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Art, Architecture, and Design

Explore the various projects below categorized under the general theme of Art, Architecture, and Design. Be sure to return to the Barrett College Fellows Program main page and explore projects under the other 11 themes as well. You might be surprised at what you find and maybe you will discover the perfect research project for what you hope to study!

Please do not contact the research centers or faculty listed below directly (a formal application process is a required step to joining these research opportunities).

For questions about the Barrett College Fellows Program or specific research projects, please contact Dr. Sarah Graff at: BarrettCollegeFellows@exchange.asu.edu.

Back to Barrett College Fellows main page

Research projects

Project # 12

Center name: Arizona Research Center for Housing Equity and Sustainability
Campus/Location: Flexible to remote and/or in-person
Faculty lead: Deirdre Pfeiffer

Project description

Land availability presents a major challenge to solving interrelated crises of housing availability, affordability and security in Arizona’s increasingly land locked and built out urban areas. This research will draw on data from local regulations and stakeholder interviews (subject matter experts and neighborhood residents) and use content and thematic analysis to explore the potential for adapting garages and driveways to support new housing in socioeconomically diverse single-family home communities in the Phoenix metro area.

Special skills needed

Passion for issues related to social justice and the interconnection between well-being and the urban built environment (buildings, infrastructure systems, green/natural/open spaces), interest in learning more about how housing is related to social justice and wellbeing, self-directed, strong communication skills, reliable, adeptness at Excel, interest in qualitative research methods (understanding the world through textual data collected from people and regulations)

Majors

Any social science major

Years

First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025), 2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Health and Wellness, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Project # 27

Center name: Dr. T's Research Lab
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Gunes Murat Tezcur

Project description

Dr. Güneş Murat Tezcür is Professor and the Director of the School of Politics and Global Studies. He studies comparative politics and explores political violence and politics of identity with a focus on Iranian, Kurdish, Turkish, and most recently, American human geography. His scholarship has appeared in many leading scholarly journals and his recent book "Liminal Minorities: Religion and Mass Violence in Muslim Societies" was published by Cornell University Press in 2024. He is currently pursuıng a comparative research project that explores how past atrocities are remembered (or forgotten) through public memorials, symbols, and narratives.

How are sites of atrocities transformed into places of remembrance as opposed to entertainment, consumption, or habitation? How do memorials, monuments, and museums shape the politics of reconciliation? How do marginalized communities create memorials and spaces that challenge hegemonic discourses and perceptions in such sites? Alternatively, how are collective memories of violence being silenced and prevented from transmission across generations? The project has a deliberately comparative edge and aims to document memorials as well as voids locally (Native American landscape in Arizona), nationally {Black landscapes in the United States), and cross-nationally (minorities in the Middle East). Barrett Fellows will think about politics of remembrance and forgetfulness with a focus on the experience of marginalized communities are encouraged to develop honor theses based on this project. Participation in this project may require travel within Arizona.

Special skills needed

Curiosity about the role violence plays in human affairs, the legacies of past atrocities on contemporary issues, the ways in which collective memories and public memorials are constructed, contested, and how marginalized groups express themselves, challenge hegemonic discourses and representations, and articulate alternative histories and remembrances.

Majors

Political Science, Global Studies, History, Art, Anthropology

Years

3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Humanities, Law, Justice, and Public Service, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Project # 36

Center name: MSD, Space Architecture & Extreme Environments (SAEE)
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Elena Rocchi

Project description

Barrett Honors students will participate in SAEE Barrett Research programs, including:
1) Working in the labs of the Interplanetary Initiative, The Next Lab, and the Luminosity Lab, contributing to cutting-edge science, with one student per lab.
2) Engaging in supply chain management within the Business program to contribute to designing the first Starbucks in space, with one student.
3) Participating in the SAEE Barrett Global Flex program in Rome, one of the space capitals of the world, providing an ideal environment for this program and open to all.
The faculty lead is Elena Rocchi, working in collaboration with the different lab directors, program heads, and faculty abroad. By the time of application, new opportunities in labs and cities may arise, so students are encouraged to schedule a meeting with me, as the leading faculty member, to discuss available placements and opportunities in more detail.

