• Ruby Wang Programmatic Communicator wruby@unc.edu
• Silas Webb Program Administrator slwebb@email.unc.edu
• Rebecca Williams Business Manager rcwilliams@unc.edu
Letter from the IAH Director
Dear Friends,
Having completed my third year as IAH Director, I remain convinced that this is the best job on campus. The Institute’s mission is to “empower faculty… by building community and cultivating leadership.” I am grateful for each moment I spend helping to build a strong community of interdisciplinary support for arts and humanities faculty leaders.
This academic year, though, was shaped by challenges and the need to adapt to rapid change. The school year began with two campus lockdowns and the tragic loss of a faculty colleague through a senseless act of violence. In January, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz left for another opportunity and Lee Roberts was named interim chancellor. The academic year ended with another abrupt closure of the campus related to student protests against the war in Gaza. These events and the accompanying emotions stay with us, and we are continuing to process them.
One thing that gives me hope is the way that community has been fostered at the Institute and beyond. When our campus needed safe spaces for healing, collective processing, and having difficult conversations, faculty and staff found them through our regular convenings and programs, or by simply connecting with colleagues around the Fellows table. I am proud that Hyde Hall — both literally and figuratively — continues to be a sure place for faculty, especially during these challenging times.
And yet, this year brought positive change, too. We expanded offerings for faculty, guided by our strategic plan, “Going Deeper to Broaden Our Impact.” We awarded the first of our Summer International Collaborative Research grants to aid faculty in boosting global partnerships and their research capabilities. This momentum is sure to continue next year as we make steady progress towards our aspirational goals, led in part by our newly appointed Faculty Director for Strategic Initiatives, Milada Vachudova.
While positive change is good, there are important things at the Institute that remain constant. This year’s Fellows Celebration was a well-attended affair that welcomed faculty, administrators, and board members that highlighted recent faculty achievements in recognition of their culminated works. We also hosted both the Reckford and Weil Lectures this past year, serving the campus and broader communities. Read about the speakers and their topics in the pages that follow and you’ll see why these cherished events are vital to the Institute’s mission.
Patricia Parker Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities
It is no accident that “community” is part of the IAH’s mission. We are adamant about knowing our constituent faculty, supporting the College in retaining those faculty, and leaning in to being a leader and a model for other centers on campus. We believe in the power of the arts and humanities to keep us grounded and connected — especially during times of change.
So, in spite of a year that has been in many ways challenging, I am ever hopeful because of the strong community of care that we build here at the Institute.
I am hopeful because I see the ways faculty are being empowered to go further in their careers and are inspired to conduct world-changing research that impacts everyday lives.
I am hopeful because of you. Your support allows us to achieve everything we have accomplished, this year and every year. The Institute for the Arts and Humanities could not be what it is today — and what we hope it will be in the future — without your dedication and generosity.
To be continued...
Letter from the IAH Advisory Board Chair
Lane McDonald Chair, IAH Advisory Board
Dear Colleagues,
I hope all of you had a wonderful summer and managed to recharge your batteries in some way and stay cool. Heading into the academic school year, it seems we are potentially in store for even wilder global and domestic, political and social rapids than we experienced this past spring and summer. Yet, despite the chaos swirling about, I take a small measure of comfort from the strength of the foundation, consistency of purpose, and steady march of progress that the IAH team, for one, is making on our journey to empower UNC’s incredible faculty.
Under the team’s exceptional leadership plus the generous support of our donors, Director Pat Parker has found yet another way to level up the IAH on university and global stages. On the university front and due to our recent campaign fundraising success, we continue to grow the flagship Faculty Fellowship Program and awarded new Summer International Collaborative Research grants to deserving faculty. Pat was appointed to the board of the Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes, where she and Executive Director Tommie Watson recently met
with other global institutes, sharing our best practices and lessons learned on a global stage. Once again, the IAH is being heralded as a model for national and international institutes to emulate.
