2026 Art & Science Exchange Fellows Announced

William & Mary has announced the recipients of the 2026 Art & Science Exchange (ASE) Awards, recognizing two faculty-student teams whose projects bridge artistic practice, scientific inquiry, and community impact. The $20K awards support collaborative work that expands research, fosters creative innovation, and offers hands-on learning experiences for students across disciplines. 

“The Art & Science Exchange exemplifies William & Mary's commitment to integrative, problem-solving scholarship and engaged creative practice,” said Omiyẹmi (Artisia) Green, Provost Faculty Fellow and director of the initiative. “This year’s projects create powerful opportunities for students and faculty to work side-by-side, engage global and local communities, and produce new knowledge that lives beyond campus.”

The 2026 ASE Fellows are:

- Neuroaesthetics: The Exhibition Lab
Neuroaesthetics: The Exhibition Lab transforms the Muscarelle Museum of Art into a research-active exhibition site where visitors, students, and faculty explore how aesthetic experience influences emotional, cognitive, and social well-being. Building on William & Mary’s national leadership in neuroaesthetics, the project integrates public participation, data collection, and mentorship to advance understanding of the neuroarts and expand experiential learning in museum and research environments.

Faculty: Jennifer Stevens (Psychological Sciences) and Elizabeth Mead (Art)
Student Investigators: Blythe Rae, Caroline Cha, Bella Close, Lauren Layne, and Dani Swartz

- Rasa Across Borders: An Embodied Playbook for Global Dialogue
Led by faculty across Theatre & Performance, Sociology, Dance, Applied Science, and Media & Creative Technologies, Rasa Across Borders engages performance as a tool for cross-cultural dialogue and research. Rooted in South Asian aesthetic traditions, the project collaborates with trans and gender-variant communities in India, Pakistan, and Williamsburg to generate new performance work and develop a methodological playbook for ethical, community-engaged inquiry.

Faculty: Claire Pamment (Theatre & GSWS), Indranath Mitra (Applied Science & CAMS), Diya Bose (Sociology & GSWS), Mark Williams (Theatre – Media & Creative Technologies), Valerie A. Winborne (Dance), Joshua (JoshBob) Rose (Theatre – Lighting), and Shahrzad Mazaheri (Theatre – Costume)
Student Investigators: Mayah Tiwari and Aislinh Kelley

“These projects demonstrate the unique power of interdisciplinary collaboration,” Green said. “They are driven by curiosity, community partnership, and a shared belief that knowledge and creativity are catalysts for human flourishing. We are thrilled to support and celebrate the visionary work of our faculty and students.”

In conversation about their work, ASE Fellows emphasized how art-science collaboration is reshaping research culture. 

Asked how her team sees this work redefining international research in the arts and humanities, Pamment noted, “Much globally oriented research has long been disembodied, extractivist, and punitive. Our rasa framework offers alternative embodied methods grounded in reciprocity, relationality, and resilience. We hope to initiate a long-term movement toward sustainable methodologies for international collaboration and ethical research.”

On the role of art in public life, Stevens reflected, “We want to increase the public’s view of themselves as primary stakeholders in the benefits art brings to personal and communal well-being. To understand that art impacts wellness — to embrace creativity as fundamental rather than ornamental — is to shift the paradigm away from seeing art as superfluous and toward recognizing it as necessary for human flourishing.” 

Each award supports project development throughout the academic year and will culminate in a public presentation at the 2026 Art & Science Exchange Showcase (March 23–27). Before then, join us for The Power of “the &” on Wednesday, November 19, at 5:00 PM in the Sadler Center, where ASE Fellows will introduce their projects and discuss the significance of the power of “the &”—the intellectual, creative, and communal labor of working across boundaries to imagine new ways of knowing and doing. Reception to follow.

For more information about the Art & Science Exchange and upcoming events, visit wm.edu/sites/art-and-science-exchange.