EUI Announcements

EUI Directors to Participate in Summer Institute for Teachers

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 08:00:00 CDT

"Schools are complex social and cultural institutions. Ethnography can help us turn some of the confusion and chaos of high school into a rich resource for innovative pedagogy. How, for example, can students, teachers, and administrators better understand jock culture or the impact of the Internet on school social life?"

EUI co-directors Nancy Abelmann and Gina Hunter will participate in the Chicago Humanities Festival’s 17th annual Summer Institute for Teachers (SIT). Over two days, SIT participants will work in small groups, developing their own research questions and producing an "ethnographic toolkit" of cross-disciplinary research methods easily applied to the high school setting. For more information about the Summer Institute and this year's program, please see the SIT website.

EUI Spring 2013 Student Conference Award Winners

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT

We would like to offer our congratulations to our Spring 2013 Student Conference award winners and to all those participating students who made the conference such a great success. This semester’s conference program was particularly ambitious with 110 students participating across 9 panel presentations (including multimedia) and 2 poster sessions. The hard work put into your research projects and presentations was impressive! Given the unprecedented number of students that participated this semester, EUI gave out two awards in each category, with awards given as follows:

Panel presentation: Lauren Mayer (UIUC) for her “Application of Labels as Forms of Identification of East Asian Art at UIUC,” and Jack Sullivan (UIUC) for “A Religious Perspective on the Vietnam War.”

Multimedia panel presentation: Victoria Machen, Jennifer Mendez, Thomas Nguyen and Christian Smith (UIUC) for “Chrysanthemum Tea: It’s Yeo Choice,” Kathryn Arnold, Richard Ford and Aaron Hoyle-Katz (Parkland) for “Community Service and Educational Excellence,” and Ariella Cohen, Fatima Diabate and Shaunette Smith (UIUC) for “Out and About: Social Spaces and the LGBT Community.”

Poster presentation: Zach Downing and Rebekah Burgan (Parkland) for their “International and Immigrant Student Athletes: How Do They Find Parkland College?” and Kei U Lai and Chon Wa Sou (UIUC) for “Initiative of Establishing and Expectations of a New RSO – Orienteering Illini.” Poster images can be seen here. Their posters can be viewed here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6dm0nloc1cnpn7a/ZachDowning.pdf and https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jmin2cqmeeilfq/LaiKeiU%20.pdf

All UIUC award winners receive a $25 gift card to the Illini Union Bookstore and Parkland students receive a $25 gift card to the Parkland Student Bookstore.

The University Library also provides an EUI Poster Award. Congratulations go to Preston Brown, Travis Davenport, Shawn O’Neill for their poster, “Sustainable Lighting: A Campus Commitment.” View their poster: https://www.dropbox.com/s/frnru428j7giyxq/PrestonBrown.pdf.

Thanks go to the University Library for supporting the poster session with an award of a $25 gift card to Illini Union Bookstore.

We would like to especially thank Merinda Hensley for her continued support of and work with EUI and the support of the University Library for making the poster sessions possible, the Library/IT Student Fee Committee for their support of our multimedia program, and our CITES Academic Technologies and Digital Media partners for their ongoing technology and training support.

Conference videos will be available shortly on our website for those students who granted intellectual property permission.

Spring 2013 Student Conference

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT

View the program here.

Application for EUI/LLC Course Proposals for Spring 2014

Karen Rodriguez'G — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT

The Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI), in partnership with the University's Living-Learning Communities (LLC), invites proposals from faculty and advanced graduate students interested in teaching an EUI/LLC course for the Spring 2014 semester.

Since its inception in 2003, EUI has provided an innovative approach to teaching and learning focused on promoting student research on universities and colleges. In EUI-affiliated courses students use a variety of ethnographic, archival, and related methods to examine the university’s various institutional identities and commitments and to study higher education in the context of larger social and political trends. At the end of each semester, every student also is invited to participate in our student conference, either through poster, oral or multimedia presentations. In addition, EUI maintains a repository of students’ research projects and processes through the University Library’s digital archive, IDEALS.

LLCs are programs located in the University’s residence halls which give students the opportunity to live and study within a community organized around a particular issue and/or theme. LLCs provide social and educational events, the chance to work closely with faculty in smaller classes, interaction with Visiting Scholars and Guests-in-Residence, research opportunities, and for-credit courses.

For more information and to apply, see application form here. Deadline to apply is May 31, 2013.

EUI on Focus 580

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:00:00 CST

We invite you to tune in to Illinois Public Media's Focus 580 on Tuesday, March 5, from 10 to 11am, as co-director Tim Cain joins two other guests to talk about local history and its importance to community. Listen to the podcast on WILL-AM.

Application for Course Proposals 2013-15

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:00:00 CST

The Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI) invites proposals from faculty and advanced graduate students interested in teaching EUI-affiliated courses for the 2013-2015 academic years. Deadline for application is April 19, 2013. You can find the application here.

Fall 2012 Student Conference Award Winners

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:00:00 CST

We would like to offer our Congratulations to our Fall 2012 Student Conference award winners and to all those participating students who made the conference such a success!