Over the past year, we have also seen great reengagement from some of our former IAH Advisory Board members via a concerted effort by our development committee, led by Mike Yelverton, committee chair and board member, and Angela O’Neill, the IAH’s director of development. The passion, loyalty, and dedication of not only our current advisory board, but also our former members, are second to none, as proved by the crowded University Room in an open house to welcome former board members ‘back home’ to Hyde Hall last fall. Please be on the lookout for more opportunities to engage and reengage with the IAH in the coming months. As we say about our Fellows — “once a Fellow, always a Fellow!” — is also true of our advisory board members: “once a board member, always a board member!”
As an advisory board, we continue to complete and refine our strategic priorities set out a couple short years ago focused on strengthening our core programs, collaborating with key partners on campus and beyond, growing our international impact, and enhancing our home at Hyde Hall. As always, if one of these ideas ignites a particular passion in your heart, please reach out to me, Pat, Tommie, or Angela to speak about how you might get involved. We welcome your ideas, energy, and resources.
I’d like to close with a thought from the ever-quotable Ruel Tyson, founder of the IAH, which has helped me remember to stay focused on the great work we do at the IAH to buffer against these unpredictable times: “Democracy and education — insofar as each is dedicated to the practice of free and open inquiry — are twins in the program of the enlightenment.”
To be continued...
Faculty Fellowship Program
The FACULTY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM offers faculty the opportunity to pursue ambitious, exciting, artistic, and scholarly projects that lead to publication, exhibition, composition, and performance. Led by Program Director Oswaldo Estrada, Fellows meet weekly to exchange ideas with an interdisciplinary cohort of peers.
Fall 2023 Faculty Fellows
• Jessica Boon, Borden Fellow
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Spanish Passion: Jesus, Mary, and the Jews in the Early Imperial Religious Imagination
• Brandi Brimmer, Johnson Fellow
Associate Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
The Other Frederick Douglass: A Black Freedom Fighter in the Post-Reconstruction South
• Samba Camara, Pardue Fellow
Teaching Assistant Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
A Muslim Afropolitanism: The Ethics of Personhood in Senegalese Popular Music
• Youssef Jaison Carter, McGowan Fellow Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
The Vast Oceans: Remembering God and Self on the Mustafawi Sufi Path
• Sarah Dempsey, Turner Fellow
Associate Professor, Communication
What’s in a Wage? A Humanities Intervention into the Meaning of the Wage
The Secrets of Silence: Black Women Speaking on Police Violence and Invisibility
• Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Ellison Fellow
Associate Professor, English and Comparative Literature
Art Above Everything: Global Women with a Singular Vision
• Pamela Lothspeich, Espy/Tyson Fellow
Associate Professor, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Raslila: The Play of Lord Krishna
• Daniel Muñoz, Schwab Fellow
Assistant Professor, Philosophy Ethics in Policing Policy
TOP ROW: Jessica Boon, Brandi Brimmer, Samba Camara, Youssef Jaison Carter BOTTOM ROW: Sarah Dempsey, Shannon Malone Gonzalez, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Pamela Lothspeich, Daniel Muñoz
Spring 2024 Faculty Fellows
• Barbara Ambros, Taylor Fellow Professor, Religious Studies
Refraining from Killing and Releasing Life: Animals and Ming-Qing Religion in Early Modern Japan
• Lydia Boyd, Hyde Fellow Associate Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
Maternal Health Beyond the Clinic: Reproductive Choices in Rural Uganda
• Inger S. B. Brodey, Townsend Fellow Associate Professor, English and Comparative Literature Jane Austen in Asia: Reckoning with Post-Colonialism, Gender, and National Identity Through Adaptations
• Brian Hsu, Burress Fellow Assistant Professor, Linguistics Principled Probability in Language
• Tania Jenkins, DuBose Fellow Assistant Professor, Sociology Sick and Tired: The Structural Underpinnings of Satisfaction and Wellbeing in Medicine
• Suzanne Lye, Bernstein Fellow Assistant Professor, Classics To Starve and To Curse: Women’s Anger in Ancient Greek Literature and Magic
• Nina Martin, Blackwell Fellow Associate Professor, Geography Pretentious Urbanism: How Progressive Cities Recreate Inequities
