Emerging Scholars Program Faculty Viewbook

NAME: Sarah J. Bartolome, PhD

TITLE: Associate Professor, Music Education 

SCHOOL(S): Bienen School of Music

DEPARTMENT(S): Music Studies

WEB PAGE: https://sites.northwestern.edu/cseme/

AREAS OF FOCUS:

My current research is focused in three large areas: Music and Health, Gender Diversity in Music Education, and Trauma-Informed Music Education. I employ primarily qualitative research methods in answering questions in each of these areas, adopting ethnography, narrative, and case study designs as appropriate.  

POTENTIAL SUMMER 2024 PROJECTS:   

Music for Childhood Well-Being Initiative: I am the Co-lead of an interdisciplinary team that is investigating the use of group singing and breathwork to support the health and well-being of children. This initiative is sponsored by the Buffett Institute for Global Studies and is international in scope, drawing together scholars in the US, England, and Mexico. We are also planning to scale this work up in the 2024-2025 academic year, expanding to the context of China. Previous Emerging Scholars have been engaged in various aspects of this project including data collection with child participants, data processing and archiving, literature review, and data analysis. Read more here.

Singing for Health among Pediatric Single-Ventricle Patients: I am currently working with a pediatric cardiac specialist at Lurie to use our singing and breathwork intervention with children born with a single-ventricle heart condition. The Fontan Choir Project is still under development, but it is likely that I would engage an Emerging Scholar in some of this work.

Here is the hyperlink for the Buffett Project in case it doesn’t transfer when you copy:

https://buffett.northwestern.edu/documents/buffett-brief-trauma-music-and-the-breath.pdf

NAME: Danielle Robinson Bell

TITLE: Assistant Professor, Clinical

SCHOOL(S): Medill

DEPARTMENT(S): IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications)

WEB PAGE: https://www.medill.northwestern.edu/directory/faculty/danielle-bell.html

AREAS OF FOCUS: 

My work focuses on strategic communications and its impact on business outcomes for organizations, brands, and executives. I specialize in efforts that advance culture, equity, and inclusion in corporate environments and the marketplace.

POTENTIAL SUMMER 2024 PROJECTS:

There are two projects that could be in play by summer ‘24: 1)  I will be working with Gender IDEAL (www.gender-ideal.org) on the development and roll out of their data-driven insights platform designed to help companies meet their gender equity goals. 2) I will be examining the C-suite as a career achievement marker and how that marker (and the sense of achievement) differs among identity groups.

NAME: Mesmin Destin, Ph.D. (he/him)

TITLE: Associate Professor

SCHOOL(S): WCAS and SESP

DEPARTMENT(S): Psychology and Human Development and Social Policy

WEB PAGE: https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/who-we-are/faculty-experts/destin.html

RESEARCH FOCUS:

In my lab, we study the experiences of students who face marginalization in educational settings. We often use experiments to design and test how particular programs or supports can affect the way that students see themselves, how motivated they feel to pursue their goals, their academic outcomes, and their health and well-being.

POTENTIAL SUMMER 2024 PROJECTS: 

This summer, we will be working on multiple projects with middle school, high school, and college partnerships. This may include work focused on supporting K-12 teachers and college faculty to build stronger relationships with students. This may also include work related to a community of student support at a university focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

NAME: Melissa Foster              

TITLE: Associate Professor of Instruction           

SCHOOL(S): School of Communication

DEPARTMENT(S): Theatre (Music Theatre)

WEB PAGE: Melissafostervoice.com

AREAS OF FOCUS: 

Melissa Foster is a Professor of Instruction in the dept of Theatre in the School of Communication. She specializes in musical theatre, pop styles, the history and performance of hip-hop, and opera/musical theatre crossover. Her scholarly book project,  “Don’t Sweat the Technique: A Performers’ Guide to Hip-Hop and Rap” will be released by Rowman and Littlefield Publishing on Nov 15, 2023.

POTENTIAL SUMMER 2024 PROJECTS: 

Her current research endeavor is with Oxford University Press. She has been charged with writing the Chapter om Western Musical Theatre Pedagogy for “Oxford University Press Vocal Pedagogy Handbook.”  This will involve discussing not only pedagogical practices and strategy, but Foster will be spending this year researching the changing landscape of musical theatre as an artform, so it can reflect the world today, and speak to today’s issues. She’d love to involve you in this important process.

NAME: Alyssa D Garcia, PhD

TITLE: Assistant Professor of Instruction and WCAS Advisor

SCHOOL(S): Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences 

DEPARTMENT(S): Gender & Sexuality Studies Program

AREAS OF FOCUS:

Dr. Alyssa Garcia is a first generation Dominican-Cuban Latina, born and raised in New York City. She received her BA in Cross-Cultural Psychology from Brown University and earned her PhD in Anthropology from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  Dr. Garcia is a Weinberg College Adviser and Assistant Professor of Instruction in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Prior to her arrival to NU she taught at Pennsylvania State University and DePaul University. Her teaching and research interests include Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Ethnic-Latina/o Studies, Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Feminist Ethnography, African Diaspora Studies, and Applied Anthropology.  Dr. Garcia’s manuscript project examines the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in Cuba through an analysis of discourses of sex-work and the body. “Moral Discourses, Regulated Bodies: Sex, the State, and Subjectivity in Cuba,” is a historically grounded ethnography that traces chronologically the public supervision and state regulation of black female bodies in Cuba.  I will be expanding this project to focus on representations of AfroCuban women in testimonios, hip hop, and film.

POTENTIAL SUMMER 2024 PROJECTS: 

Garcia’s more recent project investigates the secondary migrations of the Dominican community in the state of Pennsylvania. This “urban” ethnography compares different spheres of activism and social injustices in five Pennsylvania locales according to issues such as anti-immigrant legislation, police violence, domestic violence, racial profiling, deficient public schooling, political organizing, and labor integration.