD, School of Education and Human Development
Team members: Ignacio Barrenechea, Doctoral Candidate, Ph.D. Program in Community Well-being
Proposal Summary (excerpt): The primary purpose of this project fits under the category of “collections-based research”. My research team and I would like to work with Special Collections librarians to access, review, and use the variety of materials in Special Collections that can be merged with data we are collecting from other sources, in order to create a historical account of the development and enactment of social justice activism in South Florida. A secondary purpose of this project fits under the category of “collections-based pedagogies”. Materials collected and synthesized during this project will be used for teaching and learning in two different contexts. First, I will be able to utilize these materials for teaching undergraduate and graduate courses here at the University of Miami. Second, I will be able to utilize information collected in working directly with community-based organizational partners. The uniqueness of the content of the documents contained in the archives allows me to have access to original materials, written at the time of the events they document. In addition, these underutilized materials will allow me to make my own analysis and historical reconstruction without needing to consider other secondary authors’ interpretation and opinions.
Amount Awarded: $6,000