• Caela O’Connell, Cramer/Belk Fellow Assistant Professor, Anthropology Agri(cultures) of Disease: People, Plants, and Fungi
• Erika Serrato, Friend of the Institute Fellow –Race, Memory, and Reckoning Initiative Assistant Professor, Romance Studies Native Blueprint: Reading the Landscape and the Making of an Indigenous Caribbean
INVEST IN CAROLINA FACULTY
Gifts to the Faculty Fellowship Program allow the Institute to consistently provide support to at least eight Fellows each semester. Endowment and expendable giving opportunities start at $57,000. For more information, contact IAH Director of Development
Angela O’Neill at angela.oneill@unc.edu
giving.unc.edu/gift/IAH
TOP ROW: Barbara Ambros, Lydia Boyd, Inger Brodey, Brian Hsu, Tania Jenkins BOTTOM ROW: Suzanne Lye, Nina Martin, Caela O’Connell, Erika Serrato
Tyson Academic Leadership Program
The Institute helps prepare and support current and emerging academic leaders through the TYSON ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP PROGRAM . Fellows engage in a series of activities to help them develop leadership capacities, clarify their career commitments, build a leadership network within the campus community, and extend their contacts to other leaders beyond the University. The cohort meets in seminars led by Program Director Viji Sathy and Senior Leadership Advisor Rob Kramer.
2023-2024 Academic Leadership Fellows
• Jay Aikat
Vice Dean, School of Data Science and Society Research Professor, Computer Science Department
• Mara Buchbinder Professor, School of Medicine
• Michael Figueroa
Associate Professor, Music Department
• Tanya Garcia
Associate Professor, Gillings School of Public Health
• Robin Sansing Clinical Associate Professor, School of Social Work
• Patricia Sullivan Associate Professor, Public Policy Department
• J. Michael Terry Associate Professor, Linguistics Department
• Benjamin Waterhouse, Associate Professor, History Department
TOP ROW: Jay Aikat, Mara Buchbinder, Michael Figueroa, Tanya Garcia BOTTOM ROW: Robin Sansing, Patricia Sullivan, J. Michael Terry, Benjamin Waterhouse
Chapman Family Teaching Awards
The Chapman Family Teaching Awards were created in 1993 with a gift from Max Carrol Chapman Jr. ’66 on behalf of the Chapman family. As part of the University Teaching Awards, faculty receive a stipend of $30,000 in recognition of their distinguished teaching of undergraduate students.
• Patrick Harrison, Teaching Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Patrick Harrison specializes in skills-based statistics and methodological courses as well as contentbased theoretical courses. Harrison is technically and pedagogically a very strong and inclusive teacher and so clearly passionate and caring.
• Anastacia Kohl, Teaching Associate Professor, Department of Romance Studies
Anastacia Kohl is an expert language instructor and Director of Spanish Language Instruction in the Romance studies department. Kohl creates a true community of learning within her class as students attest to in their remarks about her. She also has a significant impact on TAs and inspires in them a newfound love for teaching.
• Søren Palmer, Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature
Søren Palmer specializes in English, comparative literature, and creative writing. Palmer’s classroom is a place where students from varied cultural, religious, and educational backgrounds establish relationships and learn from the experiences of others.
• Milada Vachudova, Professor, Department of Political Science Milada Vachudova (FFP ’05, ’15) specializes in European politics, political change in postcommunist Europe, the European Union, and the impact of international actors on domestic politics. As an extraordinarily well-cited scholar in her field, she continues to have a tremendous ability to teach, inspire students, and extend genuine care and compassion toward them. Read more about Vachudova on page 10.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Patrick Harrison, Anastacia Kohl, Søren Palmer, Milada Vachudova
Fostering Faculty Excellence
Faculty are expected to have a high level of research and publication productivity to retain Carolina’s designation as a top-tier research university. These scholars then bring that knowledge to the classroom and to the public.
The Institute for the Arts and Humanities offers several awards and grants to faculty, such as the Schwab Academic Excellence Award. The IAH also provides grants to support faculty research, publication and more, including the Arts and Humanities Research Grant.
