The School of Interdisciplinary Arts at Ohio University

10/10/2026

Hello IARTS Alumni and IARTS community. Would you like a pair of socks? No matter where you are in the world, you can purchase socks and the money supports Interdisciplinary Arts research!! We have our own fundraising account- yay. Help students conduct and present research for amazing dissertations to further knowledge in the fine arts.

Donations of $30 allow you your choice of 1 pair of socks. Over $100, you get all three designs for your family.

10/08/2026

📚✨ Poetry, Art, and Medieval Manuscripts!

A few glimpses from our recent guest lecture with Dr. Marilynn Desmond, Distinguished Research Professor at SUNY Binghamton, who joined us as part of this semester’s Interdisciplinary Arts seminar, “Poetry and the Arts.”

Dr. Desmond shared fascinating insights into the illustrations accompanying medieval Italian manuscripts of the Roman de Troie, exploring the relationship between text, image, and visual storytelling.

The presentation was followed by an engaging Q&A session, with students sharing their questions, observations, and reflections.

A big thank you to Dr. Desmond for joining us and sharing her research and insights with our students!

📸 Sharing a few excerpts and moments from the session.

Documentation: Aneek Mustafa and Shruti Rao

09/29/2026

📣 REMINDER: Upcoming Guest Presentation!

Join us on Thursday, October 1, from 2–3 PM at Baker Center, Room 231 for a special presentation by Dr. Marilynn Desmond, Distinguished Research Professor at SUNY Binghamton.

As part of this year’s IARTS seminar, “Poetry and the Arts,” Dr. Desmond will discuss illustrations accompanying medieval Italian manuscripts of the Roman de Troie, a medieval narrative poem written in Old French.

📅 Thursday, October 1
⏰ 2–3 PM
📍 Baker Center, Room 231

We hope to see you there!

09/25/2026

✨ Upcoming Solo Exhibition | Between One and Many

We are excited to share Between One and Many, a solo exhibition by Fatima Taylor, a second-year IARTS PhD student, at the Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Bringing together works from the past four years alongside several new pieces, the exhibition explores individuality, solitude, belonging, and collective presence.

📅 October 16 – November 21
🥂 Opening Reception: October 16, 6–8 PM
📍 Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center, Columbus, Ohio

Come by for the opening reception and experience Fatima’s work!

09/23/2026

Every fall semester, the School of Interdisciplinary Arts offers a co-taught seminar for the first- and second-year students. The theme for this year's seminar is “Poetry and the Arts.”

The School of Interdisciplinary Arts is pleased to announce that Professor Marilynn Desmond will make a presentation for the class on Thursday, October 1 about illustrations accompanying Italian medieval manuscripts of the Roman de Troie, a medieval narrative poem written in Old French. The presentation will be held from 2-3 in Baker Center, Room 231.

Dr. Desmond is Distinguished Research Professor, Department of English, SUNY Binghamton. Dr. Desmond has published extensively on the reception of Classical texts in medieval vernacular literatures, especially French and English. She is the author of Reading Dido: Gender, Textuality, and the Medieval Aeneid (1994) as well as Ovid's Art and the Wife of Bath: The Ethics of Erotic Violence (2006).

09/12/2026

Great conference: 250 Years: The Promises and Legacy of the Declaration of Independence. Presenters Dr. Andrea Frohne and IARTS student Avery Richardson. Producer and Director of the Re-Declaration Dr. Matt Cornish and IARTS alum Dr. Dan Dennis.

08/30/2026

Congratulations to IARTS alumna Dr. Deborah Novak (PhD, 2025) on the forthcoming publication of her monograph, Dancing With Stanislavsky: A Concise Acting Technique for Dancers!

Dancing with Stanislavsky offers dancers a streamlined, accessible approach to acting technique rooted in Stanislavsky's timeless principles. Dr. Deborah Novak, an interdisciplinary scholar of dance and theater, has crafted an easy-to-read guide that bridges the gap between technical precision and a...

07/13/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Garrett Field, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology/Musicology, who recently published an article in the journal South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. The article is entitled “‘Poetry Is a Flavourful Ball’: Sinhala Poetic Prescriptions in Munidasa Cumaratunga’s Kavi Śikṣāva (Poetics), 1939.”
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2026.2681340

05/01/2026

Congratulations to our new PhD graduates, Dr. Edy Panjaitan, Dr. Joshua Vieth, and Dr. Kripa Radhakrishnan!

04/07/2026

The School of Interdisciplinary Arts is pleased to announce that PhD candidate Johanna Amaya Conejo is the recipient of the 2026 I. Hollis Parry/Ann Parry Billman Fine Arts Award.

The Billman Award is the most prestigious honor awarded to graduate students by the College of Fine Arts. Johanna will use the award to record an album titled Tejiendo lo invisible / Weaving the Invisible.

The project explores the concept of the “invisible” through extended techniques and sonic elements of traditional Colombian music that often remain unheard. The compositions—primarily for percussion—have been developed over four years under the guidance of percussionist Roger Braun, Professor of Percussion and artistic advisor for the project.

Johanna is a Fulbright Scholar and has received prestigious residencies including the Silk Road Ensemble’s Global Musician Workshop (2022, 2024), OneBeat (2017, 2022), and the Art Omi Music Fellowship (2019).