Special skills needed

Self-Time Management; Design Capacity and Interest in Making Things; Collaboration and Teamwork; Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving; Adaptability and Flexibility; Attention to Detail; Interpersonal and Cross-Cultural Communication; Initiative and Drive; Technical Competency; Global Perspective

Majors

Architecture,
Industrial Design,
Graphic Design (for virtual simulations/technologies),
Computer Science (for virtual simulations/technologies),
Design, Arts,
Mechanical Engineering,
Civil Engineering,
Urban Planning,
Business Administration (Supply Chain Management),
Environmental Design,
Aerospace Engineering,
Biomedical Engineering (for health-related research in space),
Materials Science,
Sustainability Studies,
International Studies (for global perspectives),
Electrical Engineering (for wearable technology design),
Physics (for space science and research applications)

Years

2nd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work), 3rd Year Students

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Education, Engineering, Health and Wellness, Humanities, Journalism, Communication, and Mass Media, Law, Justice, and Public Service, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Project # 51

Center name: Center for Global Health
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Amber Wutich

Project description

AW4A’s goal is to advance water security in Arizona’s most water-insecure households. Our international, interdisciplinary team works under the leadership of MacArthur Fellow, Dr. Amber Wutich. Based on the premise that it is impossible to create meaningful environmental justice impacts in communities without establishing trust and committing to long-haul connections with those communities, we are building a multi-stakeholder network facilitated through a partnership between Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU) and the University of Arizona (U of A) to engage and co-develop projects with water-insecure communities across the state.

At the AW4A network, we expect to create in-person and virtual spaces that allow stakeholders who are experiencing water insecurity to learn from each other, build leadership and advocacy capacity, and enhance existing opportunities for collaboration. Fully integrated into the AW4A team, the Barrett College Fellow will take a leading role in building this collaborative network, developing and implementing the effective relationship building and communication strategies that are vital to its success. This involves hosting workshops and webinars, as well as maintaining newsletters, blogs, graphic creations, and other media tasks to keep our partners and community engaged with our work.

Special skills needed

We are seeking a dynamic student invested in learning how to create and maintain relationships with multiple stakeholders involved in socio-environmental issues (i.e., water security in low-income communities) across Arizona. Skills that are valued are:
Strong written and verbal communication skills that enhance the quality of team and project outputs.
Critical thinking and problem-solving skills to deal with unexpected situations.
A desire to work on complex problems as part of an interdisciplinary team.
Curiosity and learning mindset about stakeholder engagement and community-based research.
Minimum basic understanding of Spanish.
Ability to work with Canva or other graphic design software.
Ability to work with Mailchimp or other newsletter design and distribution software.

Majors

Business, management, marketing, and related support services,
Marketing/marketing management,
Multi-/interdisciplinary studies,
Journalism,
Environmental studies,
Communication sciences and disorders,
Anthropology,
Global Health,
Liberal arts and sciences/liberal studies,
Graphic design,
Digital communication and media/multimedia,
Environmental design/architecture,
Geography,
Environmental/environmental health engineering

Years

First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025), 2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Law, Justice, and Public Service, Art, Architecture, and Design, Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Data Analytics and Mathematics, Education, Engineering, Health and Wellness, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Project # 64

Center name: Center for Science and the Imagination
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Ed Finn

Project description

The Center for Science and the Imagination is building a community climate futures project with the town of Guadalupe. Students joining this project will participate in a collaborative research program working with elders and high school students in the Guadalupe community to imagine resilient, positive futures in the face of climate change and other challenges. Activities will include designing and implementing monthly activities for community members to imagine hopeful futures and connect community heritage and history to aspirational goals for the future. Some examples of previous workshop themes include quilting and fabric arts, visual arts, cooking, music. This work draws on methodologies from the fields of design research (such as co-design and speculative design), foresight and futures (including trend analysis and worldbuilding), and the humanities (speculative fiction and personal narratives). Students will support the project through ideation and implementation, community engagement, data analysis, and sharing of research findings with the Guadalupe community and other audiences.

