University of North Texas 
DENTON (UNT), Texas — With support from the Institute for the Advancement of the Arts
(IAA), three University of North Texas professors are pursuing transformative and meaningful creative research projects
as 2025-26 IAA Fellows.
UNT launched the IAA in 2009 to support and advance excellence in the visual, performing, creative and literary
arts. Each year, the university selects professors to be part of the Faculty Fellows
program, which enables UNT faculty to spend a semester focusing on creative endeavors
that will deepen their scholarship, enhance their teaching and elevate UNT’s national
profile.
The 2025-26 IAA Faculty Fellows are:
Josh Gilbert | Stop-motion film focused on grief and end-of-life decisions
Gilbert, assistant professor of practice in media arts in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, will create a short film titled Trophies. The film will follow a man with a terminal illness who, facing his final days without
the support of family or friends, takes comfort in the inanimate objects in his room
and the memories they spark.
Gilbert was inspired to make Trophies by personal experiences and conversations with others surrounding end-of-life care
for loved ones.
“It’s easy for a lot of people to talk about horror movies or crime podcasts, but
when it comes to discussing our own mortality, the subject suddenly becomes too upsetting
or morbid to focus on. Because of that, so many questions and preparations we could
have started with loved ones are put on hold,” Gilbert said. “I wrote the script with
the goal of starting that conversation.”
Gilbert will create the short film using stop-motion animation, a medium that he first
encountered while working in television. While animation tends to be time-consuming,
Gilbert said his passion for it — as well as the film’s subject matter — make it a
natural choice. The project will also include the creation of a script-to-screen documentary
intended to explain the production process and help students learn more about creating
animated content.
“No matter what media-related career path you’re pursuing, more experience means more
opportunities to find new passions. And of course, experience makes you a more well-rounded
and knowledgeable creator,” Gilbert said. “This project is giving me a chance to do
that, too.”
Gilbert is an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer whose television work includes
animation, game and talk shows, reality, variety and network half-hour shows. He has
also sold film pitches and scripts to studios and production companies including Universal,
Disney, Paramount and New Line. Currently, he is developing independent film projects
with a Texas-based production company.
Sungji Hong | New chamber work premiere with Hand Werk ensemble in Cologne, Germany
Hong, associate professor of composition in the College of Music, will create a new chamber work for multiple instruments. The piece will premiere
in Summer 2026 in Cologne, Germany, and will be performed by the ensemble Hand Werk, an internationally acclaimed group celebrated for their work in contemporary music.
Chamber music is a type of classical music written to be played by a small group,
usually with just one player per musical part. Hong’s new work will be written for
flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano.
“Chamber music offers an intimate dialogue between individual voices and the collective
sound of an ensemble,” Hong said. “Hand Werk brings a rare blend of precision and
imagination that will help bring my vision to life.”
Following its world premiere in Germany, Hong and Hand Werk will perform the new work
at UNT’s Voertman Hall as part of a 60-minute portrait, or retrospective, concert
of Hong’s chamber works. The concert will be open to the UNT community and the public.
“Writing music is often a long and challenging process, but hearing it performed live
is incredibly rewarding,” Hong said. “It’s a reminder that every bit of effort and
persistence is worth it.”
Hong’s music has received praise from BBC Music Magazine, The Daily Telegraph and The New York Times. Her compositions include works for solo instruments, orchestra, chorus, ballet and
electro-acoustic media. Her work “Missa Lumen de Lumine,” performed by the vocal ensemble
Trio Mediaeval, received critical acclaim and reached the top ten on the Billboard
Classical Chart and iTunes classics. Hong’s work has been performed in over 47 countries
and 213 cities, broadcast in more than 17 countries and won 54 distinctions and prizes.
Binod Shrestha | Exhibition and performance artwork exploring violence, memory and
displacement
Shrestha, professor in the College of Visual Art and Design (CVAD), will create a 30-to-60-minute theatrical production featuring over 40 performers
and local community members in Kathmandu, Nepal, where the piece will premiere. The
production is informed by Shrestha’s personal experiences and ongoing research into
inherited memory and violence, and how those factors affect individuals’ bodies, minds
and environments.
“Violence plays a very important role in world politics and history. The history of
humanity is the history of violence,” Shrestha said. “I’m thinking about how that
shapes us as people.”
The production will be filmed and will include multimedia elements like drawings,
soundscapes and fabricated art objects. When the production run ends, Shrestha hopes
to exhibit the elements in galleries in Boston and Dallas, giving CVAD students an
opportunity to see and interact with the work. He said the multi-sensory experience
will provide audiences with an immersive window into his artistic process.
“I’m interested in how other artists frame these topics across different mediums,
whether on a canvas or through a camera frame,” Shrestha said. “I tend to do installation
work and sometimes temporary work, so this multi-sensory approach became a natural
way for me to think about these subjects.”
Shrestha is the inaugural director of CVAD’s Foundations program, a studio-based program open to all first-year UNT CVAD majors. He is an artist who
works across media and is the recipient of more than a dozen awards, grants and residencies.
He is one of the recipients of the 2025 Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Grant.
In 2023, he was the recipient of the Master Educator Award from Foundations in Art:
Theory and Education (FATE), serving as the 2023-25 vice president of development
for FATE.