2024-2025 Amelia A. Gould Undergraduate Research Assistantship Awardees
Janet L. Gerges
Dyson | English Language and Literature
Faculty Mentor: Eugene Richie
Project Title: Literary Arts Research and Programming Assistant
Janet L. Gerges will research and co-administer with Dr. Richie the arts activities directed on and off campus: 1) The Trisha Sugarek Creative Writing Extracurricular Activities Program; 2) English & Aphros Magazine on-campus readings and workshops; 3) Dyson-English Mentoring Program speakers in classes & play trips to local theaters; 4) Our annual spring writing awards program, with $25,000 in student prizes; and 5) 0ur annual Spring Writers’ Festival with readings & wokshops.
Olivia F. Vella
Dyson | Art; Communication & Media Studies
Faculty Mentor: Jillian McDonald
Project Title: Video artworks including “Total Eclipse and the Heart”, “Horror Loop”, and “Devonian Dawn”
Olivia F. Vella will assist with creating animation and video elements for video artworks currently in progress including Total Eclipse and the Heart. This work is inspired by eco-horror and speculative fiction in which nature itself is the source of terror and the setting is partially unreal. A solar eclipse gets stuck in a glitch, and characters dissolve into the landscape while the natural world looks on. Audio is created using intercepted radio signals, and imagery includes live action, 2D and 3D animation, as well as artificial inteligence. Horror Loop features actors dressed as horror film characters moving around an empty house with no victims, as thorugh stalking one another. Devonian Dawn is an animation combining footage of the oldest fossil forest with AI-generated imagery.