2024 SCHWAB ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS
The Schwab Academic Excellence Awards recognize one faculty member from each College of Arts and Sciences department in the arts, humanities, and qualitative social sciences. Department chairs nominate faculty members, who may use the awarded funds to support their scholarship and creative activities.
Advisory Board member and former chair Julia Sprunt Grumbles established the award in 2015 to help department chairs recognize teaching and scholarship. Nelson Schwab III, former IAH Advisory Board Chair, has since endowed the fund.
• African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
Eunice Sahle (ALP ’16)
• American Studies
Gabrielle Berlinger
• Anthropology
Townsend Middleton (FFP ’14, ’20)
• Art and Art History
Martin Wannam
• Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Pamela Lothspeich (FFP ’12, ’23)
• City and Regional Planning
Ashley Hernandez
• Classics
Jennifer Gates-Foster (FFP ’16)
• Communication
Joyce Rudinsky (FFP ’05, ’07)
• Dramatic Art
David Navalinksy
• English and Comparative Literature
Ylce Irizarry
• Geography and Environment
Sara Smith (FFP ’11, ’18)
• Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures
Adi Nester
• History
Eren Tasar
• Linguistics
Caitlin Smith
• Music
Evan Feldman
• Philosophy
Mariska Leunissen (FFP ’16)
• Political Science
Matthew Weidenfeld
• Religious Studies
Brendan Thornton (FFP ’22)
• Romance Studies
Nilzimar Hauskrecht
• Sociology
Yong Cai
• Women’s and Gender Studies
Tanya Shields (FFP ’20, ALP ’17)
Grants and awards from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities have supported faculty publications, collaborative projects and events, and research portfolios. Learn more about the Institute’s grant opportunities for faculty at our website.
SPOTLIGHT: Arts and Humanities Publication Support Grant
In June, Inger S. B. Brodey’s (FFP ’11, ’24) book, Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness, was published with Johns Hopkins University Press. To assist with its publication, the Institute awarded Brodey with an Arts and Humanities Publication Support Grant, which provides funding to increase the quality, contribution, or reach of books, recordings, and other academic or scholarly works. The grant is a partnership between the Office of Research Development and the IAH.
An edited interview with Brodey and the College of Arts and Sciences is below:
Q: CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF YOUR BOOK?
A: Lots of critics and readers have noticed the strangeness of Jane Austen’s endings. In the concluding chapters of most of her novels, she suddenly starts summarizing instead of providing dialogue, inserting herself as the author commenting on the book, and using many other techniques to heighten the readers’ awareness that we are reading fiction. This occurs at the moment where all true romantics would like to forget they are reading fiction and instead indulge in a dreamy fairy-tale ending. By going through each of her novels and including evidence from some of what Austen herself read, I establish her hidden purposes as a writer and teacher. Fierce independence, conviction in the potential of the novel as a genre and deeply humanistic ideals led her to develop a style of ending all her own. She wrote in a culture that set a monetary value on success in marriage and equated matrimony with happiness, yet Austen actively challenges these ideas in her endings. The book also includes a selection of adaptations of Austen’s endings in both fiction and film, thinking about which ones are able to capture the spirit of her endings.
ABOVE: Inger S. B. Brodey (FFP ‘11, ‘24) is a professor of English and Comparative Literature. LEFT: Her book, Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness was published in 2024 with Johns Hopkins University Press.
Q: HOW DOES THIS FIT IN WITH YOUR RESEARCH INTERESTS AND PASSIONS?
A: Austen has been a major part of my life since I first read her as a teenager in Colorado. Since college, I’ve been deeply involved in Jane Austen societies around the world, traveling to do research and give lectures. I’ve written dozens of articles on Austen; this is my first book exclusively on her. I’m also passionate about the public humanities and have built four nonprofit organizations around Jane Austen — an annual in-person symposium in June called the Jane Austen Summer Program, a middle and high school teacher training program for teaching earlier works of fiction to students, an online Zoom interview series called Jane Austen & Co., and a new interactive website/ portal called Jane Austen’s Desk. Accordingly, I’ve also written this book on Austen for a wide readership. I really love the town-and-gown communities.
