Dr. Reich Awardee for VCU Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Fund
Katie Logan, Ph.D., associate professor of focused inquiry, University College,
and Gabriel Reich, Ph.D., professor of teaching and learning, School of Education,
Named Awardees for “The Memory Studies Lab”
May 22, 2023
The 2023 awardees of the VCU Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Fund include Katie Logan, Ph.D., associate professor of focused inquiry, University College, and our very own Gabriel Reich, Ph.D., professor of teaching and learning, School of Education, for “The Memory Studies Lab.”
The Office of the Provost and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation partnered to create the VCU Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Fund to support, facilitate and enhance the creation, production and dissemination of arts, humanities and social sciences research in 2022.
In its second year, this internal grant opportunity continues to grow and support VCU’s research in these fields by awarding 10 projects with a total investment of nearly $100,000.
Award recipients of the VCU Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Fund are identified through a rigorous peer review process with the emphasis on projects that expand imagination, innovation, self-reflection and society as well as cultural identity. Researchers across a range of fields were recognized with awards.
Congratulations, Dr. Logan and Dr. Reich, and all of the awardees!
About the Memory Studies Lab
The Memory Studies Lab is a collaborative space where scholars from a variety of disciplines gather to discuss their current projects related to the phenomenon of collective memory.
Collective memory describes how groups of people share ideas and stories about the past. Memory studies are interested in how those ideas and stories circulate in and between cultures. What unites the group is a shared desire to understand the power of memory and how it acts as a glue that binds social groups together, as well as the possibilities for change when settled memories are critically challenged.
Members of our group are engaged in a variety of research projects, such as the relationship between how historical events are publicly commemorated and how people perceive those events, the impact of lighthouses on public imagination as they have been transformed from disused public buildings to museums to religious icons, or the ways in which women writers in Lebanon express a gendered perspective on a century of political and social upheaval, and many more.
With the funds from the generous grant from VCU's Arts, Humanities, and Social Science Fund, the group plans to:
- Hold a public-facing, two-day Symposium in April 2024 that showcases participant research (including that of graduate and undergraduate students), workshops ongoing projects, welcomes renowned scholars to campus, and provides insight into the themes and questions most driving Memory Studies at VCU;
- Develop the lab’s pedagogical component by launching a student fellows program that trains undergraduate and graduate participants to participate in community-engaged Lab research and data gathering;
- Engage sustainable funding streams (including NEH’s Collaborative Research and Humanities Initiatives programs) to ensure the Lab’s continuation.
