Merry Lynn Morris MFA, Ph.D., is the Interim Chair for the Dance Program. She holds an MFA degree in Dance Performance and Choreography and a Ph.D. in Dance Studies. Dr. Morris has served on the dance faculty at USF since 1998. Her background experience in dance includes extensive classical ballet training and professional performance experience expanded by undergraduate (USF alum.) and graduate study in various contemporary dance techniques/styles and other dance forms. Dr. Morris applies her movement expertise in novel and diverse ways, pursuing interdisciplinary endeavors that yield innovative products. Her interdisciplinary work intersects with disability studies, design, architecture, engineering, and health sciences. She began exploring the area of integrated/inclusive dance in 2002, and her experience as a caregiver to her disabled father over a 21-year period fostered a personal connection to disability needs/advocacy. Morris is active in the dance and disability community at local, regional, national, and international levels through teaching, research, leadership, and activism. She collaborates frequently with Arts4All Florida, a statewide arts and disability organization, and serves in Dance/USA's Deaf and Disability Affinity Group. Dr. Morris' artistic research often explores the interface between human bodies and objects - the tension through which agency and power are negotiated in these relationships and the way identity is de-constructed/reconstructed. This interest coalesced with her work in disability, leading her to re-conceptualize the design of assistive technology from a dance perspective. She has worked collaboratively across the domains of dance and engineering to invent new mobility devices. Dr. Morris has been featured/interviewed by MSNBC, PBS, CNN, NPR's Science Friday, the Reader's Digest, and the Inventor's Digest (cover story). She has also been a guest speaker and a profiled inventor (2018-19) at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Publications include 5 U.S. Patents and over 45 scholarly research products - print and artistic.