GLASSCOCK CENTER HUMANITIES RESEARCH THE
AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
2023-2024
MISSION & HISTORY
The Glasscock Center is dedicated to fostering and celebrating the humanities and humanities research among the community of scholars at Texas A&M University and in the world beyond the academy.
The Glasscock Center supports humanities scholars in a variety of ways, including residential fellowships, research fellowships, grants to co-sponsor events, funding for working groups, publication support, development of research initiatives, and other awards for independent and cross-disciplinary research in the humanities. Fellows and grant recipients foster the Center’s ongoing programs and growth through faculty and graduate colloquia, visiting scholar activities, and numerous lectures. Annually, the Glasscock Center recognizes outstanding original, interdisciplinary humanities scholarship with an internationally recognized book prize, the Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize, that is accompanied by a guest lecture from the recipient.
The Board of Regents of Texas A&M University created the Center for Humanities Research in 1999, following over a decade of growth of the Interdisciplinary Group for Historical Literacy Studies. In 2002, Melbern G. Glasscock ’59 and Susanne M. Glasscock bestowed a naming endowment for the Center. Their extraordinary gift constitutes a sustaining endowment, which enables the Center to support high-caliber humanities research.
The Glasscock Center is a unit of the College of Arts & Sciences and is located on the third floor of the Glasscock Building on the Texas A&M University campus.
Susanne and Melbern Glasscock
Humanities:
Humanities
Energy
A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
The Glasscock Center enjoyed another full and successful year. Texas A&M University completed its second year following a major reorganization, which included the merger of the legacy colleges of Geosciences, Liberal Arts, and Science into the College of Arts & Sciences, as well as the spread of some humanities disciplines into other reconfigured and newly-created schools and colleges.
In consequence, the Glasscock Center has never been better positioned to pursue its founding mission to serve the humanities across the university as a whole. The Center’s faculty and graduate internal research fellows came from nine departments across four colleges and schools, and our cohort of Undergraduate Summer Scholars represented nine majors. Our sponsored and co-sponsored activities drew partners and participants from across the university. Likewise, we welcomed four Short-Term Visiting Fellows, whose Texas A&M faculty nominating hosts hailed from three colleges and schools.
We bid farewell to our longstanding initiative, Humanities: Land, Sea, Space. Established by former Glasscock Center Director Emily Brady in 2018 and led these past two years by the Center’s postdoctoral fellow, AJ Baginski, the initiative brought together a wide range of humanities and humanistic social science scholars both within and external to Texas A&M. Our newest initiative, Humanities and the Anthropocene, launched this year. Led by Adam R. Rosenthal, Alberto Moreiras, and Teresa Vilarós-Soler, this three-year initiative aims to explore the global and local impacts of climate change by bringing humanistic, social, and natural scientific modes of inquiry into conversation. To that end, the initiative hosted multiple international symposia, a seminar series, and guest lectures on a wealth of related topics. To these activities, as the following pages attest, can be added a wide range of events that either took place in the Center or received Center support to take place elsewhere on campus. Among the latter was the Fire Arts: Past and Futures conference in which scholars and artisans came together to explore smithing by recreating three historical furnaces from early modern European and Pre-Columbian cultures.
A highlight of the year was the awarding of the 24th Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize to James Morton Turner for Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future. Over the spring and summer, a small army of Texas A&M faculty, doctoral students, and celebrated teachers from the Bryan and College Station school districts worked through a mountain of nominated books to first select six finalists and then the winner. Morton accepted the prize from the Glasscocks, who returned to campus for the reception and public lecture.
Serving this year as the Glasscock Center’s director has been another fulfilling experience. I am reminded daily that the humanities and humanistic perspectives are as critical as ever as we consider the problems of the past, grapple with the challenges of the present, and ponder what trials the future may bring. More than ever, we are thankful to Melbern and Susanne Glasscock for the generous naming endowment they provided the Glasscock Center over two decades ago, as well as their continued support.
Troy Bickham
Director and Susanne M. and Melbern G. Glasscock Director’s Chair
Professor of History
GLASSCOCK CENTER STAFF
TROY BICKHAM
DIRECTOR
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY
AJ BAGINSKI
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
LEIGH STANISLAW
PROGRAM COORDINATOR
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTS
ANANYA SRINIVAS
MATTHEW THOMAS
JESSICA RAY HERZOGENRATH
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
INSTRUCTIONAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT
ANGELA MAYORGA
AMANDA DUSEK
MEGAN BODILY
FACULTY ADVISORY BOARD
NADA AL-JAMAL GRAD. STUDENT REP.
HEIDI CAMPBELL PROFESSOR | COMMUNICATION & JOURNALISM
LEONARDO CARDOSO ASSOC. PROFESSOR | PERFORMANCE, VISUALIZATION & FINE ARTS
JOHN CASELLAS-CONNORS ASST. PROFESSOR | GEOGRAPHY
MICHAEL COLLINS ASSOC. PROFESSOR | ENGLISH
SARA DOWD LECTURER | PSYCHOLOGICAL & BRAIN SCIENCES
SIDE EMRE ASSOC. PROFESSOR | HISTORY
THEODORE GEORGE PROFESSOR | PHILOSOPHY
KEVIN GLOWACKI
ASSOC. PROFESSOR | ARCHITECTURE
TAZIM JAMAL
PROFESSOR | HOSPITALITY, HOTEL MANAGEMENT & TOURISM
ARCASIA JAMES-GALLAWAY
ASST. PROFESSOR | TEACHING, LEARNING & CULTURE
ALEXANDRA LAGRAND GRAD. STUDENT REP.