The Institute has also sponsored the Jane Austen Summer Program. Read the full interview at the College of Arts and Sciences’ website: go.unc.edu/y2B8D
IAH Welcomes New Faculty Director for Strategic Initiatives
Milada Vachudova has been named the inaugural Faculty Director for Strategic Initiatives at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, effective July 1, 2024.
Vachudova, a professor in the department of political science, is a two-time IAH Faculty Fellow. In 2023-24, she served on the IAH’s Advisory Board’s ad hoc strategic priorities committee. As Faculty Director for Strategic Initiatives, Vachudova will support the development, evaluation, and advancement of existing programmatic initiatives and several new strategic initiatives.
The Institute’s strategic plan, “Going Deeper to Broaden Our Impact,” enhances and expands the Institute’s longstanding model of supporting arts and humanities research and leadership. In consultation with the IAH Director and with IAH staff support, Vachudova will coordinate aspects of the Institute’s strategic priorities implementation plan.
New initiatives include:
• Developing faculty programs to support international research collaborations
• Supporting community engagement and partnerships locally, nationally, and globally to advance public-facing arts and humanities programs
A longtime friend of the Institute, Vachudova was a Fletcher/ Whitton/Pealer Fellow in 2005. In 2015, she returned as a Borden Fellow, where she focused on “Democratization in the Western Balkans: Political Contestation and the Leverage of the European Union.”
“Milada is a vital addition to the Institute. She will certainly enhance the work of implementing our strategic priorities,” said IAH Director Patricia Parker. “In particular, the expertise and experience that Milada brings will be especially invaluable to developing our internationalization and engaged partnership initiatives.”
“At the heart of our campus, the IAH brings together faculty, supports their research, and inspires them to take on exciting
new ventures,” said Vachudova. “I am delighted to join the IAH team in deepening and broadening our initiatives in the service of our faculty and our wider community.”
Vachudova served as chair of the curriculum in global studies from 2014 to 2019. She draws connections across time and continents to deepen student understanding of domestic and world politics. In 2023, Vachudova received a Chapman Family Teaching Award for excellence in teaching undergraduate students.
Vachudova specializes in political change in Europe, and the impact of international actors on domestic politics. Her current projects include protest in defense of liberal democracy across Europe, the revival of European Union enlargement, and Ukraine’s path to EU membership amidst the transformation of European politics and institutions owing to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Her recent articles explore the trajectories of European states due to strengthening ethnopopulism and democratic backsliding — and how these changes are impacting party systems and civic participation.
In November 2023, Vachudova was featured at an IAH salon in New York City hosted by lifetime advisory board member Caroline Williamson where she discussed “Russia’s War Against Ukraine and Ukraine’s Challenge to the US and Europe: How are war and recovery transforming the West?”
“At the heart of our campus, the IAH brings together faculty, supports their research, and inspires them to take on exciting new ventures. I am delighted to join the IAH team in deepening and broadening our initiatives in the service of our faculty and our wider community.”
— MILADA VACHUDOVA
A New Grant to Support International Collaborations
As part of the Internationalization pillar of the Institute’s strategic plan, the IAH launched the Summer International Collaborative Research Grant in 2023 to support faculty at the associate professor rank. Musicologist Andrea Bohlman and geographer Javier ArceNazario received the inaugural awards.
For faculty in the arts, humanities, and qualitative social sciences, the SICR grant provides $20,000 to use within five years. With the grant’s timeframe and funds, faculty have the time and resources to conduct research abroad and develop international partnerships.
Having an international profile has become increasingly important for career advancement to faculty. Director Patricia Parker identified internationalization as a key initiative to enhance the Institute’s offerings for faculty and its flagship fellowship program.
“Some of the most impactful research begins with faculty collaborating with other experts at universities, museums, art galleries, community organizations, and other entities,” said Parker. “Supporting faculty collaborative research opportunities abroad extends that impact globally and enriches teaching and learning at UNC.”
As part of the grant, Bohlman conducted research that grew out of her first book and also helped inspire her next one, currently titled “Magnetic Fields: Tape Recording and the Sounding of Consent.” The
SICR grant allowed Bohlman to spend three weeks in Germany and Poland, traveling to Berlin, Warsaw, and Wrocław.
