HUMANITIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE F A L L
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N E W S L E T T E R
At HRI, we respectfully acknowledge that we are on the lands of the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankashaw, Wea, Miami, Mascoutin, Odawa, Sauk, Mesquaki, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Chickasaw Nations. These Nations were forcefully removed from their traditional territories and these lands continue to carry the stories of these Nations and their struggles for survival and identity. As part of a land-grant institution, we have a particular obligation to recognize the peoples of these lands and the histories of dispossession upon which the university rests. In keeping with the spirit of land acknowledgment statements, we also recognize that these histories are both shared with and distinct from those of African American, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, among others. As humanists, we recognize that the past is not past, and that no field or arena of inquiry is exempt from the responsibility of addressing the legacies of settler colonialism, enslavement, and their contemporary manifestations well beyond acknowledgments such as this. Thus, this statement is a demonstration of our ongoing commitment to supporting the work of Indigenous scholars and communities. It is also a reminder of how accounting for Indigenous erasure and survivance makes visible the urgency of imagining change as collaboratively and collectively as possible. Let us, then, together envision what Muskogee Creek/Cherokee poet Joy Harjo calls “a map to the next world.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS 2
Director’s Q & A
3
In Memoriam
4
HRI Fellows, 2022–23
4
Fellowship Call 2023–24
6
Interseminars Initiative & Fellows, 2022–23
8
Fellows, Labs, & Clusters, 2022–23
9
Humanities in Action Participants, 2022–23
10
Humanities Without Walls
12
2022–23 Calendar Events
15
Application Deadlines
16
The Year in Review
17
Festival of Writers
18
The Odyssey Project
19
Education Justice Project
19
Off the Shelf Podcast
20
Mellon Emerging Areas in the Humanities
21
Research Lab Explores Roots of Community Violence
21
New Blog Spotlights Research at HRI
22
HRI Interns
23
HRI Staff & Advisory Committee
24
Giving to HRI
DIRECTOR’S Q&A “A Kaleidoscope of Untold Possibilities”: Public Humanities, Un/Doing, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration Director Burton speaking at a fall lecture.
"I think of HRI as a space for pluralizing opportunities for colleagues to explore how what they aspire to do works with and for a variety of publics—and to experience how such work can change how they do what they do in the process. "
HRI Director Antoinette Burton reflects on the past year and the “urgent, challenging, and exhilarating” work ahead. The fellowship theme for 2022–23 is “Un/Doing.” What are some ways the theme will play out in the activities and research happening this year? Yes to “Un/Doing”! This theme was generated by faculty in the Ethnic and Gender and Women’s Studies units—part of our attempt at HRI to have our intellectual and programming work driven by a variety of voices and perspectives (as we did with “The Global and its Worlds” theme in 2020–21). This coming year’s Campus Fellows are doing work that asks bold questions about what warrants dismantling and how our spaces and practices as scholars in the world contribute to that project, and in solidarity with whom. What I love about this group is that the projects that have been proposed by both faculty and graduate fellows take up the “Un/Doing” call as research questions and as part of their vocation as scholars deeply engaged in the world. I’m excited by the range of speakers and events we’re curating, which will bring these questions alive for academic and community audiences alike. Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting slate of events, such as the talk by Tarren Andrews that will bring Indigenous Studies and Medieval Studies into conversation—with special thanks to Jenny Davis (American Indian Studies) and Mimi Nguyen (Gender and Women’s Studies) for taking the lead on the Un/Doing programming this year. The new Mellon-funded Interseminars Initiative launched this year. What is unique about Interseminars and how does it fit into the broader interdisciplinary ecosystem facilitated through HRI? And huzzah to the Interseminars faculty and students! They have emerged from their 2022 week-long summer intensive with so many fabulous ideas about how to manifest their commitments to “Imagining Otherwise: Speculation in the Americas.” This experiment Interseminars cohort members in discussion during the summer in collaborative, interdisciplinary intensive. graduate teaching and learning is using speculative practice as both theme and method, exploring how to bring approaches grounded in imaginative longings and desires to contest the way things are to bear on real possibilities for seeing and doing “otherwise.” Of course, all visionary humanities and arts projects are ultimately speculative and non-linear in their unfolding as well. But this group—led by David Cisneros (Communication), Patrick Hammie and Jorge Lucero (both Art and Design)—is living in and with speculation in new and uncharted ways. Not least, they are modeling a form of faculty-student partnerships at the intersection of research and pedagogy that we rarely see in higher education. I’m so excited to see and hear and talk with them about what they do this year. We remain grateful to the Mellon Foundation for their support of Interseminars—and I am especially thankful for the hardworking, dedicated team of HRI staff members who are the backbone of this multi-form endeavor.
2 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
You often speak about the value of public humanities in connecting academic work to the communities we live in. How did you see the public humanities reflected in last year’s efforts and what prospects excite you for the coming year? Yes, I do! To be honest, thinking through what public humanities can and should mean at a public research university like Illinois is the most urgent, the most challenging, and the most exhilarating set of questions HRI is working on right now. Everywhere we turn, faculty and students express their desire to figure out how to relate their research, teaching, and learning to meet the exigencies of the present. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to these pressing questions—and there should not be. The humanities and related fields are complex assemblages, often interdisciplinary and always brimming with possibilities seen and unseen when it comes to their relationship to the contemporary world. I think of HRI as a space for pluralizing opportunities for colleagues to explore how what they aspire to do works with and for a variety of publics—and to experience how such work can change how they do what they do in the process. The Odyssey Project, funded in part by the Mellon Foundation, is our signature public humanities project, and we continue to be proud of the Champaign-Urbana adult learners who thrive there, against many odds. Humanities Without Walls, also funded by Mellon, is recruiting research projects that embed “reciprocity and redistribution” (R&R) vertically and horizontally, with some stunning community-based outcomes as a result (see page 10). Thanks to the generosity of HRI donors and the good will of campus partners like We CU and the Graduate College, we are offering internships and courses grounded in that “R&R” orientation to students at all stages of their careers in the humanities. While this is not an exhaustive list, and while more plans are afoot, I hope it suggests that the public humanities is a kaleidoscope of untold possibilities at HRI.
"If there is joy to be found, it is surely in supporting the energies of those determined to reimagine—by undoing, and by all means necessary— what we think the humanities ought to be not just in the here and now, but for those who come after us as well."
These are admittedly dark times for the planet. If there is joy to be found, it is surely in supporting the energies of those determined to reimagine—by undoing, and by all means necessary—what we think the humanities ought to be not just in the here and now, but for those who come after us as well. If you have ideas about what the future of public humanities at Illinois needs to look like, let’s have coffee and work together to make it happen.
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Dara Goldman
Kathryn J. Oberdeck
As we headed into the early days of summer, we at HRI joined countless colleagues and students at Illinois and across the globe in grief over the untimely death of Dara Goldman, professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese and director of the Program in Jewish Culture and Society. Among her many roles, she served as director of the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS) from 2005–2006 and again from 2011–2015. A valued collaborator with HRI, a scholar of international accomplishment, and a tireless citizen of our campus, Dara was a friend to and ally of so many. Her keen insights, her knowing laugh, and her dedication to justice in a fractured world will be sorely missed.
