Student Scholarship Day April 8

Jennifer Blackmer of Ball State University will give the keynote lecture at the 14th annual Student Scholarship Day on April 8. Her lecture will be at 4 p.m. in 2204 KC.

Blackmer's talk is titled "The Gesture of Thinking: What the Sciences and Humanities can Learn from the Performing Arts." Blackmer is a playwright and theater director, and an assistant professor of theater at Ball State University. Her play "The Human Faustus Project" explores the ethical gray areas of genetic research. It was created collaboratively with 15 undergraduates at the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry and premiered at Ball State in November 2007. In this talk, Blackmer chronicles the creation of that play and will discuss how it serves as a model for the tremendous potential and power of research projects driven by undergraduates. She will also talk about how immersive learning can speak to a new generation of learners in any number of fields. 

Student Scholarship Day is held once each year to celebrate the scholarship and creative work performed by Grand Valley students. The day showcases faculty-mentored student work, shared through many venues, including oral presentations, discussion and panel sessions, fine arts exhibits and performances, and poster presentations. Projects may be initiated as part of a course or as independent collaborations with faculty. This year's event will showcase some 400 presentations by more than 600 student presenters. For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/ssd .