LAKKIMSETTI ASSOC. PROFESSOR | SOCIOLOGY
ALAIN LAWO-SUKAM
ASSOC. PROFESSOR | GLOBAL LANGUAGES & CULTURES
DAWNA SCHULD
ASSOC. PROFESSOR | PERFORMANCE, VISUALIZATION & FINE ARTS
ZACHARY STEWART
ASSOC. PROFESSOR | ARCHITECTURE
SHELLEY WACHSMANN PROFESSOR | ANTHROPOLOGY
THE 24TH ANNUAL SUSANNE M. GLASSCOCK BOOK PRIZE
The prize, first awarded in 1999, was permanently endowed in December 2000 by Melbern G. Glasscock ’59 as a gift for his wife, Susanne, for whom the prize is named. This unique prize celebrates outstanding works of original, interdisciplinary humanities scholarship that appeal to both academic and wider audiences. The $10,000 prize is awarded at an annual event that includes a public lecture by the winning author.
Following an international call, books are nominated by their publishers. Committees of Texas A&M scholars and celebrated teachers from the surrounding school districts then select finalists. From the six finalists, one is chosen by a final selection committee. This year’s book award was presented to James Morton Turner for his book Charged:AHistory of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future (University of Washington Press, 2022).
JAMES MORTON TURNER
CHARGED : A HISTORY OF BATTERIES AND LESSONS FOR A CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE
To achieve fossil fuel independence, few technologies are more important than batteries. Used for powering zero-emission vehicles, storing electricity from solar panels and wind turbines, and revitalizing the electric grid, batteries are essential to scaling up the renewable energy resources that help address global warming. But given the unique environmental impact of batteries—including mining, disposal, and more—does a clean energy transition risk trading one set of problems for another?
In Charged, James Morton Turner unpacks the history of batteries to explore why solving “the battery problem” is critical to a clean energy transition. As climate activists focus on what a clean energy future will create—sustainability, resiliency, and climate justice—the history of batteries offers a sharp reminder of what building that future will consume: lithium, graphite, nickel, and other specialized materials. With new insight on the consequences for people and communities on the front lines, Turner draws on the past for crucial lessons that will help us build a just and clean energy future, from the ground up.
THE FALLON-MARSHALL LECTURE SERIES
The Fallon-Marshall Lecture was established in 1994 by Mary Marshall as an event to discuss current issues in the humanities and social sciences. Named after Marshall and former dean of the legacy College of Liberal Arts Daniel Fallon, the annual lecture provides the opportunity to share the outstanding scholarship happening within the College. The Glasscock Center hosts the series on behalf of the College of Arts & Sciences.
This year’s Fallon-Marshall lecture was delivered by Carlos Blanton, Professor of History. Blanton presented his public lecture, “The Texas State of Mind,” on April 10, 2024.
THE TEXAS STATE OF MIND:
Blanton’s talk examined key public moments of Texas history and how they demonstrate that a broader, more public understanding of Texas history has nearly always been about the present as much as the past.
HUMANITIES: LAND, SEA, SPACE INITIATIVE
Humanities and social science scholars have long studied land, but recent catastrophic changes through global warming have shifted many discussions, raising geopolitical, environmental, and social justice issues. New transdisciplinary work has emerged that addresses diverse topics, such as water and food insecurity, energy cultures, coastal and island communities, the Anthropocene, deep time, extinctions, and ecological loss. Scholars and artists are producting creative and imaginative work that explores nature-society interactions.
Established in 2018 by former Glasscock Center Director Emily Brady, Humanities: Land, Sea, Space (HLSS), the Center’s transdisciplinary research initiative exploring a range of environmental issues and challenges by applying humanistic methods of scholarship, concluded its final year of programming in 2023-24.
HLSS organized and co-hosted various events and activities with the aim of benefiting and impacting a broad intellectual community. Events sponsored by the HLSS initiative were free and open to the public.
EVENTS
Landscapes of Belonging: Poetry Workshops and Recital, Featuring Raina J. León and Janel Pineda
September 21, 2023
Additional support provided by the MSC Woodson Black Awareness Committee, the Race & Ethnic Studies Institute, Africana Studies, the English Department’s Geographies of American Literature Initiative, and an AVPA Arts Engagement Grant
AfroLatinx Life & Writing Symposium
February 29, 2024
Featuring: Jennifer Gómez Menjívar (University of North Texas), Keishla Rivera-López (Princeton), Omaris Z. Zamora (Rutgers), Regina Mills (TAMU), Mayra Santos-Febres (UPR-Río Piedras)
Additional support provided by The Carlos H. Cantu Hispanic Endowment, an AVPA Arts Engagement Grant, the English Department’s Geographies of American Literature Initiative, the MSC Woodson Black Awareness Committee, and the Race & Ethnic Studies Institute
Unearthing Texas Histories
April 25, 2024
Featuring: Valentina Aduen (TAMU), Amanda Mixon (Texas State), JD Pluecker (artist), Emily Brady (TAMU), AJ Baginski (TAMU)
This final event of the HLSS initiative concluded with reflection from initiative founder Emily Brady (previous Director of the Glasscock Center) and final convenor AJ Baginski on what the Initiative has made possible in terms of the Environmental Humanities at Texas A&M and elsewhere.