We are also mourning the unimaginable loss of our colleague and friend, Kathryn J. Oberdeck, professor in the department of History and longstanding supporter of all things HRI. Kathy was a Campus Fellow; she co-led several collaborative initiatives; she was the co-PI on a Mellon Foundation Humanities Without Walls grant; and she taught History in HRI’s Odyssey Project. A scholar of US cultural, intellectual, and labor history, Kathy was a beloved teacher of and mentor to countless students, whose minds and hearts she nurtured in ways they will never forget. She was also a faithful servant of many communities whose needs and ambitions she made the center of all her work in the world, whether local or global. She was a moral compass whose like we rarely have the privileging of encountering. Words cannot express our indebtedness to Kathy for all she has given to our campus and community.
Dara’s family has established a memorial scholarship fund in her honor. If you would like to contribute, visit jewishculture.illinois.edu and click on “Giving.”
The family will be setting up a scholarship fund at the university in Kathy's memory. In lieu of other expressions of sympathy, the family requests that any memorials be made to that fund when it is set up, to Sola Gratia Farm, or to Champaign County Health Care Consumers.
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HRI Faculty Fellows, 2022–23
Janett Barragán Miranda
Latina/Latino Studies “Hungering for Equality: The Community of Mexican-Origin from Post-WWII to Civil Rights”
Deena Rymhs
American Indian Studies “Putting back together: reworldings in annie ross’s Pots and Other Living Beings”
Emma D. Velez
Gender and Women’s Studies “Orienting Historias: Unraveling the Coloniality of Gender through Las Tres Madres”
2023–24 Campus Fellowship Call
Yuridia Ramírez History
“Indigeneity on the Move: Transborder Politics from Michoacán to North Carolina”
R. Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada Latina/Latino Studies
“Intersectional Justice Denied: Racist Warring Masculinity, Negative Peace and Violence in Post-Peace Accords El Salvador”
Damian Vergara Bracamontes Gender and Women’s Studies
“The Administration of Illegality and Mexican Migrant Life”
HRI is pleased to announce that its 2023–24 Campus Fellowship year will be a themeless one. The projects proposed to HRI may investigate any subject. The proposals will be evaluated on the scholarly excellence and promise of the project, the applicant’s preparation/readiness to undertake the proposed research, the quality of the narrative proposal, the case made for how the interdisciplinary experience offered by the Fellows Seminar would be beneficial to the project, and the letters of support. HRI welcomes applications from all disciplines and departments with an interest in humanities and humanities-inflected research. We are especially interested in fostering interdisciplinary work, both within the humanistic disciplines and between the humanities and the arts. For eligibility, terms, and application guidelines, visit go.illinois.edu/CampusFellows. Applications are due December 2, 2022.
4 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
HRI Graduate Student Fellows, 2022–23
Dilara Çalışkan
Nicole Cox
“World and Kin Making: Family, Time and Memory among Trans Mothers and Daughters in Turkey”
“Re/Moving the State: Multiple Productivities of Embodied Practice in Indian Diplomacy”
Daniel DeVinney
Kadin Henningsen
“The Post-Racial Imaginary: Visual Logics of Race in the Obama and Early Trump Eras”
“Biblionormativity and Trans* Capacity: Gender, Race, and the Material Book in Nineteenth Century America, 1840–1910”
Jessennya Hernandez
Lingyan Liu
“Mycorrhizal Assemblages: Everyday Latinx Strategies and Embodied Feminist Knowledge”
“Just Call It the Noise: Chinese Opera and the Sounds of China in RaceMaking and Modern Citizenship, 1850s–1930s”
Anthropology
Anthropology
Communication
English
Sociology
History
Amanda Smith
French and Italian “21st Century Black Beauty Resistance: Collectivism, Individuality, and In/ Visibility in Black French Women’s Body and Hair Representations”
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INTERSEMINARS INITIATIVE 2022–23 Funded by a $2,000,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation, the new Interseminars Initiative will fund three projects over three successive years, each selected through a competitive application process. This initiative represents the latest thinking on how best to practice a genuinely collaborative and equitable commitment to graduate training in the public research university of the 21st century. Through Interseminars, faculty and graduate students collaborate in the design of cross-departmental and crosscollege courses, with funding for key aspects of that work: co-curricular programming, shared research experiences, and fellowship support for students, particularly those historically underrepresented in higher education. Each project spans an 18-month period, culminating in a community event.
The first Interseminars cohort.
In addition to funding from Mellon, these fellowships were Fellows at the Interseminars summer intensive. made possible by the generosity of the Graduate College at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Tenure-stream faculty are invited to propose a project for the second round of Interseminars funding, with applications due by September 1, 2022.
Inaugural Cohort Launched The first Interseminars project, led by faculty members Josue David Cisneros (Communication), Patrick Earl Hammie (Art and Design), and Jorge Lucero (Art and Design) is themed “Imagining Otherwise: Speculation in the Americas.” Referencing examples from TV’s Lovecraft Country to recent anti-racist activist efforts, the theme centers speculation as a method for looking differently at the world—both to critically assess its status quo and to reimagine how it could be different. Studying speculative forms in art and activism, they propose, can help guide scholarly and creative inquiry about crises ranging from climate change to systemic violence and immigration policy. The project’s work will be foregrounded in the knowledge and experiences of historically marginalized communities throughout the Americas, exploring how speculation has been and can be used to reframe the past, present, and future. Watch for Interseminars-related speakers this academic year and keep up with the cohort’s activities at HRI’s research blog Inquiry: go.illinois.edu/HRI-Inquiry.
6 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
Faculty Conveners
Josue David Cisneros
Communication
Patrick Earl Hammie
Jorge Lucero
D. Nicole Campbell
Daniela Morales Fredes
Art and Design
Art and Design
Graduate Student Fellows
Kofi BazzellSmith Art and Design
Communication
Urban and Regional Planning
Adanya Gilmore
Beatriz Jiménez
Ray Martinez
Emerson Parker Pehl
María B. SerranoAbreu
Toyosi TejumadeMorgan
Dance
English
Spanish and Portuguese
Educational Psychology
Spanish and Portuguese
Theatre
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FELLOWS AND RESEARCH CLUSTERS Mellon PreDoctoral Fellow in Public Humanities
Eva Kuras
Summer Faculty Research Fellows
Nir BenMoshe
Comparative and World Literature “Crossing Paths”
Eda Derhemi
French and Italian
Philosophy
“Endangered Arvanitika in Zeriki, Greece”
“Idealization and the Moral Point of View: An Adam Smithian Account of Moral Reasons”
David O’Brien Art History, Art + Design
“The Cult of Napoleon in Material Culture, 1815–1848”
Humanities Research Lab
8 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
The Humanities Research Lab (HRL) initiative provides funding to adapt an existing humanities course into one with a significant community-based research component. HRL was piloted for two years and will officially launch in spring 2023 with the courses listed here.