Special skills needed

Required: Collaboration, communication, creativity, reliability, and a sense of adventure
Interest in community-based work, futures foresight

Majors

All majors are encouraged to apply

Years

First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025), 2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Education, Health and Wellness, Humanities, Journalism, Communication, and Mass Media, Law, Justice, and Public Service, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Project # 70

Center name: Active Schools & Communities Lab
Campus/Location: Downtown
Faculty lead: Allison Poulos

Project description

Join Dr. Poulos in the College of Health Solutions and an interdisciplinary research team to support our local communities to make the streets safer for walking, riding, and rolling. On this project, you would assist with data collection including conducting surveys and environmental assessments of street and neighborhood conditions, tallying pedestrian and vehicular traffic counts, data management, and dissemination of results. Our project will measure changes in behavior and attitudes after the installation of protected bike lanes, and provide a great opportunity for hands-on, community-based research with community partners in government and non-profit spaces.

Special skills needed

Interest in health, sustainability, safety, design; Interest in community-based work; Preferred availability on Wednesdays or Thursdays

Majors

Health Education, Health Promotion, Public Health, Population Health, Kinesiology, Health Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Design, Sustainability, Psychology, Education

Years

First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025), 2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Engineering, Health and Wellness, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Project # 72

Center name: Active Schools & Communities Lab
Campus/Location: Downtown
Faculty lead: Allison Poulos

Project description

Interested in helping schools make informed decisions to support physical activity when it's hot? Join our study to learn about the strategies used and challenges schools face; and collect data to identify thermal exposure among children playing in different schoolyard environments. This project will include collecting some primary data at schools in the Phoenix region and working with existing data. Our team collaborates and supports other labs at ASU including Dr. Vanos' Human Biometeorology Lab and Dr. Middel's SHaDE lab.

Special skills needed

Interest in learning about OR experience with data collection (observations, interviews, environmental sensoring); Data entry; Data analysis; Creating reports/presentations; Preferred availability on Wednesdays

Majors

Health Education, Health Promotion, Public Health, Population Health, Kinesiology, Health Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Design, Sustainability, Psychology, Education

Years

First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025), 2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Education, Health and Wellness, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Project # 99

Center name: SolarSPELL
Campus/Location: Flexible to remote and/or in-person, Tempe, Fully remote
Faculty lead: Laura Hosman

Project description

SolarSPELL is seeking a music production intern to assist in the editing and production of songs that reflect the mission and values of our global educational initiative. The final product(s) will be used in various media and outreach initiatives, enhancing our organization's branding and storytelling efforts. This role offers the unique opportunity to apply music editing skills in a meaningful way, contributing to an organization that aims to improve access to education in resource-constrained regions to children around the world.

Special skills needed

- Experience in music production, including audio editing, mixing, and mastering
- Proficiency in music production software
- Strong attention to detail and the ability to work independently while meeting deadlines
- Globally minded; you have a desire to work for a department that serves communities from all over the world

Majors

All majors

Years

First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025), 2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Education, Humanities, Journalism, Communication, and Mass Media, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Project # 115

Center name: ASU Percussion Program/ New Morse Code
Campus/Location: Fully remote
Faculty lead: Michael Compitello

Project description

The Language of Landscapes Hub (LoL Hub) is a multi-media public digital resource designed to encourage action on climate change through engaged and collective observation and communication. LoL Hub combines field recordings and collectively recorded/performed music; interviews with humanities scholars and scientists; and models for community activities generated by musical ensemble New Morse Code (Hannah Collins and PI Michael Compitello), composer Christopher Stark, and participants in a number of community engagement activities throughout the US. LoL Hub will expand these in-person activities along lines recommended by humanities scholars and project consultants, encouraging members of the public to engage with one another’s acoustic ecologies, sonic history, and community priorities through the creation of a publicly available database of field recordings and musical compositions.

Project
Work with faculty lead Michael Compitello on creating a public-facing LoL Hub database and public interface, including ArcGIS, UI design, and StoryMap creation.

Assemble and tag project resources, design ArcGIS framework and additional content, including professionally recorded video interviews, photos/videos taken at project sites, and suggested reading/listening/activities.

Work with Compitello to design and create ArcGIS map, and ArcGIS StoryMaps, which will present project- and site-specific information for all extant project locations, introductions to the scholarship of project experts and consultants, and guidance for user participation. Create and add to the database of field recordings.