This year’s programming resulted in a special journal issue in Latin@ Literatures entitled “Landscapes of Belonging.” Check it out at lob.latinoliteratures.org
HUMANITIES AND THE ANTHROPOCENE INITIATIVE
The Humanities and the Anthropocene: Life, Temporality, Extinction (HAI) is a three-year initiative led by Adam R. Rosenthal, Alberto Moreiras, and Teresa Vilarós-Soler, from the Department of Global Languages & Cultures (GLAC), and sponsored by the Glasscock Center under our Glasscock Research Initiatives program.
Featuring a multidisciplinary group of international collaborators, HAI aims to explore the global and local impacts of climate change, global warming, and environmental degradation, for both complex biological systems and human notions of time and being. Open to all, the initiative will host annual conferences, lectures, and workshops at TAMU, bringing humanistic, social, and natural scientific modes of inquiry into conversation.
This year, the initiative launched its first of three years of programming at the Glasscock Center.
EVENTS
Golden Spikes Symposium | Inaugural Initiative Kick-Off Event
September 28, 2023
Featuring: Joshua DiCaglio (TAMU), Teresa Vilar ó s-Soler (TAMU), Marcelo L ópez-Dinardi (TAMU)
Conceiving of Earth: Surface, Skin and System | Graduate Student Symposium
October 19, 2023
Featuring: Fernando Varela (Texas Lutheran University), Bruce Clarke (Texas Tech University), Emily Johansen (TAMU)
Supported by a Glasscock Symposium and Small Conference Grant, Co-sponsored by GLAC and the Humanities: Land, Sea, Space Initiative
Limits of the Living | Symposium
November 2-3, 2023
Featuring: David Wills, Deborah Goldgaber, Kelle Dhein, Richard Doyle, Valeria CamposSalvaterra, Maddalena Cerrato, Katie Chenowith, AJ Baginski, Armanda Mastrogiovanni, Bruno Penteado, Rene Luis Garcia, Ronald Mendoza De-Jesus, Joshua DiCaglio, Michael Ardoline, Patrick Gamez, Teresa Vilar ó s Soler, Raul Carrillo Covarrubias, Meg Perret, Rodrigo De Los Santos Alamilla, Ananya Usharani Ravishankar, Marion Nachon, Rafael Fernandez Lopez, Rachel Cicoria, Michael Portal, Adam R. Rosenthal
Additional support provided by the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Global Languages & Cultures, and the College of Arts & Sciences
The Ecognosis Seminars
February 21-22, 2024
Featuring: Richard Doyle (Penn State)
Physics, Life, Gaia: In Context | Symposium
March 20, 2024
Featuring: Alicia Juarrero, Deborah Goldgaber, Donald Spector, Patrick Gamez, Michael J. Ardoline, Armando Mastrogiovanni, Alberto Moreiras, Adam R. Rosenthal, Michael Portal
Why Context Matters | Public Lecture
March 21, 2024
Featuring: Alicia Juarrero | President and Co-founder, VectorAnalytica Inc. and Visiting Research Scholar (University of Miami)
Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence | Seminar
March 21, 2024
Featuring: Alicia Juarrero | President and Co-founder, VectorAnalytica Inc. and Visiting Research Scholar (University of Miami)
Transubstantiation: Human Fire Use and the Time of the Earth
April 25, 2024
Featuring: Nigel Clarke (Lancaster University)
ENERGY HUMANITIES AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH
The Energy Humanities and the Global South (EHGS) research cluster supports scholarship that approaches our contemporary climate crisis through the study of energy, including carbon-based and renewable energy forms, and that promotes energy transition. Led by Carmela Garritano (Department of International Affairs) and Christian Brannstrom (Department of Geography), EHGS investigates the social, ideological, artistic, ecological, labor, gendered, and racialized relations that are produced by, attach to, and disrupt energy systems and infrastructures. More specifically, EHGS seeks to understand energy from perspectives situated in the postcolonial and developing world and to facilitate processes of energy transition that are equitable and just.
The Glasscock Center provided a year of seed funding to the EHGS cluster in 2023-24.
EVENTS
Melt, Rise, and the Future of Water: A Climate Story
January 29, 2024
Featuring: Cymene Howe (Rice University)
Sweet Fuel: Brazilian Ethanol in Historical Perspective
February 12, 2024
Featuring: Jennifer Eaglin (Ohio State University)
Understanding Small Hydropower in China’s Southeast Frontier, Yunnan Province
March 28, 2024
Featuring: Thomas Ptak (Texas State University)
PUBLICATIONS SUPPORTED BY GLASSCOCK PROGRAMS
“ “
This grant has helped me finish a major writing project and to make significant progress on new writing projects. Most crucially, the grant allowed me to access archival materials located in France to which I would not have had access otherwise.