HIST 312: Immigrant America Yuridia Ramírez History
SPAN 232: Spanish in the Community Ann Abbott
Spanish and Portuguese
Research Clusters 2022–23
Central Asia Research Cluster
The Social Lives of Digitized Culture
Environmental Humanities
Writing Critical and Intersectional Biography
Co-Directors: Joseph Lenkart, University Library Eve Rogaar, History Katherine Ashcraft, Information Sciences
Co-Directors: John Levi Barnard, Comparative and World Literature Pollyanna Rhee, Landscape Architecture
Medical Humanities
Co-Directors: Stephanie Hilger, Germanic Languages and Literatures Justine Murison, English
Humanities in Action Participants
Co-Directors: Zoe LeBlanc, Information Sciences Ryan Cordell, Information Sciences John Randolph, History
Co-Directors: Brett Ashley Kaplan, Comparative and World Literature/ HGMS Amy L. Powell, Krannert Art Museum
Writing From the Intersections
Co-Directors: Karen Wickett, Information Sciences Sarah Park Dahlen, Information Sciences Lila Sharif, Asian American Studies Melissa Ocepek, Information Sciences Chris Wiley, University Library and Information Sciences
The University of Illinois Humanities in Action program is a new initiative by We CU in collaboration with the Humanities Research Institute. The program provides support to undergraduate humanities students who are interested in pursuing community engagement opportunities within the Champaign-Urbana community. Read more in the Giving section (see pages 24–25).
Arielle Capel
Maya Robinson
Laura Garcia
Bria Thurman
Tara Leininger
Jessica Vargas
Philosophy/Pre-Law, Class of 2024
Anthropology, Class of 2023
Classics and History, Class of 2023
Urban Studies and Planning, Class of 2025
Sociology and Creative Writing, Class of 2023
Political Science, Class of 2024
Paul Rampersaud
Political Science and Spanish, Class of 2024
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HUMANITIES WITHOUT WALLS Grand Research Challenge Five new projects have been funded by the third Grand Research Challenge (GRC) for teams pursuing research with a commitment to methodologies of reciprocity and redistribution. These methodologies are at the center of Humanities Without Walls’ (HWW) work to support humanities research that is not only publicly engaged but co-designed by community partners alongside faculty and graduate students. Reciprocity and redistribution methodologies aim to support collaborative scholarship inclusive of local and regional institutions and communities in recognition that expert knowledge-making exists beyond as well as within the academy. Each of the five interdisciplinary research teams (which must include a consortium-affiliated member) was awarded funding of $150,000 over a two-year period, provided by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
GRC Projects Rose Brewer, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
“Environmental Justice Worldmaking: Redistribution and Reciprocity for a Just Transition”
Nadine Naber, University of Illinois Chicago
“Amplifying Mothers of Police Violence Survivors”
Vania Smith-Oka, Notre Dame University
“The Latinx Obstetric Violence Project: Art and Literature as Tools of Reciprocal and Redistributive Knowledge”
10 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
Aymar Jéan Christian, Northwestern University
“Black Trans in the Americas”
Robert Morrissey,
University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign “Reclaiming Stories: (Re)connecting Indigenous Painted Hides to Communities through Collaborative Conversations”
New HWW Alumni Board Named As members of HWW's alumni board, these former Career Diversity Summer Workshop fellows consult with the HWW PI and staff on future workshop designs and other programming. Kei Hotoda (2015), University of Illinois at Chicago John Moore (2016), Washington University in St. Louis Caroline Marris (2017), Columbia University Jamil Jorge (2018), FirstWorks Maureen Owens (2018), Underscore Andrew Boge (2021), University of Iowa
Illinois-Led GRC Project
Summer Bridge Experience
University of Illinois Professor Robert Morrissey (History) is the PI for “Reclaiming Stories: (Re)connecting Indigenous Painted Hides to Communities through Collaborative Conversations.” This project reconnects tribal knowledge-makers to culturally significant objects/beings that have long been inaccessible owing to location and to institutional attitudes in the museum and academic worlds that historically often ignored Indigenous voices. This project is a collaboration between the University of Illinois, the Myaamia Center at Miami University, and the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, with the consultation of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. Learn about the “Reclaiming Stories” project at reclaimstories.web.illinois.edu.
Returning for its second year, the Summer Bridge experience is a truly collaborative partnership between HWW, We CU, and Dr. Derek Attig, assistant dean for career & professional development in UIUC’s Graduate College. Four humanities graduate students participated this year, collaborating with community partners, exploring various career paths, and building skills.
PhD Futures Now Season One Complete HWW’s podcast on collaboration, career diversity, and graduate education in the humanities wrapped up its first season, and we will be taking a pause in podcast production. Episodes 1–12 are available on phdfuturesnow.org, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
New Website Launched Finally, we are excited to share our newly reorganized and redesigned website! Connect with us at humanitieswithoutwalls. illinois.edu and sign up for HWW updates at go.illinois.edu/HWWnews.
Career Diversity Workshop HWW’s 2022 fellows were a diverse cohort: 25 doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences attended the workshop, hosted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities. Fellows learned how to imagine possible futures and leverage their skills and humanities training toward careers in the private sector, the nonprofit world, arts administration, government, public media, and many other fields. The call for the HWW 2023 Career Diversity Workshop, hosted by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, will be open for applications in August 2022.
Breanna Escamilla (Anthropology) worked with the DREAAM organization in Champaign this summer, building traumainformed programming for boys and young men in the C-U community aimed at sustaining a culture of achievement, engagement, and behavioral health. Victoria Fields (Communication) worked with Champaign-Urbana Public Health District’s Equity Council to address various forms of systemic oppression and racism in carrying out public health initiatives in the C-U community.
Rayven Morrow (Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership, with a concentration in Gender and Women's Studies) worked with CU Freedom School at Garden Hills Academy, a summertime and after-school literacy and cultural enrichment program for K–5 students. Suzanne Valentine (English) worked with the Champaign County Mental Health Board, which coordinates and evaluates the comprehensive local system of mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse services for Champaign County.
Upcoming Deadlines: November 1, 2022 Career Diversity Summer Workshop application deadline November 15, 2022 Grand Research Challenge application deadline
March 1, 2023 Summer Bridge Experience application deadline
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2022–23 CALENDAR OF EVENTS
2022 SEPTEMBER
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PUBLISHING TALK
Nancy Toff VP & Executive Editor, Oxford University Press Presented by the Program in Jewish Culture and Society. Cosponsored by HRI.
15 |
HRI OPENING RECEPTION
Reception and Celebration
OCTOBER
10 |
Jacki Rand Associate Vice Chancellor for Native Affairs, American Indian Studies Indigenous People’s Day Conversation with Mimi Thi Nguyen (Gender & Women’s Studies), moderated by Jenny L. Davis (American Indian Studies, Anthropology)
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Photo by Laura Hernández
Lia García (La Novia Sirena) “Pedagogy of Affection” Pedagogue, Performance Artist, and Activist
UN/DOING
Hilary N. Green Vann Professor of Ethics in Society, Davidson College Re-Imagining Civil War and Reconstruction Histories Presented with the Department of History.
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UN/DOING
INTERSEMINARS
Lin Hixson and Matthew Goulish Director and Dramaturg Public presentation by founders of the performance company Every house has a door.
