Miami Student

Issue date: 11/10/06 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Doug Capadona Junior Emily Thomas views the "Cocoon Dehiscence" photography exhibit

As a path that has been traveled on for more than two millennia, the Silk Road is once again painted in the rich shades of its cultural history with "Cocoon Dehiscence," the new art exhibit in Miami University's Alumni Hall's Cage Gallery.

The exhibit, featuring hundreds of dangling square photographs, opened Wednesday, Nov. 8, and was preceded by a panel discussion of five Miami professors who took place in the Silk Road Project this past summer - the 42-day trip into Central Asia that inspired the exhibit. The route followed the ancient Silk Road from its origins in Xinjiang, China, to Turkey.

"So many of the things we saw were so bright, so striking," said Mary Frederickson, associate professor of history at the panel discussion.

In total, 15 Miami professors went on the trip, drawn from a variety of academic departments ranging from comparative religion to geography.

The professors received funding for the project through grants from the Havighurst Center, a Fulbright-Hays award, and multiple other sources within and outside the university.

"We received the Fulbright-Hays funding as part of a larger project to develop curriculum in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies," said Lynn Stevens, program coordinator for the Havighurst Center.

Stevens said that each faculty member had the responsibility of doing research, presenting papers, and meeting with colleagues at other universities during their travels. Then, each professor had to create a permanent course that must be taught at least three times during a five-year period. As the project began a few years ago with the process of applying to grants, some of these classes have already been offered while others are in development.

The Silk Road Project, besides being born out of natural curiosity and research opportunities, was designed to form bonds and create connections that would bridge the East and West, old and new, past and future.

"It was a challenge, always, to cross borders yet we made connections and we unraveled many cocoons," said Karen Dawisha, a professor of political science and the director of the
Havighurst Center.

Leaving in May 2006, the group followed the ancient trade route from China to Turkey, passing through such countries as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. At the panel discussion, each faculty member had his or her own experience to share - whether in pictures, videos or words.

"I personally was very affected by the contrasts between China and the former Soviet countries of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan," Dawisha said. "Nothing could have prepared me for how that economy is growing right across China. (But then) to go across that border and see how economically depressed the situation is in the countryside of Kyrgyzstan was also a shock."

Now, blue lights trickle down upon the hundreds of square photographs in the Cage Gallery, each capturing one snapshot of the group's journey.

"The most valuable experience was the interaction with the local people," said Yihong Pan, a Miami history professor who was part of the group. "(We were able to interact) either through (attending) semi-formal seminars at the local academic institutions, visiting local bazaars, using gestures or brief English, or through daily interactions with the local guides."

The exhibit is free to the public and will remain in Alumni Hall's Cage Gallery until Nov. 30.

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