- Christopher Bonner, Global Languages & Cultures
Real Soldiering: The US Army in the Aftermath of War, 1815-1980
University Press of Kansas, 2023
Brian McAllister Linn, History | Internal Faculty
Residential Fellowship
Wildlife Ethics: The Ethics of Wildlife Management and Conservation
Wiley-Blackwell, 2023
Clare Palmer (co-author), Philosophy | Internal Faculty Residential Fellowship
The Architecture of Modern American Synagogues, 1950s–1960s
Texas A&M University Press, 2023
Anat Geva (Emeritus), Architecture | Internal Faculty
Residential Fellowship
Cold War Negritude: Form and Alignment in French Caribbean Literature
Liverpool University Press, 2023
Christopher T. Bonner, Global Languages & Cultures | Faculty Research Fellowship
Russia’s Army: A History from the Napoleonic Wars to the War in Ukraine
University of Oklahoma Press, 2023
Roger R. Reese, History | Publication Support Grant
LAW & SOCIETY SERIES SPOTLIGHT
The Law & Society Working Group, convened by Katherine Unterman from the Department of History, hosted three roundtable events with Texas A&M faculty from various departments as they spoke about important legal issues from their own disciplinary perspectives.
EVENTS
The Trump Trials
January 31, 2024
Featuring: Lorien Foote (History), Randy Gordon (School of Law), David Koepsell (Philosophy)
Chopping Down the Fourth Branch of Government
March 27, 2024
Featuring: Trent MacNamara (History), James R. Rogers (Political Science), Daniel Walters (School of Law)
The Supreme Court’s Code of Ethics
April 16, 2024
Featuring: Susan Saab Fortney (School of Law), Linda Radzik (Philosophy), Michael K. Shaub (Mays School of Business)
FACULTY & GRADUATE
COLLOQUIUM SERIES
The Glasscock Center hosts colloquia of works-in-progress throughout the year, offering our fellows an opportunity to discuss their research with colleagues from different disciplines. Colloquium presenters provide a draft of their current research, which is made available to members of the Glasscock Center listserv. Each colloquium begins with the presenter’s short exposition of the project, after which the floor is open for comments and queries. The format is designed to be informal, conversational, and interdisciplinary.
Huyen Nguyen | Educational Administration and Human Resource Development
Work-life Balance of Vietnamese Female Faculty
Maddalena Cerrato | International Affairs
Autographic Praxis and Infrapolitics
Robin Veldman | Global Languages & Cultures
Who claims that climate change is a religion, and why? Evaluating Claims of Religious (In) authenticity in Contemporary US Politics
Chaitanya Lakkimsetti | Sociology
“Hang the Rapists Immediately”: Rape Vigilantism, State Violence, and Impunity in Contemporary India
Susanneh Bieber | Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts
Inflatable Worlds
Regina Mills | English
Is There Such Thing as a Latinx Game?
Kevin O’Sullivan | English
Artifice in Edifice: Edmund Spenser’s Architectural Reading of Ormond Castle
Theodore George | Philosophy
In what context should we understand ourselves? From world to globe, planet, and back
Zachary Riggins | English
“Knowing was like dying”: Painful Epiphanies and the Trauma of Microaggressions in Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstones
Valentina Aduen | Communication & Journalism Legal Activism in Heirs’ Property Law Reform: A Legal Rhetorical Paradigm for Social Change
Michael Portal | Philosophy
Language and Nationality by Death: Rethinking Citizenship with Heidegger, Derrida, and Blanchot
Anand Datla | Geography
Drought, Despair and Uneven Distributions
Denise Meda-Lambru | Philosophy
Reciprocal Sustenance and Altar Spaces: An Ethical Grounding for Invoking Death
Tristan Krause | History
“The Dramatic Sequel to the War”: The U.S. Army, The International Tracing Service, and the Search for the Missing, 1945-1950
Haley Burke | Philsophy
Situating Tradition Aesthetically: Toward a Hermeneutic Theory of Aesthetic Value
Ewurama Okine | Global Languages & Cultures
Gender Agreement in the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea
TOTAL NUMBER OF AWARDS
FUNDING PERCENTAGES
UNDERGRADUATE FACULTY GRADUATE
WORKING GROUPS
$353,135 Total Funding Awarded
IMPACT
The Glasscock Center Internal Faculty Residential Fellowship allowed me to make major progress on my book by giving me the two most essential ingredients for good scholarship: time and space. Being away from the hustle and bustle of my regular office on campus, and being able to focus only on writing and fieldwork gave me a clarity of mind that is simply not achievable during a normal semester.
I hope that my book will have a lasting impact on scholarship in my field, and it would have had little chance of doing that without the Glasscock Center’s support. I feel very fortunate and am immensely grateful to have been part of this incredible fellowship program.