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NEH OFFICER VISIT
Christopher P. Thornton Director, Division of Research Programs Hosted by the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics. Cosponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and HRI.
12 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
NEH OFFICER 1 | VISIT
INTERSEMINARS 6 |
Christopher P. Thornton Director, Division of Research Programs Hosted by the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics. Cosponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and HRI.
MEDICAL 3 | HUMANITIES LECTURE Kirsten Ostherr English and Medical Humanities, Rice University “Translational Humanities for the Next Pandemic” Part of the Medical Humanities Residency, made possible by a gift from Dr. Dan Shin (’91).
GRADUATE 4 | STUDENT SOCIAL Happy Hour Event for Graduate Students
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UN/DOING
Work-In for Faculty in Ethnic and Gender and Women’s Studies
Eve L. Ewing Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago
2023 JANUARY WITHOUT WALLS 31 | HUMANITIES Summer Bridge Info Session Supported by the Mellon Foundation.
FEBRUARY RETREAT 4 | WRITING InkWell Academic Writing Workshop “Unstuck: How to Move Past Your Writing Fears” Cosponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation.
Photo by Erina C. Alejo
INTERNATIONAL 8 | WOMEN’S DAY
APRIL
9 | UN/DOING
Co-hosted by the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program.
“Un/Doing Art History through Relational Curation and Ethnic Studies”
Presented with the Department of History.
Photo by Cristobal Vivar
UN/DOING
David Wright Faladé Creative Writing Program, Department of English
“Black Freedom on Native Land: Reconsidering Reconstruction”
Presented by the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and cosponsored by HRI. Photo by Forrest Clonts
Alaina E. Roberts History, University of Pittsburgh
23 | PUBLIC READING
Françoise Baylis NTE Impact Ethics and Medicine, Dalhousie University
UN/DOING 9 |
Thea Quiray Teagle Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Critical Ethnic and Community Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston
CULTURE
LECTURE 5 | DISTINGUISHED
Presentations and Celebration
Conversation: Nikky Finney and Ruth Nicole Brown African American Studies, Michigan State University and Founder, Saving Our Lives, Hearing Our Truths—SOLHOT. Cosponsored by the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Center for Advanced Study, and HRI.
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UN/DOING
30| UN/DOING
19 |UN/DOING
Tarren Andrews Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University
Inside Scoop with Nikky Finney John H. Bennett, Jr., Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters, University of South Carolina
Co-hosted by the American Indian Studies Program.
19 | TALK
Hosted and Cosponsored by the Bruce Nesbitt African American Cultural Center.
Poetry Reading: Nikky Finney John H. Bennett, Jr., Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters, University of South Carolina
MAY PRIZES FOR 4 | RESEARCH Ceremony and Reception
MARCH
1-2 | RESIDENCE WRITER IN
Dave Eggers Hosted by the Creative Writing Program, Department of English. Supported by HRI and the Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and the Humanities.
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EVENTS AND DEADLINES, 2022–23 Research Cluster Events A sample of some events planned by the HRI Research Clusters
MEDICAL HUMANITIES SEPTEMBER 22, 2022
The Rev. Terrance Thomas Chaplain, Carle Foundation Hospital
NOVEMBER 2–3, 2022
Save the Date: HRI Opening Reception SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
Kirsten Ostherr English and Medical Humanities, Rice University Medical Humanities Residency
We hope you will join us for an opening reception at Levis Faculty Center on the afternoon of September 15. Join us on the back patio to gather with the humanities community at Illinois. Watch for more information coming soon!
MARCH 23, 2023
Elena Conis Journalism, University of California Berkeley
“Vaccination and Its Historical Discontents”
2022 HRI looks forward to continuing our relationship with PYGMALION as a sponsor in 2022. The annual festival stages a multi-disciplinary, multi-day event that includes music, literature, technology, food, makers, comedy, podcasts, science, arts, and more. Watch for updates to come and mark your calendars for September 22–24. thisispygmalion.com
14 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
Unstuck Writing Retreat The Humanities Research Institute and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation present a daylong online InkWell Academic Writing Retreat with Michelle Boyd, PhD on Saturday, February 4, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Central. Are you stuck in your writing but can’t figure out how to move forward? Do you spend hours on the same paragraph without making any progress? This day-long writing retreat teaches a simple technique for surfacing the thoughts and feelings that keep scholars from writing. During the retreat, you’ll learn: Why you get stuck in your writing How to follow your process and get unstuck even when time is tight The three things you need to make real progress in any writing session By the end of the retreat, you’ll have made significant progress
on your manuscript. And you’ll see how following your writing process makes your writing sessions more productive and more pleasurable.
About Your Facilitator The retreat is facilitated by Michelle Boyd, PhD, founder of InkWell Academic Writing Retreats. Michelle is an award-winning writer, scholar, and former tenured associate professor from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). She has been leading retreats since 2012, when she co-founded and coached her first retreat at UIC. Three years later, she left faculty life to create InkWell, where she helps scholars who dread writing develop a sustainable, satisfying, productive writing practice. Stay tuned for registration information!
HRI Application Deadlines, 2022–2023 AUGUST 19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NEH Summer Stipends
JANUARY 20. . . . . . . . . Public Humanities Fellowship
SEPTEMBER 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Interseminars Application(Faculty)
FEBRUARY 3. . . . . . . . . . Summer Faculty Fellowships
SEPTEMBER 26. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prindable Internship SEPTEMBER 26 . . . . . . . . . . HRI–I-Promise Internship OCTOBER 3 . . . . . . . . Humanities Gateway Internship OCTOBER 10 . . . . . . . . . . . Odyssey Project Internship OCTOBER 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Director’s Fellows OCTOBER 15. . . Supplemental Event Fund, Spring 2023 applications open NOVEMBER 1 . . . . . . . HWW Career Diversity Summer Workshop
MARCH 1 . . . . . . . . HWW Summer Bridge Experience MARCH 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prizes for Research MARCH 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . We CU Humanities in Action MARCH 24. . . . . . . . . . . . . Humanities Research Lab APRIL 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research Clusters APRIL 15. . . . . . . . Supplemental Event Fund, Fall 2023 applications open MAY 31. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Reading Group Submissions
NOVEMBER 15 . . . . . HWW Grand Research Challenge NOVEMBER 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . Interseminars Graduate Fellowships DECEMBER 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Campus Fellowships
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN | 15
HRI YEAR IN REVIEW
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Fall semester began with an opening reception outdoors at Levis Faculty Center, and it was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with colleagues, friends, and community members. As the world has evolved, HRI has embraced hybridity—in both form and function. Whether virtual or in-person, events featured topics both evergreen and of the moment: climate change, war, voting rights, and incarceration. Roy Scranton visited HRI to give an in-person lecture about environmental humanities and discuss his book Learning to Die in the Anthropocene. Not long after, Samuel Moyn joined the HRI community online, discussing his book Humane and the ethics of war. We welcomed our former colleague Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi back to campus for a look at how revolutions can be viewed as a pause in historical time. As part of the Mellon Legal Humanities programming, Franita Tolson gave a virtual lecture about the history of voting rights in the United States and the implications for present day. The School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics held a symposium titled “How does Culture Move? – Movement and Stasis in Global Cultural History.” 2021 marked the 15th anniversary of the Odyssey Project in Champaign-Urbana, and we invited colleagues from Illinois Humanities and the University of Wisconsin Madison to take part in HRI’s annual Work-In. In March, we co-organized our 5th International Women’s Day celebration in partnership with the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program. We were riveted by Lerone A. Martin’s work, outlined in his lecture linking the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover to the rise of white Christian nationalism. Vincent Brown, Cheryl Finley, and Christopher Freeburg’s panel and discussion about “Slavery’s Counterlives” was a lively, enlightening conversation. In April, we spent an evening with Anthony Ray Hinton—author, activist, and Equal Justice Initiative community educator.
