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Provost Recommends Appointment Of Interim Director

Of University’s New Multicultural Center

COLUMBUS -- Christine Ballengee Morris has been nominated to become interim director of the new multicultural center at The Ohio State University. Morris, an associate professor of art education at Ohio State's Newark campus, was recommended to President William E. Kirwan by Executive Vice President and Provost Edward J. Ray and Vice President for Student Affairs William H. Hall.

The position reports to both the Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of Student Affairs, and members of both offices were part of the search process. Kirwan will ask the university’s Board of Trustees to approve the appointment at its meeting on Oct. 5.

Morris’ appointment is to be effective Sept. 15 and will remain in effect until June 30, 2003. In addition to her faculty appointment, Morris serves as chair of the campus Cultural Diversity Committee and is director of the Newark campus art gallery.

“Christine’s teaching and research experience, focusing on cultural arts and cultural pedagogy, combined with her own personal understanding of life as an Appalachian-Cherokee-American, make her well suited to lead the diverse components of the Multicultural Center,” Ray said. "I believe Christine has the experience, vision and leadership skills necessary to get the Multicultural Center off the ground successfully," Hall said. "Her energy and commitment to serving a diverse range of students will be a great asset as we begin this long-awaited program."

Morris is deeply involved with the Ohio Appalachian community through the Ohio Arts Council, Appalachian conferences, and festivals. She teaches courses in the community for teachers who deal with children from the Appalachia region, and shares her Appalachian-Cherokee arts and research as an artist in residence in K-12 schools and museums. Locally, she is also an active member of the Friends of the Mounds, a group of interested citizens who serve as watchdogs of the ancient Native American Octagon Mound site in Newark. She also has taught in elementary and middle schools.

Internationally, Morris is a scholar in residence in Temuco, Chile, sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council and the Chilean government, in which she works with Mapuche people to develop curriculum for indigenous and non-indigenous people. She has worked with the Guarani Tribe in Brazil since 1994 and, in 1999, was invited to share her research with Aboriginal Cultural Centers in Tasmania, Australia.

Morris serves as president-elect for the United States Society of Education through the Arts, which promotes research and publication of multicultural, cross-cultural, and diversity studies in art education. The organization is an affiliate of the National Art Education Association and International Society for Education through the Arts, of which she also is an active member. She also is a Master Mountain Cultural Flatfoot dancer.

Morris joined the Ohio State faculty in 1995, after receiving her Ph.D. in art education from Pennsylvania State University. Her bachelor’s and master’s degrees are both in art education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

The proposal for a Multicultural Center was incorporated into the university Diversity Action Plan and is intended to promote greater cultural awareness and understanding.

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