- Robin Veldman, Global Languages & Cultures | Internal Faculty Residential Fellowship
Teaching three highly motivated students in the UGSS program proved to be one of the most rewarding and intellectually stimulating experiences as a college professor. I had expected the course to be rewarding, but I did not expect the students to challenge themselves as well as the professor on a daily basis. I enjoyed the challenge of teaching contemporary race relations and social justice in the U.S., and watching the students grapple with complicated ideas and concepts and offer fresh perspectives.
- Albert Broussard, History | Faculty Director, Undergraduate Summer Scholars Program
With [this grant], we could seize an opportunity to bring in a high-profile scholar from Princeton University doing cutting edge work on a matter of extreme interest to everyone working in the Humanities.
- Evan Haefeli, History | Notable Lecture Grant
I made immeasurable progress with my project, my general research, and my professionalization. The Glasscock Graduate Residential Fellowship is a sincere, important, and increasingly rare commitment to graduate student research and professional development. The positive impact of this kind of opportunity on a graduate student – for everyone must realize and agree that time is invaluable, and more time is but only one perk of this
award – is hard to overstate or exaggerate. The people behind the Glasscock Center who make all of this possible have created an environment that is extremely productive and supportive – a true oasis. I am lucky and grateful to have received this fellowship and support, and I am overjoyed that this kind of opportunity exists at the university and for its graduate students.
- Michael Portal, Philosophy | Graduate Residential Fellowship
During his visit to campus, Dr. Adunbi shared energy-humanities research with important implications for faculty and students at Texas A&M, a land-, sea- and space-grant university and a leader in research and education regarding how humans interact with and impact the environment.
- Carmela Garritano, International Affairs | Faculty sponsor for Adunbi’s Short-Term Visiting Fellowship
The Glasscock Faculty Research Fellowship gave me the opportunity to share my work as part of the Glasscock Colloquium series. Receiving comments from colleagues, learning about my colleagues’ work, and engaging in lively discussions across the humanities was highly rewarding.
- Susanneh Bieber, Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts | Faculty Research Fellowship
INTERNAL RESIDENTIAL FELLOWS
FACULTY
Recipients of the annually awarded Internal Faculty Fellowships receive a semester-long teaching release in the fellowship year, a $1,000 research bursary, and an office in the Glasscock Center for the fellowship year.
THEODORE GEORGE CHAITANYA LAKKIMSETTI
Professor Philosophy Associate Professor Sociology
“ROBIN VELDMAN
Associate Professor
Global Languages & Cultures
The Glasscock Center for Humanities Research Faculty Residential Fellowship was the opportunity I needed to put my new book project in motion -- the fellowship provided me with the vital time, support, and chances for collaboration that have made the difference for the quality of my work and my timeline to completion.
- Theodore George
“
INTERNAL RESIDENTIAL FELLOWS GRADUATE
The Glasscock Graduate Residential Fellows receive a monthly stipend during their semester of residence, coverage of tuituion and fees, a $1,000 research bursary, and office space in the Glasscock Center to focus their efforts on writing their doctoral dissertations.
VALENTINA ADUEN
Communication & Journalism
“DENISE MEDA-LAMBRU
Philosophy
The [Graduate Residential] fellowship ensures you’re provided the funding to develop your research without having to spread yourself out so thin. Had I not received the fellowship, I would have been teaching two classes…[while] still doing job market related things and trying to finish my dissertation.
- Denise Meda-Lambru
Philosophy
“English
ZACHARY RIGGINS
MICHAEL PORTAL
RESEARCH FELLOWS FACULTY
These fellowships are designed to address research funding needs to complete a book project, major article or series of articles, or other research project that makes an impact in the recipients’ field. Fellows receive a $5,000 research bursary.
SUSANNEH BIEBER
Associate Professor
Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts
MADDALENA CERRATO
Assistant Professor International Affairs
Assistant Professor English
Associate Professor English
REGINA MILLS KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
RESEARCH FELLOWS GRADUATE
The Glasscock Center annually funds a number of Graduate Research Fellowships at $3,000 each to support research that will directly advance the student’s doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis.
HALEY BURKE
Philosophy
ELIZABETH CARLINO
Geography
ANAND DATLA
Geography
TRISTAN KRAUSE HUYEN NGUYEN
History
Global Languages & Cultures
Educational Administration & HR Development
Anthropology
EWURAMA OKINE
OLIVIA THOMAS
SHORT-TERM VISITING FELLOWS
The Glasscock Center Short-Term Visiting Fellowships bring distinguished scholars, artists, and performers to Texas A&M University. Both individuals and groups of Texas A&M faculty may nominate Visiting Fellows who will contribute to the Glasscock Center’s mission to foster and celebrate the humanities and humanities research at Texas A&M.
Fellows’ visits typically last five days, during which they give a public presentation of their work, as well as engage with faculty and students via such activities as workshops and classroom visits.
OMOLADE ADUNBI
Professor, University of Michigan
Host:
Carmela Garritano
International Affairs and the Energy Humanities research cluster
“Let’s Set Them Ablaze”: Energy Practices, Climate Crisis, and the Social Death of the Environment in Nigeria
Public lecture
September 20, 2023
Dr. Adunbi was in residence at Texas A&M during the week of September 18, 2023.