In addition to conducting research in sound recording archives and hosting a workshop on graduate student research at the University of Wrocław, she connected with key collaborators, which included cultural historians, musicologists, and experts in media and visual arts.
Arce-Nazario’s project, “Cartographies of the Global South,” brought together scholars at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, Amazonian Indigenous communities, and other stakeholders. The interdisciplinary project works to create new maps that contextualize the area from the perspective of the local Indigenous community, informed by oral histories and more.
“Supporting faculty collaborative research opportunities abroad extends that impact globally and enriches teaching and learning at UNC.”
— PATRICIA PARKER
The summer of 2023 was just the start for both Bohlman and Arce-Nazario. Over the next few years, they have additional plans to travel and further build their collaborations.
TOP: Musicologist Andrea Bohlman traveled to Germany and Poland for her research as part of the Summer International Collaborative Research Grant. BOTTOM: Geographer Javier Arce-Nazario has worked with Ecuadorian scholars and Indigenous communities to develop new maps that contextualize ancestral lands.
Bohlman appreciated the timeframe for the grant, which provides access to the funds for up to five years. “Complicated ideas take time to develop. They take hard conversations. They take careful and fastidious work through materials, texts, and the writing process itself is slow,” she said.
“It indicates to me an investment on the part of the university and in the strength of intellectual work in the arts and humanities, allowing space for ideas.”
Listen to a podcast with Bohlman about her research: go.unc.edu/n4F8C
Alyssa LaFaro
Donn Young
Event Highlights
RECKFORD LECTURE HIGHLIGHTS
PICASSO’S WORKS AND INFLUENCES
In February, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities presented the Mary Stevens Reckford Memorial Lecture in European Studies, with keynote speaker and art historian Christine Poggi.
Poggi, the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, explored Picasso’s use of wood in his works from 1906-08 and 1912-14. She delivered her lecture, “From Primal Matter to Surrogate Veneer: Wood and Faux Bois in Picasso’s Cubism,” to a full University Room in Hyde Hall.
Poggi’s research focuses on European avant-garde artists, collage and constructed sculpture, the rise of abstract art, and how art intersects with new and developing forms of labor, technology, and media.
...Poggi’s “work shows a great sensitivity to the relationship between art and language — art as a language of its own, but also… its connection to other kinds of language.”
— DANIEL SHERMAN
In her lecture, Poggi pointed to several works by Picasso and Georges Braque, both of whom devised the collage form in their art. Both artists utilized different techniques to comment on emerging technologies in collage, intentionally recreating wood elements in their works. As she traced Picasso’s use of wood in sculpture and in paint, Poggi also noted how his scenes in the forest demonstrated a return to pre-civilization and commented on sexuality.
IAH Director Patricia Parker highlighted Poggi’s deft ability to share her expertise. To illustrate, she quoted colleague and art professor Daniel Sherman (FFP ’17), who noted that Poggi’s “work shows a great sensitivity to the relationship between art and language — art as a language of its own, but also… its connection to other kinds of language.”
The Mary Stevens Reckford Memorial Lecture in European Studies was established in 1990 by classics professor Kenneth J. Reckford to honor his late wife. The lecture is designed to provide a public audience with “pleasure, instruction, an interdisciplinary approach and a sense of shared humanity.”
Read more or watch the lecture at go.unc.edu/Reckford2024
Institute Director Patricia Parker welcomed art historian Christine Poggi to Hyde Hall ahead of Poggi’s Reckford Lecture in European Studies.
Jafar
Fallahi
Event Highlights,
WEIL LECTURE EXPLORES ‘AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS’
Judy Woodruff delivered the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship on March 25, 2024. The former anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour now hosts the recurring program Judy Woodruff Presents: America at a Crossroads
As part of the Weil Lecture, which was titled after her reporting project, Woodruff discussed her efforts to understand why the country is deeply divided.