Did you miss a speaker last year? Several events are available for viewing at go.illinois.edu/HRIvideos. Note that some videos are only available to users with a UIUC Net ID, so be sure to log in first to see all available recordings. 1. HRI Director Antoinette Burton and Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Susan A. Martinis at Opening Reception 2. Roy Scranton (Notre Dame) 3. Joe Morris & Tomeka Reid Duo, presented by Nick Rudd Music Experience & Improvisers Exchange 4. Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (Princeton) 5. Franita Tolson (USC) 6. L. Elena Delgado (second from left), Director of School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics, with (from left) Antony Agoustakis (Classics and SLCL Associate Director), Keynote speaker Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra (UT Austin) and Mariselle Meléndez (Spanish and Portuguese) 7. HRI staff Alaina Pincus and Michelle Awad with Kevin Mullen (Wisconsin) and Rebecca Amato (Illinois Humanities) at “Odyssey Projects in the Midwest” 8. International Women’s Day speakers (not all pictured) 9. Enoma Egiebor, Student Body President of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, at International Women’s Day event 10. Lerone A. Martin (Stanford) 11. Vincent Brown (Harvard), Cheryl Finely (Spelman College), and Christopher Freeburg (English) 12. Anthony Ray Hinton (Equal Justice Initiative)
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FESTIVAL OF WRITERS
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HRI held the Festival of Writers November 12–13, 2021 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Featuring award-winning literary voices Roxane Gay, Tracy K. Smith, and Jericho Brown, this two-day experience was the culminating event in HRI’s Year of Creative Writers series, organized in collaboration with the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English and funded by the Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and Humanities. More than 1,000 attendees from the ChampaignUrbana community and beyond attended in-person readings, discussions, and more with our guests. Tracy K. Smith, the 22nd U.S. Poet Laureate, connected with undergraduate students at an Inside Scoop lunch event at HRI. She read poetry from her latest collection and answered questions about her process. Later, Smith graced the stage at Krannert Center, opening the public festival by sharing a selection of pieces from her award-winning collections of poetry. Jericho Brown, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, read from a selection of his work on-stage. He mesmerized the audience with his command of the poetic form, including duplex, a form of his own invention. He also fielded questions from the audience after the reading. Brown later joined Roxane Gay in a lively conversation and Q&A, moderated by University of Illinois Art and Design Professor Stacey Robinson. Earlier in the day, over brunch, Brown shared his wisdom and experiences with undergrads and MFAs in the Creative Writing program. Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author, professor, editor, and leading public voice, closed out the festival in fine form, reading from an assortment of long-form essays, columns, and chapters from her extensive body of published work. Gay also addressed audience questions, providing her unique perspective on issues that impact individuals of all ages. 1. Jericho Brown 2. Tracy K. Smith 3. Roxane Gay 4. Karen Flynn (Gender and Women’s Studies) 5. Corey Van Landingham (Creative Writing, English) 6. Stacey Robinson (Art + Design) and Smith 7. Antoinette Burton and Janice Harrington (English) 8–9. Smith and students at Inside Scoop event 10. Roxane Gay, Stacey Robinson (Art + Design), and Jericho Brown 11. Audience at Krannert Center for “Roxane Gay and Jericho Brown in Conversation”
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THE ODYSSEY PROJECT and tile into a new, beautiful creation resonated deeply with the students, especially given ongoing pandemic-related challenges. In the spring, writer, activist, educator Nicole Bond, shared her poetry with the class. Both residents also worked Odyssey’s alumni group to provide continuing enrichment opportunities for past Odyssey students. Bond, who received Illinois Humanities’ Public Humanities Award in 2022, proved especially inspirational to both students and alumni, as she, herself, is an alum of the Odyssey Project Chicago. Finally, this year’s Public Humanities Fellow, Azlan Smith, worked with Odyssey Students to produce a piece of verbatim theater about the concept of home, for Smith’s Voices project.
Rebecca Amato, director of teaching and learning at Illinois Humanities, speaking at the 2021 work-in.
Odyssey student Edvin Rios working on a mosaic with visiting artist Susan Parenti.
The 2021–2022 academic year marked the Odyssey Project’s fifteenth anniversary of serving the broader ChampaignUrbana community. To mark the event, HRI focused its annual fall Work-In on Odyssey Projects in the Midwest, inviting representatives from the Odyssey Projects in Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin to Urbana-Champaign to meet and share ideas and resources. The event was capped by a public presentation by each program about the successes and challenges of serving Odyssey students in their respective communities. Not only did the meeting prove successful enough that we plan to repeat it in the next few years, but it brought a welcome spotlight to the work the Odyssey Project does in Champaign-Urbana. In recognition of Odyssey’s contributions to the community, Champaign Mayor, Deborah Feinen, declared the day of the Work-In, November 30, 2021, “Odyssey Project Recognition Day.” This year, Odyssey returned to a physical classroom for the first time in two years. Our students once again met in person, ate meals together, and developed friendships and support networks that extend beyond their time in the program. Although the pandemic made the past two years difficult, we also learned a lot about the best ways to support our students. In addition to the regular supports Odyssey offers (free materials, meals, transportation, and connections to community services) it continued to loan out computer equipment and connect students with internet in an effort to bridge the technological divide. As important, the students themselves continued to rise to the challenge of furthering their education during a time of still-shifting policies on pandemic safety measures. Odyssey’s artist and writer residencies once again added vibrancy to the class and allowed students to engage hands-on with the humanities. In the fall, local artist, composer, activist, and teacher Susan Parenti, worked with students to produce mosaics. The process of turning broken pieces of pottery
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This summer, Odyssey launched a new addition to its course lineup: a four-week summer writing workshop, “Writing for Discovery: Self, Public, and Community.” Taught by poet and Creative Writing Professor Ángel García, this non-credit bearing workshop invites participants to address issues of relevance to themselves and their communities through poetry, fiction, and other forms of creative writing. The workshop closed with a public reading, cosponsored by the Champaign Public Library, which featured both students’ work and Urbana’s first Youth Poet Laureate, Danyla Nash. As we look forward to the year ahead, the Odyssey Project welcomes new instructors, including Professor Augustus Wood (Labor and Employment Relations), host of HRI’s Off the Shelf podcast, who will step into the shoes of beloved history instructor, Professor Kathy Oberdeck (see page 3), and Phillip Ernstmeyer, who will teach literature while Odyssey veteran Valerie O’Brien is on leave. Michelle Awad, now the Odyssey Project Advisor and Instructor, will teach critical thinking and writing as we wish TA and 2021–2022 Public Humanities Fellow Azlan Smith all success in his new PhD studies. Eva Kuras will join the Odyssey Project as the 2022–2023 Public Humanities Fellow, and Professors Jorge Lucero and Shelley Weinberg continue in their roles as instructors of Art History and Philosophy. We look forward to the energy the incoming and continuing instructors will bring to Odyssey. Even as we celebrated the Odyssey Project’s historic success and continued expansion, our focus, as ever, remains on our students who are the lifeblood of our program. This year, we are thrilled to announce that, for the third year in a row, Odyssey students matriculated to University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign degree programs. Success takes many forms, however. From earning a GED to enrolling in college, from overcoming personal challenges to finding new professional opportunities, or from disengagement to a life-long love of learning, Odyssey students’ success is our success—and we are proud of each and every one.