MAYRA SANTOS-FEBRES
Professor, University of Puerto Rico
Host: AJ Baginski
Humanities: Land, Sea, Space initiative of the Glasscock Center
Afro-Latinx Poetry: an Invisibilized Canon
Keynote lecture of the AfroLatinx Life & Writing Symposium
February 29, 2024
Dr. Santos-Febres was in residence at Texas A&M during the week of February 26, 2024.
JEN ATKINS KAORU WATANABE
Associate Professor, Florida State University Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist
Host: Jessica Ray Herzogenrath
The Glasscock Center and Department of History
“It’s Just like Swan Lake!”: Movement and Meaning in Popular Culture
Public lecture
March 6, 2024
Dr. Atkins was in residence at Texas
A&M during the week of March 4, 2024.
Host: Martin Regan Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts
Incense
Public Performance
March 7, 2024
Watanabe was in residence at Texas A&M during the week of March 4, 2024.
UNDERGRADUATE SUMMER
The Undergraduate Summer Scholars program (UGSS), a collaboration between the Glasscock Center, the University Writing Center, and LAUNCH Undergraduate Research, provides high-impact research experiences in the humanities through an intensive summer research experience that sharpens students’ research and writing skills, positioning them for competitive applications for graduate and professional school. Summer Scholars receive a $2,000 scholarship for participation.
Scholars enroll in a two-week intensive seminar taught by their respective Faculty Directors and complete a series of writing workshops. Then, Summer Scholars develop individual research thesis proposals for submission to the LAUNCH Undergraduate Research
Scholars thesis program for projects that they will complete during the academic year under the guidance of their Faculty Director.
In summer 2024, five faculty-directed seminars supported fifteen scholars from nine majors, making this is the largest cohort in the history of the program. This cohort is financially supported by the Glasscock Center, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.
“As a Glasscock Summer Scholar, the program has not only granted me the opportunity to explore my own academic interests, but has introduced me to new schools of thought. I believe that kind of collaborative spirit is what makes research so innovative and nuanced.”
- Sidney Uy Tesy, Scholar
SCHOLARS PROGRAM
“As an UGSS Faculty Director, I appreciate the opportunity to work closely with a small group of undergraduates who are serious about their research. I am grateful to have had three intensive weeks in May during the summer session to do what I can to provide them with the research tools and methods that they need to be able to do advanced scholarship.”
- Ira Dworkin, Faculty Director
UNDERGRADUATE SUMMER
CIVIL RIGHTS AND RACIAL JUSTICE IN THE AGE OF GEORGE FLOYD
The seminar examined civil rights and racial justice initiatives conducted by grass-roots and established civil rights organizations over the past three decades. It explored in what areas progressive leaders have achieved progress and where the nation and leaders have made little progress. Despite the election of Barack Obama as president in 2009-2017, inequality among Black Americans in some areas such as income, education, housing, and access to health care, remain significantly behind White Americans. The seminar examined civil rights and race relations through the life of George Floyd, an African American who met a brutal death at the hands of a white policeman. It also assessed the emergence of new organizations, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the implications of aggressive policing in African American communities.
Alexis Brasher | History
Nicholas Jensen | Classics
Addison Silver | Sociology
FACULTY DIRECTOR
Albert Broussard Professor | History
SCHOLARS PROGRAM
CULTURES OF THE U.S. CIVIL WAR
The United States Civil War continues to resonate throughout a variety of cultural forms and media. This summer seminar helped students to develop projects related to the literary, material, and visual culture of the war and its aftermath. In particular, this seminar provided students with training in using primary source documents, historical newspapers, periodical databases, and other digital resources to undertake research on the nineteenth-century United States. The seminar provided experience in interdisciplinary research methods, using primary and secondary sources, with particular attention to the visual and material archives of the era, including photography, painting, and printing. The seminar was framed for participants to consider the war in its widest possible contexts, not limited to the battlefield, but rather to consider relationally the voices and works of women, children, disabled people, African Americans, and others who were, at different times, excluded from military service. Readings provided historical and visual context for the era, which students were invited to pursue further depending on their research interests.
SCHOLARS
Mario Martinez Alfaro | History
Stella Chung | History
Tatum Sommer | English
FACULTY
Ira Dworkin
DIRECTOR
Associate Professor | English
EXPLORING ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES IN THE AGE OF MASS EXTINCTION: HISTORY, LITERATURE, ARTS, AND SCIENCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE
This interdisciplinary course delved into the web of relationships between climate change, nature, humanities, arts, and sciences, which form the foundations of the human predicament in the Age of Mass Extinction. Through exploration of environmental humanities, eco-spirituality, eco-feminism, eco-psychology, climate science, and the economics of ecology, we engaged with a diverse range of thinkers and creators, including philosophers, historians, authors, scientists, philanthropists, climate activists, bloggers, visual artists, and movie directors. The course bridged the realms of visual and textual analysis, eschewing standard assignments and instead culminating in experiential and creative projects that connected students directly with their personal experiences of nature. The central objective was to empower students to cultivate a comprehensive understanding of how environmental, socio-political, cultural, and spiritual systems intersect.
