The Dean of the Humanities Division and The Humanities Institute (THI) are excited to announce four Faculty Public Humanities, Digital, and Community-Engaged Research Fellows and two THI Faculty Research Fellows, who will receive support for their academic projects in the 2022-2023 academic year.
The new Faculty Public Humanities, Digital, and Community-Engaged Research Fellowships provide Humanities Division faculty with support to pursue scholarly activity that brings academic work to audiences beyond the university and/or partners with members of the public as research collaborators. The fellowship allows Humanities faculty to expand their public-facing research and builds on a strong tradition of public humanities at UC Santa Cruz.
The inaugural cohort’s projects include working on a 3D Virtual Reality experience in ancient Egypt, a decolonial travel guide, in-person and online museum exhibitions, and community-engaged research on the history of Japanese American women’s anti-racist activism.
Dean of the Humanities, Jasmine Alinder, developed this opportunity with THI to offer resources and recognition to faculty leading innovative humanities research and engaging broad communities in their scholarship. As Dean Alinder explains, “Humanities scholarship takes many forms and these fellowships are designed to encourage and support those of us engaged in public-facing scholarly activity.”
In addition to this new fellowship, THI is also supporting two THI Faculty Research Fellows next academic year. THI Faculty Research Fellowships provide faculty in the Humanities Division with one course replacement in order to pursue their research as well as a $1,000 award for research-related expenses. Preference is given to junior faculty when possible.
See the fellows’ projects below and check our newsletter and website for stories about their research in the year ahead. A list of all THI Fellows is available here.
Congratulations to the six new Faculty Fellows!
Faculty Public Humanities, Digital, and Community-Engaged Research Fellows
Renee Fox (Literature)
- Co-curate an exhibition, Werewolf Hunters, Jungle Queens, and Space Commandoes: The Lost Worlds of Women Comics Artists, at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.
Jennifer Kelly (Feminist Studies/ Critical Race and Ethnic Studies)
- Co-edit a public-facing alternative guidebook, Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Palestine, with accompanying workshops and website.
Elaine Sullivan (History)
- Co-design and -create an educational 3D Virtual Reality (VR) headset application focused on an ancient Egyptian object on public display in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley.
Alice Yang (History/Critical Race and Ethnic Studies)
- In collaboration with Bay Area groups, create an exhibition, Stop Repeating History: Japanese American Women, Memories of the World War II Incarceration, and Contemporary Transnational Antiracist Activism, at the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery at Cowell College (Fall 2023), accompanied by community outreach programs and a website with a virtual tour of the exhibit and recordings of the outreach.
THI Faculty Research Fellows
Madhavi Murty (Feminist Studies)
Sonic India: Sound and the Making of Folk Nationalisms
Emine Hande Tuna (Philosophy)
Sensitive Aesthetics