Ryan Gregg and Danielle MacCartney Receive 2019 Wilma Roswell Messing Jr. Faculty Award

The Office of the Provost is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2019 Wilma Roswell Messing Jr. Faculty Award:  Ryan Gregg, associate professor in the Department of Art, and Danielle MacCartney, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology. 

Since 1977, the Messing has been awarded to full-time faculty members for internationally focused summer activities that will strengthen the curriculum and improve the teaching/learning experience. Faculty proposals are peer-reviewed by an appointed University committee. 

“This year, we had excellent proposals, several of which focused on creating and enhancing study abroad opportunities for our students,” said Nancy Hellerud, vice provost.  “We are fortunate that the Messing funds have grown and this year allowed the committee – for the first time – to name two recipients. We look forward to the results of their work.” 

Gregg: Curricular Development Art

Gregg will spend three weeks in the Netherlands and Belgium in the summer of 2019, focusing on the development of curricular opportunities for art, design, and art history students in an effort to establish a more regular study abroad destination at Webster’s Leiden campus and a short-term study abroad destination in Antwerp, Belgium.

In Leiden, Gregg will explore available facilities, faculty, resources, and opportunities to develop a program grounded in the traditional art practice of the region, from the Dutch Baroque to Van Gogh. In Antwerp, he will work to build relationships with institutions to develop a short-term study abroad course that explores the transalpine exchange of culture and art in the sixteenth century.

MacCartney: Undergraduate Research Development

MacCartney will spend four weeks in Athens, focusing on the development of an undergraduate research lab that will allow students to collaborate on inequality and organizational sociology research projects.  MacCartney’s lab will expand upon the study abroad research programs she previously developed for Thailand and Ghana, as well as provide a template that other department faculty could use to incorporate undergraduate student research collaborators at Webster’s international locations. 

While in Athens, she will work to make connections with organizations where she and her students can conduct research, meet with faculty and local researchers to establish new collaborative student research projects and enhance course offerings, and recruit students from the Athens campus to participate in the projects.