UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1190

serial: '1190'
sid: '20546'
uuid: 7d2f81e7-9692-4d3f-8366-14be4a2eeb30
uri: /urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal
created: '1755404263'
completed: '1755407082'
changed: '1756996543'
in_draft: '0'
current_page: ''
remote_addr: 68.234.200.57
uid: '0'
langcode: en
webform_id: urop_project_proposal_portal
entity_type: node
entity_id: '1116'
locked: '0'
sticky: '0'
notes: ''
metatag: meta
data:
  roundtable_info:
    - day: 'Wednesday, September 3'
      endingtime: '1:00'
      starttime: '12:30'
      zoomlink: 'https://fsu.zoom.us/j/97697071663?pwd=oDLNtz8YmPboA8Q5NJpmXp24MuoNc7.1'
    - day: 'Wednesday, September 3'
      endingtime: '1:30'
      starttime: '1:00'
      zoomlink: 'https://fsu.zoom.us/j/92418383848'
    - day: 'Wednesday, September 3'
      endingtime: '7:30'
      starttime: '7:00'
      zoomlink: 'https://fsu.zoom.us/j/98231123892'
    - day: 'Wednesday, September 3'
      endingtime: '1:30'
      starttime: '1:00'
      zoomlink: 'https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MfIUGuaENEFGI8E8cOmmTXWMrCEfDLJz/view?usp=sharing'
    - day: 'Wednesday, September 3'
      endingtime: '7:30'
      starttime: '7:00'
      zoomlink: 'https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ECrnADL1EZrpD44Hdtv4vcTK8_y2lyBs/view?usp=sharing'
  approximately_how_many_hours_a_week_would_the_research_assistant: '5 hours'
  are_you_currently_looking_for_students_: 'Yes'
  confirmation_1: '1'
  contact_email_fsu_email: ''
  contact_email_fsu_email2: ''
  contact_email_fsu_email_if_affiliated_: ako23@fsu.edu
  faculty_advisor_confirmation: '1'
  faculty_advisor_name: 'Grace A. Ali'
  faculty_advisor_s_fsu_email: gali@fsu.edu
  fsu_college: 'Fine Arts'
  fsu_department_if_applicable_: 'Studio Art'
  headshot_optional_: '62491'
  if_the_project_location_is_off_campus_does_the_student_need_to_p: 'The school bus Tomahawk goes to the location. It is our studio space, an extension of the studio Arts department and Theatre Arts department, College of Fine Arts'
  mentoring_philosophy: 'One of my main goals is to contribute positively and impact my mentee towards their research. This involves understanding your current stage of intellectual and professional growth, as well as your aspirations for the future. Each individual I mentor is unique, and different goals demand different skills, but I aim to help you cultivate certain universal abilities—such as recognizing opportunities, asking insightful questions, acknowledging weaknesses, and communicating effectively. I will encourage you to be a supportive team member while also having the courage to step into leadership when it’s needed, regardless of your position within any existing power structure.'
  mentor_handbook_and_faqs: '1'
  name_of_other_faculty_collaborator_if_applicable_: ''
  number_of_assistants_needed_faculty_postdoc_max_6_graduate_stude: '2'
  other_faculty_collaborator_s_preferred_pronouns: ''
  overall_research_project_description: |2
     How might reimagining objects through the lens of traditional textile practices reveal new intersections between mobility, identity, and material memory?
    Objects carry traces of the lives that have handled them, they hold memory and history, as Arjun Appadurai writes in Modernity at Large, “Commodities, like persons have social lives’’. As a figurative painter, I often appropriate everyday objects to function both as material and metaphor. 
    One recurring object in my work is the light-weight plaid tote bag, which comes in many forms and names across the globe. It has become a personal travel essential for me and carries a collective memory in Nigeria linked to migration in the 1980s, when it gained the name “Ghana Must Go” within the region. In my practice, I deconstruct and reconfigure these bags to resemble woven textiles. Textiles play a major role in my culture- the Igbo culture in southeastern Nigeria. Popularly called wrappers, they are often gifted to me by my mother, and do not only serve as cultural signifiers, clothing, covering or fashion items; like the plaid bags, they have historically been used to wrap and carry belongings. 
    The goal of my art research is to draw parallels between the function of these travel bags and the tradition of wrappers/textiles  from a personal and collective lens—reimagining the bags as the wrappers and positioning them as performative sites where memory, movement, and identity are carried, layered, and continually reimagined.
