Dr. Sarah Angne Alfaro
<b>Department:</b> Construction Management and Interior Design<br><b>Research Area:</b> Local Community. Exploring human and environmental dimensions of wellbeing in built environments through design, sociology, and religious studies.<br>
Department: Construction Management and Interior Design
Research Focus: Local Community. Exploring human and environmental dimensions of wellbeing in built environments through design, sociology, and religious studies. Sacred places in transition.
Potential Student Project(s):
The reuse of sacred buildings is a sensitive issue. These built environments are references to something beyond themselves; they are reflections of the culture they serve; they are created and changed continuously by the ways they are used as well as the meanings attached to them. Literature recounts sacred places being altered toward profane roles (churches into nightclubs) and sacred places being converted from one religion to another (a Protestant church to a Jewish synagogue). This projects asks:
1. What contributes to the sacredness of spaces?
2. How, and why, is sacredness defined and designed as spaces transform?
We will look at sacred spaces in and around Muncie to further understand these social, spatial, and spiritual dimensions of sacred spaces that transform. You will learn about qualitative data collection: observations, interviewing, and document review. You will learn about data analysis and even professional writing. You will even design!
Attributes/skills/background sought in undergraduate: Interior design, architecture, driven, creative, organized.
Mentoring Plan:
- Student commits to a total of 5 hours a week on the project
- Attend client meeting, literature reviews, data collection, data analysis, writing, design
- Meet one-on-one remotely and/or in-person 1 hour a week
- To debrief and review project deliverables
- Collaborate on a project that advances a scholarly agenda with clear expectations and outcomes that are achievable within a time commitment
- Submit to a peer-reviewed conference and write a peer-reviewed journal article with student
Contact: 513-309-3048, AT 247