{"id":276,"date":"2010-10-04T11:59:59","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T15:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/?p=276"},"modified":"2019-11-15T11:38:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T16:38:59","slug":"jennifer-blackmer-creative-endeavor-awardee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/2010\/10\/04\/jennifer-blackmer-creative-endeavor-awardee\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Blackmer\u2014Creative Endeavor Awardee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Blackmer<\/a>,\u00a0assistant professor of\u00a0theatre<\/a>,\u00a0might have been a physicist or an astronomer by now. In some ways, perhaps she is. When her post-high school choice between a major in drama or physics turned out in favor of a collegiate theatre program, Blackmer was launched toward a career in the arts that would come to encompass her indelible love of science.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved science, but I mistakenly thought that in choosing theatre I had to put all of that aside, and I did for the next several years during undergrad,\u201d she says. She realized in graduate school that she could successfully combine her interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mission is to remind students that science is accessible,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of students feel as though they aren\u2019t allowed to think about or do science because they aren\u2019t scientists themselves. That\u2019s an idea I get out of their heads right away, because the scientists that I think have the most impact are those who realize that scientific inquiry is about everybody and for everybody in the world that science serves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackmer\u2019s talent for communicating complex ideas to wide audiences makes a lasting impression on her students. Former student Kate Lumpkin, \u201908, remembers working on\u00a0Daughters of Trinity<\/em>, a play about the creation of the atom bomb. The play, performed on campus in spring 2010, was the result of an\u00a0immersive learning\u00a0class, The Women of the Manhattan Project. Blackmer creatively demonstrated complex scientific ideas, Lumpkin says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is one section where the stage directions painted such a vivid image,\u201d she says. \u201cThe two scientists begin dancing with one another in a metaphorical representation of what it feels like to work intimately with someone and to be synced up so seamlessly with them, that you no longer know whose ideas are whose.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jennifer Blackmer (center) advises students during a playwriting class.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThat one scene shines a fascinating light on a question so many people have of \u2018How do such horrible weapons of destruction get created?\u2019 Jen showed it as a dance! I remember that that was such a powerful image to me at the time, and today, when describing her as a playwright to others, I always start with describing the genius of that scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumpkin says Blackmer is skilled at whittling complicated ideas down to core truth so that everyone can relate and find an emotional connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe breaks down the walls of science and then gives the audience the tools to rebuild them, while being thoroughly entertained and enveloped in a human story,\u201d says Lumpkin.<\/p>\n

In addition to receiving the Creative Endeavor Award in August 2010, Blackmer also received an Excellence in Teaching Award, the latter allowing her to design and teach a \u201cdream class\u201d\u2014for Blackmer, a course called Science on Stage.<\/p>\n

In October 2010, Blackmer was the keynote speaker at a seminar, Creating a Culture of Research on Campus, to an audience of scientists and teachers on the campus of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, but it was not the first time she has presented to scientists. In March 2007, her students performed for an audience of 400 scientists in Washington DC as part of the national conference for the Council on Undergraduate Research. The play,\u00a0The Human Faustus Project<\/em>, was about genetic engineering and was an original and \u201cradical reimagining\u201d of Christopher Marlowe\u2019s classic play,\u00a0The Tragical Historie of Doctor Faustus<\/em>. The crowd was wildly enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey treated the students like rock stars,\u201d says Blackmer. \u201cThey waited for autographs afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Daughters of Trinity directed by Jennifer Blackmer.<\/p><\/div>\n

Michael O\u2019Hara, associate dean for the\u00a0College of Fine Arts<\/a>,\u00a0says, \u201cNoted politicians, scientists, and professors from across the country have seen this play, and many commented on the power of the script and its ability to synthesize and humanize the difficult questions the unraveling of the human genome prompts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackmer coauthored the original play with the 15 students who participated in a\u00a02006 seminar<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry<\/a>.\u00a0O\u2019Hara says the play \u201cresists clich\u00e9d attacks against science or simplistic moralizations on human behavior and motivation. It intelligently and compassionately investigates one of the great questions with which humanity must grapple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackmer\u2019s most recent work,\u00a0Human Terrain<\/em>, is about a controversial military program that sends anthropologists to Iraq. The play tells a story about an American anthropologist in Iraq who must balance her responsibilities to the U.S. military with her newfound friendship with an Iraqi woman.<\/p>\n

The play\u2019s theme is very much in line with Blackmer\u2019s exploration of interdisciplinary studies and the interest in science and philosophy demonstrated in most of her work.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara says Blackmer\u2019s \u201coutstanding creative work is matched by her excellent record of teaching and service here at Ball State University. Her student and peer evaluations document an extraordinarily effective teacher who possesses considerable creativity, energy, and dedication. She is, quite simply, the \u2018total package,\u2019 an active, effective, and highly valued member of the Department of Theatre and Dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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