“I think the issue of polarization has become front and center in our country today,” said Woodruff during the Q&A portion of the event. As she reflected on the role of journalism, she said she was pleased that more reporters are asking deeper and more challenging questions to better examine values people share, and how to keep going as a country.
“We call ourselves the eyes and ears of the American people,” said Woodruff. “And so, I think we need to make sure we know what the American people are thinking.”
“College campuses are places of learning, of open debate. It’s the place one goes as a young person to hear new ideas, to learn different viewpoints.... ” — JUDY WOODRUFF
“Judy Woodruff’s current project directly engages the American citizenry, generating conversation on critical topics, which is at the heart of a democratic society,” said IAH Director Patricia Parker.
To Parker, a communication scholar, having those spaces for dialogue “is foundational to having meaningful conversations.” As she reflected about the issues of debate and free speech — particularly on college campuses — Parker asked Woodruff what advice she would give to students.
“I’m learning from students,” said Woodruff. “College campuses are places of learning, of open debate. It’s the place one goes as a young person to hear new ideas, to learn different viewpoints…. We should be having these debates on college campuses; we should be discussing hard questions.”
“That’s how we learn,” said Woodruff.
The Weil Lecture on American Citizenship was established in 1915, and has been hosted by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities since 2000.
Watch the lecture at go.unc.edu/Weil-2024
LEFT: Judy Woodruff delivered the 2024 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship, “America at a Crossroads.” RIGHT: Director Patricia Parker moderated an audience Q&A following Judy Woodruff’s remarks.
Jafar Fallahi Jafar Fallahi
Misha Becker (FFP ’12, ALP ’19) Linguistics
Appointed: Department Chair.
Inger S.B. Brodey (FFP ’11, ’24)
English and Comparative Literature
Published: Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024.
Promoted: Professor.
Mara Buchbinder (FFP ’19, ALP ’24) School of Medicine
Named: Hastings Center Fellow, 2024.
Tim Carter (FFP ’15) Music
Published: Monteverdi’s Voices: A Poetics of the Madrigal, Oxford University Press, 2024.
Claude Clegg (FFP ’17) African, African American and Diaspora Studies
Awarded: Affirming Multivocal Humanities Initiative grant (PI), Mellon Foundation.
Sarah Dempsey (FFP ’09, ’23) Communication
Published: Organizing Eating: Communicating for Equity in U.S. Food Systems (editor), Routledge, 2024. Awarded: Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction.
Florence Dore (FFP ’12, ’22; ALP ’20)
English and Comparative Literature
Awarded: Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Kathleen DuVal (FFP ’13, ’22) History
Published: Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, Penguin Random House, 2024.
Publications and Honors
Spotlighting the achievements and works by our Fellows
Elizabeth Engelhardt (FFP ’16, ALP ’18) American Studies
Published: Boardinghouse Women: How Southern Keepers, Cooks, Nurses, Widows and Runaways Shaped Modern America, UNC Press, 2023.
Carl W. Ernst (FFP ’01, ’14; ALP ’09) Religious Studies
Published: I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’s America (co-author), UNC Press, 2023.
William Ferris (FFP ’07) History
Launched: Marcie Cohen Ferris and William R. Ferris Imprint, UNC Press.
Michael Figueroa (FFP ’20; ALP ’24) Music
Recognized: Arab America Foundation 40 Under 40. Awarded: Howard Foundation Fellowship, Brown University.
Rebecka Rutledge Fisher (FFP ’20) English and Comparative Literature Awarded: Camargo Prize and Residency, Camargo Foundation, 2024.
Tanya Garcia (ALP ’24) Gillings School of Global Public Health Named: Provost Distinguished Faculty Leaders 2023-2025 Inaugural Cohort. ACC Academic Leaders Network Fellow, 2024.
Michael Gerhardt (FFP ’10, ALP ’13) School of Law
Awarded: Thomas Jefferson Award, Office of Faculty Governance.
Rhonda Gibson (ALP ’07)
Hussman School of Journalism and Media
Appointed: Director, M.A. in Media and Communication program in journalism, Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
Kelly Giovanello (ALP ’22) Psychology and Neuroscience Appointed: Associate Dean, Research and Innovation, College of Arts and Sciences.