Special skills needed

ArcGIS, Database creation and editing, Geotagging sound files, photos, and videos, Meta-data tagging of sound files with component sounds (birds, water, wind, or specific musical instruments), Web editing: this project is primarily in ArcGIS and StoryMaps, but experience in web design is a plus, Experience in video and audio editing

Majors

Geographic Information Science (Online and in-person), Data Analytics, Global Futures, Innovation in Society, Sustainability, Media Arts and Sciences, Graphic information technology, Music, Interdisciplinary Studies

Years

ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work), 4th Year Students- Seniors

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Humanities, Sustainability

Project # 124

Center name: This is a Barrett Dean's Fellow initiative ("Culture & Community Lab"). Our pro…
Campus/Location: Flexible to remote and/or in-person
Faculty lead: Mathew Sandoval

Project description

The mission of this public humanities project is to document the history of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in the Phoenix metro area and explain its cultural significance. We're focusing on Xicanindio (Shee-can-een-dee-oh), a multidisciplinary arts organization founded in Mesa in 1975. This collective of Chicano & Native American artists produced the first public celebration of Día de Muertos in El Valle (the Valley). Their annual festival led directly to the creation of other Day of the Dead celebrations throughout the Phoenix metro area. Our project utilizes oral history interviews and archival research to trace the historical development of Día de Muertos from the 1970s to now.

In AY 2024-2025 we will be mounting a museum exhibition at ASU's Hispanic Research Center. This will require Research Fellows to participate in curating the show, creating a website, filming & editing video, creating multimedia presentations, developing promotional materials, and other creative activities, while familiarizing themselves with the history of Day of the Dead in El Valle. Research Fellows can also expect to help perform oral history interviews with local artists, conduct research at the ASU Library and Mesa Arts Center, co-write publications, and help create media assets (documentary short & podcast).

Special skills needed

Creative skills - art, photography, film, performing arts, graphic design; Writing; Critical thinking; Research skills (primary & secondary sources); Event planning

Majors

We welcome students from all majors. However, it's important that students have an interest in Mexican American, Native American, and/or African American culture & history, since those are the communities we're researching. Students with a general interest in local Arizona culture & history are also welcome. We currently have students from History, Journalism, Engineering, Business, Medical Studies, and Biology.

Years

2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Humanities, Journalism, Communication, and Mass Media

Project # 127

Center name: Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies
Campus/Location: Flexible to remote and/or in-person
Faculty lead: Keith Brown

Project description

The Melikian Center is part of the Content Advisory Group for the USS Phoenix Cold War monument and memorial, under design for the Steele Indian School park in Phoenix. Providing research, writing and other logistic support, this project seeks students with interests in Cold War history, non-profit organization, city administration, education or art and design. The project would include liaising with designers, educators, historians and technical writers to curate historical content for panels that will provide context for visitors to a new monument centered on the remains of the USS Phoenix, an attack submarine that was in service during the Cold War. For more see https://www.ussphoenixmonument.org/

Special skills needed

Interest in historical interpretation, Writing and research skills, Interest in working collaboratively, User-centered design, Interest in military history, and or memorialization

Majors

American Studies, Applied Military and Veteran Studies, Architectural Studies, Business (Tourism), Communication, English, Global Studies, History, International Relations, Military Studies, Public Policy (Parks and Recreation Management), Urban Planning, User Experience

Years

ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work) 3rd Year Students 4th Year Students- Seniors 2nd Year Students

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Education, Humanities, Journalism, Communication, and Mass Media, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Project # 129

Center name: CACTUS Music Lab
Campus/Location: Tempe, Flexible to remote and/or in-person
Faculty lead: Lindsey Reymore

Project description

The qualities and characteristics of sounds—what sounds sound like—are fundamental to musical experience. These attributes constitute timbre, sometimes also referred to as “tone color.” The aim of the current project is to better understand cognitive representations of musical timbre through a study of timbre description run in parallel across multiple languages and locations using a single, unified protocol. Identification of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural consistencies and inconsistencies will provide insight into which dimensions of timbral meaning may be physiologically based, and which may be more strongly influenced by learning.

Faculty lead: Dr. Lindsey Reymore
Accepting 1 student

Special skills needed

relevant skills: data analysis, coding in R, familiarity in running/analyzing behavioral studies, fluency in a language other than English or study of one or more languages, interest or experience in music

*I don't expect students to have all these skills, just listing what is relevant!

Majors

psychology, music, linguistics, any languages (eg French, Spanish, etc)

Years

4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work), 3rd Year Students

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Social and Behavioral Sciences