UREP-C Student's experience at the College of Liberal Arts

Samuel Castro, an Industrial Engineering undergraduate from the National University of Colombia in the School of Mines, focuses on the organizational aspects of corporations and how they approach social responsibility. As an applicant in the Undergraduate Research Experience Purdue-Colombia (UREP-C) program, Samuel was excited about the opportunity to work on an academically-related project that would align with these interests. But there was just one problem: finding an available faculty mentor with an active project that made sense for Samuel.

Enter Professor Torsten Reimer (Communication and director of the Cognition Lab). As fate would have it, Professor Reimer has been working on a project entitled, “Foraging Behavior and Social Influence in Virtual Environments.” This project examines consumer choices relating to electric vehicle charging stations. It turned out to be a perfect match and Samuel has spent the Fall 2024 semester working with Professor Reimer and his research team as they analyze computer simulations for how drivers selecting charging stations in various scenarios.

According to Professor Reimer, "it has been very rewarding to work with Samuel! Samuel is helping us develop a gaming platform that will enable us to conduct experiments with multiple participants simulating the social dynamics of real-time charging station selections. Samuel’s work capitalizes on his engineering background and nicely blends with our goals to develop this platform.”

 

Department of Theatre and Dance hosts Visiting Scholar

In the Fall of 2024, the College of Liberal Arts hosted Professor Sergio Sierra Monsalve, Associate Professor and Director of the Performing Arts Department at Universidad de Caldas (Manizales), for a one-month research visit.

Working with Professor Renee Murray (Theatre & Dance), Professor Sierra facilitated a two-week workshop with 7 Theatre & Dance students that explored the intersection of movement and storytelling. The capstone of this workshop was a public performance entitled, "Dramaturgy: Living in Motion," which was held on September 21st for an audience in Pao Hall.

Describing the workshop, Sierra shared, "this workshop has been the most advanced development point of the research I have been doing in recent years...we were fortunate to have one group of students who belong to dance and another to theater, as well as students with heritages from cultures such as Chinese, Indian, and Mexican who brought to the workshop their expressiveness and forms of movement that strengthened the encounter between cultures.”

Joel Ebarb, CLA Executive Associate Dean, shared of Professor Sierra's visit, "Sergio has been a colleague and friend of the College of Liberal Arts for many years. I first worked with Sergio in 2015 on a performance called, "Passage": An original costume design and movement experience" that we performed in Colombia, and it is wonderful to see the continuity that has come from that project all of these years later -- it is very special for us. Sergio's visit certainly opens the door for new opportunities between CLA's Department of Theatre & Dance and Universidad de Caldas, more broadly. "

Building New Partnerships

As the landscape for global partnerships continues to evolve, the College of Liberal Arts continues to explore new opportunities for student mobility, faculty engagement, and scholarship advancement. 

In this spirit, a delegation including Joel Ebarb (Executive Associate Dean), Will Sartore (Director, Global & Experiential Learning), Professor Andy Baker (Political Science) and Professor Tae Hong Park (Music), traveled to Colombia in May 2024 to visit with prospective partnerships in Colombia. While the College maintains many active partnerships throughout Colombia, this visit focused on new opportunities with prospective partners in Cali and Bogotá, the country’s capital.