72,8 km - Gesche Würfel
The Tisch Initiative fo Creative Research, in collaboration with the Center for Research and Study, is pleased to announce the recipients of the first Tisch Faculty Publishing Grant. This innovative funding opportunity supports full-time faculty members in their pursuit of publishing artistic and scholarly works across various forms and disciplines. By providing financial assistance for essential publication production-related expenses such as indexing, copyright permissions, and translation costs, this grant facilitates the dissemination of groundbreaking research and creative projects.
The inaugural grantees represent diverse departments and research interests that showcase Tisch's commitment to advancing creative knowledge production. In its first year, this grant emphasized support for early career faculty and those with contracted publications, reflecting our dedication to nurturing emerging voices and scholarship alongside established works.
Meet Our Inaugural Grantees
Gesche Würfel
Department of Photography & Imaging
The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall/Die Ab- und Anwesenheit der Berliner Mauer
This visual research project will be published by DISTANZ, Germany, in the summer of 2025 in both German and English editions. The 304-page book features approximately 200 images, interviews with 28 Berlin residents and memorial site staff, an essay by Dr. Sarah Alberti, and a preface by Christoph Tannert. Würfel's project offers a unique perspective on the legacy of the Wall for German unity by incorporating photographs of architecture, nature, and people, guided interviews, and collages of panorama images from the Stasi Records Archive. These elements allow her to locate spaces where the remnants of the Wall are still present, spaces where the physical division has ceased to exist, and spaces where the mental construct continues to persist. The publication coincides with the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, creating opportunities for cross-national dialogue during a period marked by the resurgence of Cold War politics.
Cheri Magid
Department of Dramatic Writing
A Poem and a Mistake
This limited-edition artist's book of Magid's play "A Poem and a Mistake" will be published by in.ter.sti.tial press. The play centers on a graduate student in classics who is grappling with rape in Ovid's Metamorphoses. More than a transcript, the artist's book is designed as an artwork in its own right, using an experimental format that jumps off the play's fifteen-'book' structure with folios and unconventional binding to create a book within a book within a book—mirroring Ovid's storytelling technique of stories within stories. The presentation encourages non-linear engagement with the narrative, with words arranged graphically and poetically to highlight themes and motifs. The foreword will be a scholarly essay by Stephanie McCarter, whose translation of Metamorphoses was named a best book of 2022 by The New Yorker, contextualizing the classic and the play within contemporary discourse on gender-based violence.
Daniel C Soule
Drama Department
L'Espace du Théâtre
L'Espace du Théâtre is the annual publication of LIRIS (Laboratoire International de Recherche sur les Images et la Scenographie), a global scenographic research group based at Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris. As Scientific Committee Head for North America, Professor Soule curates and introduces the North American contributions to this publication. Volume 1, set for publication in October 2025, contains the work of LIRIS 2023-24, as presented at LIRIS Global Colloquium 2024 in Paris. The upcoming Volume 2 will be of particular significance to Tisch and NYU as it will document work shared and refined at LIRIS Global Colloquium 2025 in New York City, hosted by Professor Soule and Tisch IPA. The North American contribution will also include Soule's own study, "Physical Model Building in North American Scenic Design."
We look forward to sharing updates on these innovative publications in the coming months. For questions about Tisch Creative Research or interest in future grant opportunities, please contact: tisch.research@nyu.edu
