Center for Creative Photography, College of Fine Arts, School of Art

Two Arizona Arts projects will receive funds from the 2024 Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Faculty Seed Grant Program from the Office of Research, Innovation & Impact and HSI Initiatives. 

The HSI Faculty Seed Grant Program supports scholarly research and creative endeavors that promote the flourishing of traditionally underrepresented and under-resourced communities on campus and beyond.

“The scholarship supported by the HSI Seed Grant Program highlights our faculty’s expertise, creativity, community-mindedness and interdisciplinary ambitions,” said Elliott Cheu, interim senior vice president for research and innovation. “The proposals accepted in 2024 serve as a beacon for the coming months, welcoming all scholars who aim to improve the lives of their diverse communities.”

The Arts, Health, and Binational Resilience: 
A Photovoice Conversation on Immigration Journeys through the U.S- Mexico Borderlands

PI | Tarnia Newton, College of Nursing
Co-PI | Amy Kraehe, Arizona Arts/Racial Justice Studio; Carissa DiCindio, School of Art; Denisse Brito, Center for Creative Photography

Membrana Semipermeable: Data, the Ongoing HIV/AIDS Crisis and the U.S-Mexico Border
PI | Marcos Serafim, School of Art

The Arts, Health, and Binational Resilience: 
A Photovoice Conversation on Immigration Journeys through the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

PI | Tarnia Newton, College of Nursing
Co-PI | Amy Kraehe, Arizona Arts/Racial Justice Studio; Carissa DiCindio, School of Art; Denisse Brito, Center for Creative Photography

Project Description
Tarnia Newton, assistant clinical professor in the College of Nursing, is the principal investigator on this cross-disciplinary collaboration with co-principal investigators Amy Kraehe, associate vice president for equity in the arts; Carissa DiCindio, associate professor at the School of Art; and Denisse Brito, learning and engagement manager for the Center of Creative Photography, along with the College of Nursing’s Lisa Kiser, associate clinical professor, University of Sonora’s nursing program and the Inter-American Institute of Higher Education both in Sonora, Mexico.

(A “photovoice conversation” refers to a participatory process that combines photographic image-making with written or oral narratives to engage individuals in documenting and reflecting on their lived experiences.)

“This project has the power to transform our understanding of migration journeys through this binational collaboration and photography,” said Brito. “The CCP mobile app (CCP Interactive) serves as a crucial repository for this cultural exchange, gathering responsive and bilingual pieces that will be invaluable for future research.”

This project has immense transformative potential, offering an innovative approach to understanding migration journeys through a unique binational partnership. The exhibition will display visual narratives created and curated by students to help generate a new knowledge of health and resiliency in the U.S-Mexico border regions.

“This is an amazing opportunity to creatively engage in equity-minded work that crosses disciplinary boundaries and national borders while advancing the teaching, research and service missions of the University,” Kraehe said. 

Marcos Serafim, frames from video components from “Membrane Semipermeable”

Membrana Semipermeable
Data, the Ongoing HIV/AIDS Crisis and the U.S.-Mexico Border
PI | Marcos Serafim, School of Art

Project Description 
“Membrana Semipermeable” is an immersive audiovisual installation that lends immediacy to a complex entanglement of physiological, sociopolitical, and anthropological matters that relate to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the U.S-Mexico border. At the periphery of both countries’ economies, the region is affected by systemic disparities that coexist with institutional racism and structural violence. The project explores queer-mestiza/o-PLWH (person living with HIV) subjectivity employing audiovisual documentary strategies and cutting-edge tools for image processing and data visualization. Acknowledging the demand to connect across fields of difference, the project establishes networks of information between dispersed and seemingly unrelated data and is generated at the critical intersections of artmaking, research production, and technological development. 

Serafim, assistant professor for the School of Art in Photography, Video, and Imaging, is a Brazilian artist working with audiovisual media across theatrical exhibitions and installations. This is the third year in a row that he’s received HSI Faculty Seed Program Grant money. 

“It’s just incredible to be able to have support and do a project that questions critically so many things that I care about,” Serafim said. 

2023 HSI Faculty Seed Grants

  • Philip Alejo, School of Music, “Commissioning and Performing New Music from Latinx Composers for Double Bass and Harp” 
  • Gabriela Ocadiz, School of Art; Carissa Deindio, School of Art; Ryan Shin, School of Art; Kelsey Nussbaum; School of Music, “Partnering Through the Arts: Collaborating with Native American Communities in Tucson”

2022 HIS Faculty Seed Grants

  • Amy Kraehe, School of Art, “Creative Resistance Among Undergraduates at Two Hispanic Serving Institutions: Arts Integrated Youth Participatory Action Research”