EUI awards have been given as follows:

Panel presentation: Deanna Hamblin (Illinois State) for her oral presentation Do You Get What You Pay For?; an Honorable Mention was also awarded to Cecilia Montesdeoca (Illinois State) for Illinois State University's Student Health Agenda.

Multimedia panel presentation: Jenessa Conner, Sungmin Lee, Maria Nava and Agnes Sohn for their multimedia presentation Crossing the Invisible Line: An International Students Experience Engaging at the American University; and Honorable Mention was also awarded to Dohye Kim, So Jung Kim and Bridget McDonald for their It Doesnt Matter Where I Live: Everyone Has to Follow the Same Thing.

Poster presentation: Cody Jones, Holly Hernandez, Matt Miller and Shareel Hicks for their poster, Steam Distribution: A Study Conducted to Uncover the Student Knowledge of the Sustainability of the Steam Distribution System.

All award winners receive a $25 gift card to the Illini Union Bookstore ($10 for Honorable Mention); Illinois State University award winners receive a Barnes and Noble gift card.

The University Library also provides an EUI Poster Award. Congratulations go to Aimee Castillo, Jessica Ramos, Tyler Jusino and Alicia Lee for their poster Recycling Unveiled: The Effectiveness of the Recycling System at the University. Thanks go to the University Library for supporting the poster session with an award of a $25 gift card to Illini Union Bookstore.

We would like to especially thank Merinda Hensley for her continued support of and work with EUI and the support of the University Library for making the poster sessions possible, the Library/IT Student Fee Committee for their support of our multimedia program (now in its second year!), and our CITES Academic Technologies and Digital Media partners for their ongoing technology and training support.

You can see all the conference videos here. (Please note, videos are available for only those students/panels who granted EUI rights to archive them.)

EUI Awarded Library/IT Grant for 2012/2013

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:00:00 CDT

Based upon the success of our pilot multimedia program, the Library/Student IT Committee has awarded EUI $38,000 for 2012-13!

Beginning in 2011-12, EUI has integrated digital technologies into some EUI affiliated courses, thanks to a startup grant of $68,820 from the Library/Student IT Committee. In our startup year, EUI awarded 5 instructors across 4 courses an IT Teaching Award, which provided the use of audio and video equipment to support student research, assistance with incorporating technology into syllabi design, and up to 100 hours per course of technological training and support.

Key to our success thus far has been our partnership with CITES Academic Technology Services and Digital Media Group, and the substantial commitment of EUI staff in designing and implementing the infrastructure of our new program, including: pre-semester meetings with faculty for syllabus design; in-class training on equipment use and post-production editing; creation of user best practice guides; back-up data storage plans for each course; equipment loan policies; and a central site for draft student collaborative projects and for final project submittal. The hard work of our inaugural year resulted in an efficient template for future EUI multimedia courses, one that can be of use to other university units interested in fully integrating technology into undergraduate learning environments as well.

We are grateful for the ongoing support, commitment and enthusiasm of the Library/Student IT Committee, CITES Academic Technology Services and Digital Media Group, and EUI affiliated faculty and students. To see some of the student projects produced within last year’s pilot program, please see our digital archive in IDEALS. For more information on our multimedia courses, or to ask about affiliating a course with EUI, please contact Karen Rodriguez’G, EUI Visiting Program Coordinator, at rodrigzg@illinois.edu.

Spring 2012 Student Conference Award Winners

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 08:00:00 CDT

Congratulations to our Spring 2012 Student Conference award winners and to all those participating students who made the conference such a success. This semester, we had a first for EUI in the form of multimedia panel presentations from students in our pilot multimedia course program, and the inauguration of an award category for those presentations. EUI awards went to: Will DeWayne Leone for his panel presentation, "How Visible Queer Culture Solidifies Privilege and Segregation in Queer Spaces at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"; Shanita Cadney for her multimedia presentation, "Student Workers Relationships within University Dining"; Leong Wai Kin, Ao Wai Hou, Tong Kin Wai for their poster presentation, "International Perspectives on the Relationship between Citizenship and Service in the University Context"; and a special multimedia poster award was also given to the ART 191/RHET 233 classes for "Documenting Allen Hall's LBGTQIA Community." All award winners received a $25 gift card to the Illini Union Bookstore. Congratulations also go to Janir Nuno da Cruz on being the winner of the University Library's EUI Poster Award, for his "Greek Life at UIUC: Is racial segregation an issue?" Janir also received a $25 gift card to the IUB. An honorable mention was also given by the Library to Ip Weng Si, Wong Tin Kei, and Kuan Hong Cheng for their poster "Dorm Life: Does living in the residence hall change your sleep patterns?" We would like to especially thank Merinda Hensley for her continued support of and work with EUI and the support of the Library for making the poster sessions possible, the Community Informatics Initiative for their support of our program, the Library/IT Student Fee Committee for their support of our pilot multimedia program, and our CITES Academic Technologies and Digital Media partners for their ongoing technology and training support.

Fall 2011 Student Conference Award Winners

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:00:00 CST

Congratulations to our Fall 2011 Student Conference award winners, and to ALL the students who made the conference a resounding success. For the first time in the history of EUI's biannual student conferences, we had three poster sessions -- 26 poster submission in total -- and three panel presentation winners! To see who won, and for links to all the posters and videos of our panel presentations, please see our News and Announcements page.