EDUCATION JUSTICE PROJECT The past year has been one of both growth and difficulty for the Education Justice Project (EJP). We’ve experienced fear and sadness, as over half our students contracted COVID-19, and hope, as we reconnected with them for in-person classes at Danville Correctional Center Students learning at Danville Correctional Center. (DCC). Through the dedication and hard work of our staff members and students, EJP has survived and continued our efforts to advocate for incarcerated people and higher education in prison throughout the state and nation. EJP has offered for-credit courses and other programs to incarcerated people at DCC, a medium-security prison 35 miles from the University of Illinois, for 13 years. The last few years have proved among our most challenging: the pandemic resulted in two shutdowns at the prison, requiring EJP to end in-person courses and then quickly restart them once the lockdowns lifted. While EJP’s prison-based programming had a difficult year, the project’s efforts outside the prison have grown in exciting ways. The Reentry Guide Initiative (RGI), which produces informational books for people facing release from prison and deportation,
will broaden its scope with the release of its first national deportation guide. The team plans to create a national version of their prison reentry guide as well. Several of EJP’s programs will dive into new forms of media. RGI will embark on a series of zines on reentry-related topics, featuring the words and illustrations of formerly incarcerated people. The Prison-to-Gown Initiative, which seeks to support University of Illinois students who have interacted with the criminal justice system, will produce an introductory video with funding from Illinois Humanities. One of the biggest wins this year for EJP—and higher education in prison in general—was the creation of the Illinois Higher Education in Prison Task Force by the Illinois General Assembly. The task force began meeting in February with a goal to evaluate prison higher education in Illinois and recommend a legislative action plan to expand access to it. EJP Director Rebecca Ginsburg is a member of the task force, as is HRI Director Antoinette Burton. We are excited to celebrate the achievements of the past year, but we cannot do so without also acknowledging the challenges and losses that accompanied them. We will continue to carry them with us as we move into this coming year. HRI is proud to help support EJP, with which it has enjoyed a longstanding partnership.
OFF THE SHELF SEASON TWO EXPANDS ROSTER OF GUESTS, BROADENS REACH African American Studies, Urban and Regional Planning, Social Work, and Carle Illinois College of Medicine) discussed the interconnection of racial oppression, trauma, and violence with both physical and mental health, as well as her new MacArthurfunded initiative to create programming and wellness tools to foster healing from racial trauma.
Augustus Wood
Ruby Mendenhall
Edward Onaci
Ashley Howard
In 2021–22, the podcast Off the Shelf returned for a second season of in-depth conversations between host Augustus Wood (PhD, History; UIUC; Assistant Professor, LER) and Black scholars on the University of Illinois campus and beyond. We heard from two Illinois alumni: Ashley Howard (University of Iowa) on the Black Midwest and Edward Onaci (Ursinus College) on the history of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. Charisse Burden-Stelly (Carleton College) elucidated the deeprooted, longstanding connections between antiblackness and antiradicalism, offering a thoughtful take on the state of Black Studies today. UIUC’s own Ruby Mendenhall (Sociology,
And in the final episode of season two, Alonzo Ward (Eastern Illinois University) explored the less well-known threads of American labor history, specifically Black labor in Illinois. Beyond any easy, simplified reading of the past, Ward (who is also an Illinois alum) beckoned listeners to look more deeply at the real, lived conditions and context of people’s lives. The show returns for a third season this fall, launching with an exciting guest: Carnegie Mellon University Professor Joe William Trotter Jr., founder and director of CMU’s Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) and renowned Black urban scholar. Until then, listen to episodes from seasons one and two at go.illinois.edu/ShelfPod.
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MELLON EMERGING AREAS IN THE HUMANITIES In 2015, (then) IPRH was awarded a $2,050,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support the development of emerging areas in the humanities. 2021–22 marked the final year of activity under the grant. Funding the creation of three consecutive intergenerational and interdisciplinary (two-year) research groups in Bio-Humanities, 2016–18; Environmental Humanities, 2018–20; and Legal Humanities, 2020–22, all told, the program supported: 4 faculty fellows, who directed the research groups, led their programming, and mentored their members, in addition to conducting related groundbreaking research in their fields; 6 post-doctoral fellows selected from an international pool of applicants, each of whom taught an undergraduate course related to their emerging area, in addition to performing their own research, the investigations of the group, and presenting their work in campus fora; 12 UIUC pre-doctoral fellows, who received a year’s support to pursue their dissertation research full-time while participating in the activities of the group; and
18 undergraduate interns, who were afforded a unique interdisciplinary, intergenerational experience, while also organizing and putting on research showcases featuring their own work and that of other undergraduates with related interests. In addition to their collective inquiry and the panoply of varied events they presented to the campus and beyond, each of the three research groups has made contributions to establishing more longstanding undergraduate curricular offerings in their respective areas. HRI is grateful to the Mellon Foundation for supporting this experiment in collective intergenerational exploration and collaboration to see what humanities modes can bring to interdisciplinary arenas of inquiry and for seeding all the vibrant work that has resulted. We’d also like to extend our thanks to the faculty directors—Samantha Frost (Political Science), Robert Morrissey (History), A. Naomi Paik (Asian American Studies), and Colleen Murphy (Philosophy and Law)—for fearlessly and generously helming these efforts. Please watch the HRI website for highlights of the six vibrant years of work—2016–2022, pandemic notwithstanding—in the Emerging Areas in the Humanities at Illinois.
LEGAL HUMANITIES AT ILLINOIS
Hinton meeting members of the Legal Humanities research team and EJP.
Presenters at the undergraduate symposium.
