UNM Excellence in Undergraduate Arts Research Award
Call for Student Self-Nominations
The UNM Undergraduate Research, Arts & Design Network (URAD) and the UNM College of Fine Arts invite you to self-nominate for the UNM Excellence in Undergraduate Arts Research Award.
Definitions
For this award, Arts is defined as work in the following fields of study: Art, Music, Theater and Dance, and Film and Digital Arts.
Research in the arts can take many forms . Through the creation of new artistic works, artists use aesthetics in dialogue with research methodologies to engage problems and to create new knowledge and new forms. Practice-led research might take the form of a sculpture, a dance performance, a musical composition, or a series of photographs. Arts research might also take the form of academic study of the work of contemporary arts practitioners or a scholarly evaluation of the impact and significance of a historical art movement. Both the creation and analysis of visual and performance works contribute to cultural, social, and political knowledge in myriad ways, including the articulation of profound insights, the shared translation of personal experience, or the testing of new forms and materials. If you are uncertain whether your work constitutes arts research, please email Tim Schroeder, URAD Director, at timschroeder@unm.edu.
Award Descriptions
The UNM Excellence in Undergraduate Arts Research Award is an award in recognition of outstanding arts research by students at any of UNM’s campuses.
The Excellence Award winner(s) will receive an $800 department award. Two Honorable Mention winners will each receive $200 department awards. Award and Honorable Mention winners will be recognized at the UNM Undergraduate Research Opportunity Conference on April 12, 2024. Student awards for collaborative projects will be split evenly among the students who submit the project for consideration.
Department awards are similar to grants and count as financial aid. Awards are deposited directly into student bursar accounts. Winning students who do not have an account balance will receive a refund check for the amounts listed above. Department Awards may be taxed for international students.
Awardees will be selected by an invited panel of faculty and other artists/researchers.
For this award, students self-nominate at the following site:
https://forms.unm.edu/forms/unm_uara
Timeline:
March 21. Student self-nomination submissions due
April 5. Winners notified by email
April 12. UROC awards ceremony announcement
Student Eligibility:
- Students must be currently enrolled as an undergraduate at UNM (in at least six credit hours);
- Students must not have already completed an advanced degree (masters or beyond);
- Students must be admitted to a UNM degree program. Students from all degree programs are encouraged to apply, as are students from all UNM campuses.
- Research products can either be INDIVIDUAL or COLLABORATIVE. Individual projects must have been created individually by the student. Support in creation from faculty or peers is allowable, but product must be solely attributable to the student. Collaborative projects may have been created by a team of eligible students working together. All students must meet the first three qualifications listed above, and all must consent to self-nomination for this award.
- Student projects do NOT have to be previously published, exhibited or performed to be eligible. All research projects (as defined above) that are focused on Art, Music, Theater and Dance, and Film and Digital Arts are welcome.
Evaluation Criteria:
- Artistic/Scholarly Merit (6 points): The arts research product demonstrates clear evidence of (1) study (learning from the work of others), (2) innovation (building on your own experiences and insights to create new knowledge or works) and (3) excellence (strong attention to detail and quality).
- Reflection (3 points): The researcher(s) provides clear and concise reflection, demonstrating (1) the student’s understanding of the context, innovation, successes/failures of the project, and (2) the student’s recommendations for other students who may pursue similar research or innovation projects. In addition, reflection statements for collaborative projects should briefly describe how the team was assembled, and how the teamwork was coordinated.
- Faculty Reference (1 point): Faculty member’s letter of reference helps to contextualize the strength of this project in their respective academic discipline.
Application Requirements & Materials:
- Self Nomination Form (online, available here: https://forms.unm.edu/forms/unm_uara), including a brief description of your research, your contact information, and a reflection statement (3000 character maximum for individual projects, 6000 character maximum for collaborative projects). For collaborative projects, one team member will take the lead in submitting the self-nomination form.
- Research product, in online format: Students may submit any format (examples include, but are not limited to sculpture, video, performance, essay, research poster, class assignment). For the purpose of this competition, product must be transmitable electronically (for instance, through a video, website, PDF, digital image). When you complete the Self-Nomination Form, you will be asked to either upload the product, or to provide a hyperlink to the product, or to contact UNM personnel to arrange an alternative mechanism for digitization.
- Faculty Reference: Reference letter from any UNM faculty member (including lecturers) should describe the strength of your product in relation to their academic discipline. Only one letter of reference will be accepted. Faculty references will not be treated as confidential, and should be emailed to timschroeder@unm.edu. Once you submit your self-nomination online, please ask your faculty reference to email their letter by the deadline.
