Hartwick College Students Explore Sustainable Clay Through Freedman Research
A Hartwick College research project brought together art, geology and sustainability to explore how clay cooking pots can be made with more sustainable materials and firing methods.
Megan Bryla ’26, a triple major in art, environmental studies and sustainability, and French, and Cas Markel ’26, a double major in art and art history, worked with Professor of Art Stephanie Rozene and Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad, professor of geology and department chair, on the project. The research began the previous year and continued as a multiyear collaboration, focusing on developing a flameware clay body, a type of ceramic designed for cooking, while examining the durability, thermal properties and appearance of different clay compositions.
The project also explored the connection between ceramics and food through nixtamalization, the traditional process of cooking maize or corn in an alkaline solution. The process increases the nutritional value of corn and transforms it into a corn dough known as masa. The research team investigated whether the material used to make clay cooking pots could affect the chemistry of food.
For Balogh-Brunstad, the project offered an opportunity to approach the research from both scientific and artistic perspectives.
“I think that the biggest benefit of this project is to push ourselves to think both as a scientist and as an artist,” Balogh-Brunstad said. “We need to understand and see through our different perspectives to reach our goals.”
The project also helped Bryla see connections among different areas of study.
“This research helped me find overlap in and connect my art and ENSS majors in ways I would have never imagined,” Bryla said. “Even outside of school, I’m finding connections between my knowledge of ceramics and the natural environment.”
Rozene said the project demonstrated the value of bringing different disciplines together.
“This project gave students the opportunity to work across disciplines and see how artistic practice and scientific inquiry can inform one another,” Rozene said. “That kind of collaboration can lead to new questions, new ways of thinking and a deeper understanding of the materials we work with, that have real-world applications.”
Support for the project came from the Freedman Prize for Student-Faculty Research, a competitive award established by Allen and Judy Freedman in 2002 to fund original collaborative work between students and faculty.