SCHOLARS
Luke Beaty | Political Science
Joseph Dib | Biology
Chetana Kuchibhotla | Bioenvironmental Sciences
FACULTY DIRECTOR
Side Emre Associate Professor | History
SCHOLARS PROGRAM
APPWORLDS : NEW HUMAN LABOR IN THE LATE CAPITALISM
This course examined digital capitalism as an economic and social system where digital technologies, such as the internet, data analytics, and automation, play a significant role in the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Through investigation of realworld case studies, interdisciplinary readings, and interactive discussions, students delved into the transformative effects of advanced digital technologies on labor markets, job structures, and social organization during the seminar. We discussed specific app technology such as Uber, DoorDash, Lyft, Amazon, Apple Music, Obsidian, ChatGTP, and a range of social media applications (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok). The course emphasized independent research projects, encouraging students to engage in original inquiries, analyze empirical data, and contribute to ongoing academic conversations surrounding the late-phase digital economy.
SCHOLARS
MyKaela Johnston | Society, Ethics and Law/ Philosophy
Liceth Meza | History/Political Science
Sidney Uy Tesy | Philosophy
FACULTY DIRECTOR
Sergio Lemus Assistant Professor | Anthropology
UNDERGRADUATE SUMMER SCHOLARS
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND LAND-GRANT UNIVERSITIES: OPPORTUNITIES AND OBLIGATIONS
This seminar explored historical and anthropological evidence of Indigenous wealth that built and still empowers Texas A&M University, which includes but also exceeds land/territory. We conceptualized “wealth” capaciously to include the cultural and intellectual capital of Native people as students, faculty, and staff, as well as Native knowledge and heritage as evident in material artifacts, human remains, and botanical specimens that continue to generate wealth for the university as the basis for ongoing research by faculty, staff, and students. Building on this foundation, student scholars chose a research project related to the repatriation of Native American remains currently held by Texas A&M University. Their historical and anthropological research projects will directly contribute to the successful repatriation of human remains to the appropriate descendant communities.
SCHOLARS
Parker Burris | Anthropology
Aarya Newasekar | Anthropology
Megan Williams | Anthropology
FACULTY DIRECTOR
Heather Thakar
Assistant Professor | Anthropology
FUNDED EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
NOTABLE LECTURES
The Glasscock Center supports Notable Lectures by speakers with distinguished interdisciplinary reputations that will both promote the humanities and contribute broadly to the intellectual community.
AI and the Humanities
Matthew Jones | Princeton University
February 8, 2024
Organized by: Evan Haefeli | History
Myths, Memory, and Indigenous Survival in the Gulf South
Elizabeth Ellis | Princeton University
February 23, 2024
Organized by: Sarah McNamara | History
France and the Islamist Terror Attacks of 2015-2016: The President’s Perspective
Francois Hollande | Former President of France
April 17, 2024
Organized by: Richard J. Golsan | International Affairs
CO-SPONSORED ACTIVITIES
The Glasscock Center supports the humanities at Texas A&M University by co-sponsoring public lectures, performances with a humanities research component, and scholarly presentations by visitors from outside the university.
Coffee Conversation Series
Navigating External Grants in the Humanities | October 5, 2023
NEH Funding Opportunities for HSIs | October 12, 2023
Organized by: the Division of Research
Jewish Life and Memorialization Culture in Vienna and Budapest
Rabbi Dr. Armin Langer | University of Florida
February 26, 2024
Organized by: Ashley Passmore | Global Languages & Cultures
Interpreting Everyday Aesthetic Experience
Elena Romagnoli | University of Pisa
March 19, 2024
Organized by: Theodore George | Philosophy
FUNDED EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
SYMPOSIA & SMALL CONFERENCES
The Glasscock Center supports the humanities at Texas A&M University by providing support for symposia and small conferences that showcase and promote scholarship and research in the humanities.
Fire Arts: Pasts and Futures
November 6-8, 2024
Organized by: Tianna Uchacz | Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts
Never Forgotten: Conflict Archaeology and Military History at Texas A&M
November 9, 2023
Organized by: Katie Bojakowski | Anthropology
Navigating Crises and Resolutions: 2024 HGSO Conference
February 9-10, 2024
Organized by: the History Graduate Student Organization
AfroLatinx Life and Writing Symposium
February 29, 2024
Organized by: Regina Mills | English
New Directions in African Studies
March 8, 2024
Organized by: Evan Haefeli | History
Folio Futures: Editing Early Modern Plays for Tomorrow’s Audiences
April 26, 2024
Organized by: Kevin O’Sullivan | English
OTHER GRANTS & AWARDS
MELBERN G. GLASSCOCK UNDERGRADUATE HISTORY RESEARCH PAPER PRIZE
First Place
Ben Ford
The Poignant Public and the Paramount Private: The Failure of the Government and the Rescue of Charitable Organizations During the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee
Runners-Up
Ellie O’Connell
The Soundtrack of the Civil Rights Movement: Freedom Songs’ Origins, Applications, and Effects
Grace King
On the Battlefield of Ink: Suffrage Cartoonists and Their Worth 1890-1920
Zachary Spanhak
A Tale of Two Justices: Comparing the Nomination Processes of David Souter and Clarence Thomas
MELBERN G. GLASSCOCK UNDERGRADUATE HUMANITIES PRIZE IN VISUAL, MATERIAL & PERFORMANCE CULTURES
Renee Anderson
Oscar Howe: Indigenous Modernist
ENGLISH GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS
The Hamlin Hill Essay Prize
Savannah Payne
“Like a Dead Herring in the Moonlight”: Irrationality and Dysfunction in American Comedic Representations of Cold War Communism
Glasscock American Literature Outstanding Essay Award
Hai In Jo
James Baldwin’s Mathematical Ontology
Renee Anderson
Ben Ford
PUBLICATION SUPPORT GRANT
The Glasscock Center offers awards to support the costs of publishing a humanities-related manuscript. This grant is intended to cover costs for substantive enhancements to the manuscript that are required for publication, such as graphics, maps, tables, permissions, figures, and translation costs.
