EXCEL Scholar: Jennifer Carty ’04 Researches Avant-Garde Artist for Professor’s Book

English major Jennifer Carty ‘04 (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) broadened her views of theater while conducting original research this summer for a professor’s book on experimental artist Ping Chong.

She collaborated with Suzanne Westfall, professor of English.

“Jen worked very actively and well, researching the work of Ping Chong, helping me update my bibliographies, and examining texts of his Undesirable Elements series for eventual publication as a collection,” says Westfall.

As an EXCEL Scholar, Carty participated in a distinctive program in which students collaborate with faculty on research while earning a stipend. Many of the 180 students who participate each year go on to publish papers in scholarly journals and/or present their research at conferences.

“We researched Ping Chong’s many works in theater and art installations, read and analyzed reviews, and studied his techniques and style,” says Carty. “We also retrieved all his work from New York City and archived it, because it is being donated to the Lafayette archives.”

Carty was drawn to the project because of her interest in theater. Ping Chong’s work in particular has helped stretch her ideas of what constitutes theater and how that experience affects the viewer.

“The theater that Ping Chong creates is not only for entertainment, but it is intelligent at the same time. It’s meant to make you think,” she explains. “Researching an experimental theater artist also forces you to expand upon your idea of art and shows you the risks that can be taken in theater by adding unusual elements (graphics, sounds, non-linear plots). I found the research very rewarding, because it challenged me to let go of my preconceived notions of theater and become more creative.”

Adds Carty, “I plan on going into some sort of communications field and this research has been a great help. It opens you up to nontraditional forms of communication and hones previously learned skills.”

Westfall feels the research was beneficial for her student and helped Carty grow creatively as well as academically.

“Jen is a fabulous, hard-working student, and as a veteran of my Performance Art class, uniquely trained in this field, not to mention a courageous and talented poet/artist,” she says.

Carty attributes this positive collaboration to the support she has received from her mentor.

“Professor Westfall is an excellent mentor, because she didn’t just use me for busy work. She made sure that I read everything I researched and that I learned and understood all the elements that go into Ping Chong’s development and execution of a project. She is very good natured and easy to work with. She makes EXCEL fun and interesting,” she says.

Westfall is coeditor of Theatrical Patronage in Shakespeare’s England, published last year by Cambridge University Press, and author of Patrons and Performance: Early Tudor Household Revels. In addition to publishing articles in books and journals, Westfall has presented her research at forums held by Leeds University (England), Medieval Conference, Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, and Shakespeare Association of America. She has directed more than a dozen plays at Lafayette, including Mother Courage and Her Children last March.

Adds Carty, “The great thing about Lafayette is that I actually have the opportunity to do something like this. If this were a university, I most likely wouldn’t have had this opportunity at all because the research would be conducted by graduate students. The pay is very good and the project is fun.”

Carty is a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, where she has served as new member educator. She has also had extensive experience in the theater, with roles in productions such as College Theater’s The Nativity as well asChess as a member of the Marquis Players, a student group that produces an annual musical to benefit charities. Carty also directed a campus production of the Vagina Monologues.