The Mellon Legal Humanities Research Group resumed their work in 2021–22 with Faculty Director Colleen Murphy (Robert and Stephany Joslin Professor of Law, Acting Executive Director of the Illinois Global Institute, and Professor of Philosophy and Political Science) at the helm. The group trained their analytical sights on the concepts of “rights” and “justice,” with visiting speakers and public programming to match. The fall brought virtual visits by Samuel Moyn (Yale), presenting on Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War (2021), and Franita Tolson (USC) on her forthcoming book In Congress We Trust? Enforcing Voting Rights from the Founding to the Jim Crow Era. Moyn and Tolson also met in seminar with the research group and other interested campus stakeholders. Spring saw a virtual panel discussion on “The Futures of the Legal Humanities,” featuring Professors Heidi Hurd and Richard Ross from the Law School, 20 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
A. Naomi Paik (UIC), and Carmen G. Gonzalez (Loyola), as well as an in-person visit from exoneree and Equal Justice Initiative community educator Anthony Ray Hinton. Author of the New York Times Best-Seller The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life, Freedom, and Justice, Hinton delivered a moving public presentation to a packed room at the I Hotel, then met in seminar with the research group and other interested parties. The year’s events concluded with an in-person undergraduate research symposium, organized by the undergraduate interns—Thomas Ballard, Alice Lee, and Alex Wellman—who presented alongside other students. In the course of the year, the postdoctoral fellows taught undergraduate courses on legal humanities topics: Dr. Sabeen Ahmed on “Philosophy of Law and the State,” and Dr. Beverly Fok, “Cultures of Law.” Both courses are up for inclusion in the School of Law’s undergraduate Legal Studies Minor. As the Legal Humanities Research Group’s activities and those of the Emerging Areas in the Humanities grant draw to a close, HRI wishes to thank Professor Murphy for her leadership and to wish all success to outgoing pre-doctoral fellows Ian TollerClark (who defended his dissertation in History this spring) and Claire Branigan (Anthropology), to Doctors Ahmed and Fok, and to the undergraduate interns (above), as they all embark on their next chapters. UIUC is much richer for all their work in the legal humanities vein.
HRL EXPLORES ROOTS OF COMMUNITY VIOLENCE Their project concept evolved over the semester, ultimately landing on the idea to research some of the historical, structural, and social causes underlying the recent surge in community violence. While still a work in progress, their website A Safe CU (see asafecu.com) documents a national history of policing alongside local context around deindustrialization, gender and race, segregation, housing, income inequality, and other facets, as well as interviews with First Followers members.
Members of First Followers meeting with HIST 386 students.
Dr. Tariq Khan
For students in the humanities research lab (HRL) class HIST 386: “Public History: Policing in the United States,” community engagement was not a single experience but built into the very structure and goals of the class. Taught in spring 2022 by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Tariq Khan (PhD, History), the HRL’s collaborations led to a student-created website exploring the rise of gun violence in Champaign-Urbana. Khan conceived of the course in two components: the classroom portion, which was a history of policing informed by the uprisings of the past few years, and a community engagement portion. For the latter part of the class, students collaborated on a project with First Followers, a local non-profit organization that supports formerly incarcerated people as they reenter society. For staff at First Followers, said Khan, “the work is really a labor of love.”
James Kilgore, director of advocacy and research at First Followers, explained, “[Tariq] asked us a question no university professor had ever asked us before: ‘How can I mobilize my students to help First Followers?' And we came up with this idea of doing research on the historical background of community violence in Champaign-Urbana.” Thanks to the research the students did, he said, “First Followers has a resource for the community.” At the end of the semester, the students presented their work at the First Followers Center in Champaign, followed by a discussion with members of First Followers and other community members invested in working on the problem of community violence. Khan is hopeful that their research will make a difference, adding “I think it could have a really positive impact on the conversation about gun violence.”
NEW BLOG SPOTLIGHTS RESEARCH AT HRI Over the past academic year, HRI launched Inquiry, a new blog dedicated to humanities research activities affiliated with the institute. This short-form blog is an evolving space featuring notes, observations, and reflections from current HRI fellows and research cluster members. Among the affiliated researchers featured on the blog this year were HRI Graduate Student Fellow Sarah Marks Mininsohn, who earned an MFA in the Department of Dance and is a Fulbright grant recipient, HRI Public Humanities Fellow Azlan Smith, and Magdalena Novoa, a summer faculty research fellow from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. They shared photos, video, and other insights into the process and shaping of their research.
On Inquiry, read about Dr. Novoa’s work with women-led grassroots organizations in Chile.
To read the latest, visit go.illinois.edu/hri-inquiry.
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HRI UNDERGRADUATE INTERNS Communications and Outreach Intern Sarah Boghossian, a rising senior majoring in English, served as the communications and outreach intern with HRI. Sarah worked closely with HRI staff members to plan and execute our undergraduate informational events. She also attended National Humanities Advocacy Day as a member of the delegation from the University of Illinois. Throughout the year, Sarah conducted research on social media benchmarking and best practices, and she arranged, interviewed, and transcribed conversations with HRI student interns.
David F. Prindable Intern Elena Vara, a rising senior majoring in Global Studies and Spanish, served as the David F. Prindable Intern. Elena worked with HRI staff members to design promotional materials, organize logistics, and act as an ambassador for the humanities at HRI’s undergraduate informational events. Throughout the year, Elena provided support and feedback on aspects of HRI’s communications and outreach endeavors, including the undergraduate survey. Elena also conducted interviews with student interns, creating several transcripts of their conversations about working at HRI.
Humanities Gateway Intern Amy Plickebaum, a French major at the University of Illinois, served as the Humanities Gateway Intern in Public Media and Civic Engagement, an internship offered by HRI in partnership with Illinois Public Media. In addition to helping plan a new film festival, Plickebaum assisted WILL's Book Mentor Project, a local literacy program.
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Mellon Legal Humanities Interns Tom Ballard, who served as a Legal Humanities intern, graduated in May with degrees in economics and political science. He is currently interning at the Cato Institute as their criminal justice intern and plans to do empirical research in criminal justice afterwards and hopefully attend law school next year. Alice Lee, who served as a Legal Humanities intern, graduated in May with degrees in political science and psychology. She is working at Sidley Austin, a law firm in Chicago, for two years before attending law school. Alice hopes to work with underprivileged and underrepresented populations after finishing her education. Alex Wellman, who served as a Legal Humanities intern, graduated in May with degrees in economics and political science. He will be a SIEPR/Economics Predoctoral Research Fellow and non-matriculated student at Stanford working under Adrien Auclert and Isaac Sorkin on their projects relating to inequality and labor economics.
Odyssey Project Interns Yosra Abdulwahid, a rising senior with dual degrees in information sciences and economics, also served as an intern for the Odyssey Project. In her diverse and interdisciplinary coursework, Yosra has enjoyed learning about how technology usage impacts people. This community-centered approach has informed her work with the Odyssey students. Julia Rzasinska, an education major at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, served as an intern for the Odyssey Project. After graduation, Julia plans to become a high school social studies teacher, and she credits her work with Odyssey in broadening her perspective on lifelong learning.
HRI STAFF & ADVISORY COMMITTEES Welcome to HRI
Staff Updates
We are excited to introduce Olivia Kiser, who joined HRI as an office support associate, particularly in support of Interseminars and other grant activities. Olivia was born in and grew up in Kentucky and attended the University of Chicago for undergraduate studies, where she majored in Medieval Studies and Russian and Eastern European Studies. Olivia came to UIUC for a master’s in library and information sciences, completed in May 2021. Olivia is very involved in college and high school quiz bowl, staffing three national tournaments over the summer, and is a huge movie buff.