Carmela Garritano , Associate Professor | International Affairs
African Energy Worlds in Film and Media
Indiana University Press
Regina Mills , Assistant Professor | English
Invisibility and Influence: A Literary History of AfroLatinidades
University of Texas Press
Vanita Reddy , Associate Professor | English
#MeToo and the Politics of Transnational
Feminism
New York University Press
Ege Selin Islekel , Assistant Professor | Philosophy
Nightmare Remains: The Politics of Mourning and Epistemologies of Disappearance
Northwestern University Press
Meg Perret , Assistant Professor | Global Languages & Cultures
Migration is natural: Monarch butterflies as symbols of environmental justice and queer migrant identity in art-activism
Environmental Humanities
SUMMER RESIDENTIAL FELLOWSHIP AT THE NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER
In partnership with the College of Arts & Sciences, the Glasscock Center sponsors a faculty member’s participation in a four-week summer residency program intended to assist in jump-starting or making substantial progress on a current project. The scholar receives coverage of the program costs and a travel bursary.
John Patrick Casellas-Connors
Assistant Professor | Geography
The Nature of Guns: Violence, Taxes, and Identity in American Conservation
GLASSCOCK ARRIVAL FELLOWSHIPS
The Arrival Fellowships support entering graduate students in the humanities and humanistic-focused social sciences with a two-year research bursary. Fellows are nominated by their departments at the time of admission to Texas A&M.
Zachary Christian | History
Carelle Matawe Fotsing | Global Languages & Cultures
Nicole Gavin | Anthropology
Pamela Hernandez | Sociology
Gregory Sellers | History
Miles Thibodeaux | Philosophy
Chloe White | Philosophy
Xinyi Yin | English
HUMANITIES WORKING GROUPS
The Glasscock Center encourages innovative interdisciplinary research and scholarship by providing annually renewable support to self-constituted groups of faculty and students engaged in exploration of thematically-related research questions in the humanities. Participants share the goal of stimulating intellectual exchange through discussion, writing, film screenings, work-in-progress presentations, field trips, readings, and other activities that further their inquiries into common scholarly concerns.
Care Studies
Convened by:
Allegra Midgette | Psychological & Brain Sciences
Joan Wolf | Sociology and Women’s & Gender Studies
Caribbean and Atlantic Studies
Convened by:
Evan Haefeli | History
Critical Childhood Studies
Convened by:
Charles Carlson | Economic Dev. & Community Impact
David Anderson | Teaching, Learning & Culture
Early Modern Studies
Convened by:
Dorothy Todd & Lindsey Jones | English
Immigration, Migration, and Ethnicity
Convened by:
Sarah McNamara & Leslie Torres | History
Convened by:
Chloe Fackler | Anthropology Indigenous Studies
Angela Hudson | History
Garrett Riley & Pat Rubio Goldsmith | Sociology Latinx Studies
Convened by:
Katherine Unterman | History Law and Society
Convened by:
R. Malatesha Joshi, Emily Cantrell, & Kay Wijekumar | Teaching, Learning & Culture Literacy Studies
Convened by:
Katayoun Torabi & Noah Peterson | English Medieval Studies
Convened by:
Shawna Ross & Janet Cho | English New Modern British Studies
Convened by:
Robin Veldman | Global Languages & Cultures Religious Studies
Convened by:
Apostolos Vasilakis & Andrew Pilsch | English Science Fiction Studies
Convened by:
Jeremy Brett | University Libraries
Francesca Marini | Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts
Chaitanya Lakkimsetti | Sociology South Asia Studies
Convened by:
Jyotsna Vaid | Psychological & Brain Sciences
Sonia Hernandez & Raymond Mitchell | History Teaching Matters
Convened by:
Adam Seipp & Tristan Krause | History War, Violence and Society
Convened by:
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024-2025
Susanne M. Glasscock BOOK PRIZE
In 2024-25, the Glasscock Center will award the twenty-fifth annual Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize. This unique prize celebrates outstanding works of original, interdisciplinary humanities scholarship that appeal to both academic and wider audiences. Over the course of the spring and summer of 2024, shortlisting committees have worked to narrow the pool of submitted books to a list of six finalists. The final committee will select the winning book in the fall of 2024.
25th Prize Finalists:
YEARS Celebrating
The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research
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