Two faculty members at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have been honored with Fulbright Scholar Awards for the 2002-03 academic year.
Kathy Foley, professor of theater arts, and Hi Kyung Kim, associate professor of music, join approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to 140 countries over the next year through the Fulbright Scholarship Program.
The purpose of the program, established by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and countries around the world. Fulbright Scholars are chosen on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their field. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Foley will travel to Indonesia this spring to gather information for a book on the relationship between Indonesian puppet-style performance and mask presentation, with special focus on Bali, Java, and Sunda. Her research will include interviews with puppeteers, dancers, and scholars, as well as written sources and observation of performance practice.
"It's like being a detective," Foley observed. "It's going after the remaining evidence that's embedded in stories, rituals, and initiation ceremonies in performance that make Indonesian puppetry--philosophically and theatrically--a different art form than that found in the West."
Foley has been a master of the rod puppet theater of West Java for 20 years. Her performances have been featured on Indonesian television, and she has presented exhibitions of her work regularly at museums and festivals throughout the country. An overview of her research will be presented in a future issue of the Asian Theatre Journal, and an exhibition of masks and puppets will open at UCSC in 2004 before moving on to various museums around the United States.
As part of her Fulbright Scholarship grant, Hi Kyung Kim traveled to Korea in October to teach two courses at the College of Music at Seoul National University, conduct research on Korean vocal art songs, and do fieldwork on the Shamanistic Funeral March.
She also presented a recital of her own music at the National Center for the Korean Traditional Performing Arts, sponsored by Fulbright Korea and Seoul National University. The program included the world premiere of a work she composed shortly after she arrived in Korea-- Trio SORI, for Korean bamboo flute, clarinet, and cello.
Kim is additionally working on several composition projects in Korea, including Isle of Eeo, a collaborative work with noted Korean poet Ko Un, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation at the Library of Congress, for voice and chamber ensemble.
Before traveling to Korea, Kim completed a piece commissioned by Meet the Composer, Yo-Yo Ma, and the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota for a special project Commemorating World War II, as well as a composition written for the Alexander String Quartet. She also composed a work for Korean traditional choreography, drumming, and chamber ensemble for the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, as well as a piece for percussion duo for the New Music Ensemble at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Kim's composition for solo flute was recently selected as best written piece at the 2002 Australian Flute Festival in Melbourne.