    My project is presented in two forms: a series of sculptural paintings and a two-part installation.
    1. Sculptural Paintings
    This includes a series of three mixed-media works where I paint representational and abstracted  figures in acrylic on canvas, printmaking and sew them onto the deconstructed bags which still has some of their utilitarian features retained.
    2. Two-Part Installation
    The second component is an installation featuring embellished travel bags that are presented both as bundled forms and as spread-out textile-like surfaces. These arrangements echo the form and language of Kimsooja’s bottari bundles, evoking mobility, wrapping, and containment.
    Furthermore, for the paintings, the subjects are individuals whose lives involve movement –fellow students or people with any compelling stories connected to textile symbolism in their cultural or domestic lives. I paint them in acrylic on canvas, using printmaking to stamp their fabricated identification numbers, marking their movement across geographies. These figures are then sewn onto folded bag surfaces, introducing a sense of motion and tension within the fabric. Finally, I embellish the bags to create an ambiguous space—one that both idealizes their complex experiences and highlights the celebratory aspirations and accomplishments embedded in those journeys. 
    The installation component of this work involves arranging the cut-out, embellished bags as bundles and also spread-out fabrics, evoking acts of movement—departure, arrival, stay etc. It also functions as a form of performance, as the traditions surrounding textiles add a performative and embodied dimension to their role as containers. This positions my practice within a continuum where these appropriated bags, now transformed into textiles, operate as living, mobile archives.
  please_add_any_additional_information_here: ''
  please_provide_a_link_to_your_publications_a_video_clip_or_a_web: 'https://www.amarachikodimba.com/portfolio'
  please_select_the_choice_that_most_accurately_describes_your_exp: In-person
  please_select_the_location_of_your_project_: 'Carnaghi Arts Building, 2214, Belle Vue Way, Tallahassee, Fl 32304'
  position_availability_for_student_research: 'Flexible schedule'
  position_title: 'Graduate Student'
  primary_research_mentor_name: 'Amarachi K.  Odimba'
  project_keywords: 'paintings, soft-sculpture, boundaries, installation, figurative art, abstracted and representational painting, acrylic, canvas, embellishment, passport number, print making, movement, textiles, objects, travel bags, mobility, material memory, history'
  relevant_student_major_s_: |-
    -Material sciences
    -Geography
    -Printmaking
    -creative writing
    - Textiles
    -Education
    -Art History
    -Painting
  research_mentor_preferred_pronoun2: nil
  research_mentor_pronouns: She/Her
  research_mentor_supervisor_if_different_from_above_: nil
  research_tasks_for_student_research_assistant_s_: |-
    - Data collection and generation of random passport numbers and currency serial numbers
    _-Printmaking
    - Reaching out or recommending prospective subjects of the paintings
    - Embellishment of the fabrics
    -Painting 
    -Sewing
    -Documenting narratives of subjects
    -Creative writing of histories of textiles and migration.
  roundtable_times_and_zoom_links: |-
    Hello Prospective UROP research mentee,

    Please review the last two links on the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable Zoom schedule for the recordings in case you missed attending. 
    This step is required before submitting your application.

    All the best!
  skills_that_research_assistants_may_need_: |2-
     -MS Word Office
    -Creative writing
    - Printmaking
    -drawing
    -painting
    -Basic design and photoshop
    - Sewing, and sequinning
  title_of_the_project: 'Enfold series'
  update_url: 'https://cre.fsu.edu/urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?element_parents=elements/research_mentor_information/headshot_optional_&ajax_form=1&_wrapper_format=drupal_ajax&token=QBySG3uPw5jFH58JGYqV6l_7BtsHGmaAhLLmzQnQyFU'
  urop_performance_evaluation: '1'
  urop_poster_presentation: '1'
  when_potential_research_assistants_are_reaching_out_via_email_2: nil
  when_potential_research_assistants_are_reaching_out_via_email_wh: ''
  when_students_are_reaching_out_via_email_what_is_your_preferreda: ''
  would_you_like_to_participate_in_the_urop_research_mentor_round2: 'Yes'
  would_you_like_to_participate_in_the_urop_research_mentor_roundt: ''
  year: '2025'