We are excited to highlight HRI staff members with recently updated titles and/or roles. Peggy Brennan is now associate director of Humanities Without Walls, Jenna Zieman is budget and finance manager, and Michelle Awad is the visiting Odyssey Project advisor and instructor.
We are also excited to welcome Bridget Sullivan, who joined HRI's communications team as a communications specialist. Bridget brings seven years of communications experience from diverse professional environments, including working as a social media strategist at a digital marketing agency, an editorial assistant on the board of an international higher education publication, and most recently as a communications coordinator in the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategies. Bridget holds a bachelor’s degree in strategic communications from Miami University and a master’s in education, with a focus on higher education administration, from Virginia Tech.
HRI Staff ADMINISTRATION
EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
Antoinette Burton, Director aburton@illinois.edu, 217-244-3344
Michelle Awad, Visiting Odyssey Project Advisor and Instructor odysseyproject@illinois.edu, 217-3003888
Nancy Castro, Deputy Director ncastro@illinois.edu, 217-244-7913
Alaina Pincus, Assistant Director for Education & Outreach apincus2@illinois.edu, 217-265-6330
Stephanie Uebelhoer, Office Support Specialist suebelho@illinois.edu, 217-244-3344
EVENTS AND SPACE USAGE
BUSINESS OFFICE Olivia Kiser, Office Support Associate okiser2@illinois.edu, 217-333-2269
Lydia Allen, Events and Client Relations Coordinator allen7@illinois.edu, 217-265-6218
Jenna Zieman, Budget and Finance Manager zieman@illinois.edu, 217-244-5013
HUMANITIES WITHOUT WALLS CONSORTIUM Peggy Brennan, Associate Director of Humanities Without Walls mlbrenn2@illinois.edu, 217-265-5657
COMMUNICATIONS Erin Ciciora, Senior Communications Manager elukehar@illinois.edu, 217-265-7580 Bridget Sullivan, Communications Specialist sulliv54@illinois.edu, 217-300-8001
HRI Advisory Committee Ikuko Asaka, History
HRI Graduate Student Advisory Committee
Amanda Ciafone, Media and Cinema Studies
Joseph Coyle, Anthropology
Josue David Cisneros, Communication
Lilah Leopold, Art History, Art + Design
Natalie Lira, Latina/Latino Studies
Reanne Zheng, History
Anna Flood, English
Rini Bhattacharya Mehta, Comparative and World Literature and Religion Faranak Miraftab, Urban and Regional Planning François Proulx, French and Italian Terri Weissman, Art History, Art + Design
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GIVING TO HRI Your Gift Makes the Humanities Accessible to All In April 2022, we celebrated the Odyssey Project’s 15 years in Champaign-Urbana with 15 Days of Giving, raising more than $1,000 in new gifts for the adult education program. Through Odyssey, low-income adult learners learn from UIUC humanities instructors, connecting course work to their lived experience in dynamic, meaningful ways. “We've touched hundreds of students in the last 15 years, and they have gone on to better jobs, to pathways in higher education, and to being builders of community here in Champaign-Urbana,” said HRI Director Antoinette Burton. “Our legacy is our students and the work they do in the world.” Speaking about her teacher and mentor, Valerie O’Brien, Odyssey alumna Jessica Black said, “She actually told me about the internship that ended up landing me my job. I don't think I'd be doing anything that I’m doing right now if it hadn’t been for the Odyssey Project.” For those who contributed during the “15 Days” campaign—and any time of year— we are sincerely grateful to count you among our community of supporters. Hear more stories from the Odyssey community at go.illinois.edu/OdysseyVideo.
New Funding Removes Barriers to Service Work For too many students, financial barriers can make volunteer service work a challenge—or even out of reach. But thanks to a generous gift from Dr. Dan Shin (LAS ’91), more undergraduates will be able to take their humanities training out of the classroom and into the community. The University of Illinois Humanities in Action program, led by We CU Community Engaged Scholars with support from the Humanities Research Institute, is designed to offset costs associated with service activities.
Staff member Alaina Pincus and undergraduate interns Sarah Boghossian and Elena Vara speak to students on the Quad. Undergraduate opportunities are expanding this year thanks to donors like Dr. Shin and the Humanities in Action program.
The first cohort starts in fall 2022 (see page 7 for the recipient names). In addition to financial support, Humanities in Action students will connect with like-minded peers, participate in workshops, and learn about HRI and the opportunities available in the humanities at Illinois. At the culmination of the program, participants will receive guidance on how to communicate their experience in resumes and job applications.
Humanities Research Lab Strengthens Community-Centered Scholarship After two years of piloting Humanities Research Lab (HRL) courses, HRI is excited to share that this program is officially launching, thanks to the generosity of donor Elizabeth Nolan (LAS ’81). HRL courses offer departments the opportunity to keep classes small and focused on developing intensive links between research and community engagement—allowing students to apply their research to concrete problems in real time. The initiative is a collaboration between HRI and the Office of Undergraduate Research. Most recently, Dr. Tariq Khan taught History 386, which incorporated a partnership between students and local non-profit organization First Followers into its syllabus. Together with First Followers, the students researched the root causes of community violence and developed a new website sharing their work (see more on page 21). 24 | HRI 2022 NEWSLETTER
We are excited that two new HRL courses are slated for the coming academic year! See page 6 for more.
Key Funding Opportunities As the world continues to present complex challenges both historical and newly unfolding, HRI remains committed as ever to fostering a bold, thriving humanities ecosystem at Illinois. We see you as a vital part of our community and invite you to join us in bolstering the essential work of the humanities to effect positive change. Your gift can help support: Faculty Fellowships Graduate Fellowships The Odyssey Project Research Clusters
Join us as we push the boundaries of research in the humanities and work to contribute to meaningful, material change for the collective good. You can make a gift at hri.illinois.edu/ giving or by contacting Director of Development Tony Pomonis (English ’02) at (217) 300-3470 or apomonis@uif. uillinois.edu.
Faculty Research Funds Endowed Residential Visiting Scholars Humanities Research Lab With you, HRI will be empowered to discover collaborative solutions so that our collective future can, and will, flourish.
A Connected Community We invite you to join the email list for Amplify, which shares stories of the rippling impact of the humanities at Illinois and beyond. And sign up for our E-News to learn about HRI’s speakers, programs, and opportunities offered throughout the academic year. Visit go.illinois.edu/EmailList.
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The Humanities Research Institute (HRI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign fosters interdisciplinary study in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Established in 1997 as the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, HRI is a vibrant hub for humanities activity on campus. We coordinate and host lectures, symposia, and panel discussions on a wide variety of topics, and we award prizes recognizing excellence in faculty and student humanities research. We convene distinguished scholars from around the world, and we support Illinois faculty and graduate student research through fellowships and a bimonthly seminar. HRI cultivates collaborative faculty-driven initiatives through its Research Clusters; hosts multi-million-dollar external foundation grants; and supports faculty and graduate student reading groups.
Phone (217) 244.3344 Email info-hri@illinois.edu Website hri.illinois.edu @HRIatIllinois
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Levis Faculty Center, Suite 400 919 West Illinois Street Urbana, Illinois 61801