Penny Gordon-Larsen (ALP ’18) Gillings School of Public Health
Appointed: Vice Chancellor for Research.
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall (FFP ’98, ’04) History
Awarded: Caldwell Award, North Carolina Humanities.
Julia Haslett (FFP ’18) Communication
Awarded: Senior Faculty Research and Scholarly Leave Award.
Elizabeth Havice (FFP ’19, ALP ’23) Geography and Environment
Appointed: Bowman & Gordon Gray Term Professor.
Heidi Hennink-Kaminski (ALP ’17) Hussman School of Journalism and Media
Named: ACC Academic Leaders Network Fellow, 2023.
Evelyne Huber (ALP ’07) Political Science
Awarded: Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student and Academic Program Support.
Shakirah Hudani (FFP ’22)
African, African American and Diaspora Studies
Published: Master Plans and Minor Acts: Repairing the City in Post-Genocide Rwanda, University of Chicago Press, 2024.
Published: Rap and Redemption on Death Row: Seeking Justice and Finding Purpose Behind Bars (co-author), UNC Press, 2024.
Michelle King (FFP ’23)
History
Awarded: 2024 Kleio Award, UNC History Department.
Published: Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food, W. W. Norton & Company, 2024.
Scott Kirsch (FFP ’07)
Geography and Environment
Published: American Colonial Spaces in the Philippines: Insular Empire, Routledge, 2023.
Miguel La Serna (FFP ’15)
History
Appointed: Department Chair.
Valerie Lambert (FFP ’05)
Anthropology Promoted: Professor.
Jacqueline Lawton (FFP ’18)
Dramatic Art
Dramaturg: The Game, PlayMakers Repertory Company, 2024.
Priscilla Layne (FFP ’21, ALP ’22) Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures
Appointed: Director, Center for European Studies.
Wayne Lee (FFP ’08)
History
Published: The Cutting-Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500-1800, UNC Press, 2023.
Pamela Lothspeich (FFP ’12, ’23)
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Published: The Epic World (editor), Routledge, 2024.
Awarded: Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship. Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies article prize.
Promoted: Professor.
Jodi Magness (FFP ’10)
Religious Studies
Published: Jerusalem through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades, Oxford University Press, 2024.
Michael McFee (FFP ’95, ’08)
English and Comparative Literature
Awarded: Roanoke-Chowan Award, North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.
Genna Rae McNeil (FFP ’96, ’12)
History
Awarded: William Richardson Davie Award.
Joseph Megel (FFP ’11)
Communication
Directed: Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green, The Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, 2023.
Awarded: Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Hugo Méndez (FFP ’22)
Religious Studies
Awarded: National Humanities Center Summer Residency.
Jocelyn Neal (FFP ’08, ALP ’14)
Music
Appointed: Department Chair.
Elizabeth Olson (FFP ’17, ALP ’19)
Geography and Environment
Awarded: Diversity and Inclusion Award, American Association of Geographers, 2024.
Louis Pérez (FFP ’00)
History
Published: Colonial Reckoning: Race and Revolution in Nineteenth-Century Cuba, Duke University Press, 2023.
HuthPhoto
Krista Perreira (FFP ’08, ALP ’14)
School of Medicine
Awarded: $25.3M National Institute on Aging award for Add Health study (co-PI).
Karin Pfennig (ALP ’17)
Biology
Selected: Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholar.
Morgan Pitelka (FFP ’07, ALP ’18)
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Awarded: Honorable Mention, 2024 John Whitney Hall Book Prize in Japanese Studies.
William Race (FFP ’98, ’07)
Classics
Published: Maximus of Tyre: Philosophical Orations (editor and translator), Harvard University Press, 2023.
Antonia Randolph (FFP ’22)
American Studies
Appointed: Jonathan M. Hess Career Development Term Assistant Professor.
C.D.C. Reeve (FFP ’10)
Philosophy
Published: Aristotle’s Chemistry: On Coming to Be and Passing Away & Meteorology 1.1–3, 4.1–12 (translator), Hackett Publishing Company, 2023.
Charlene Regester (FFP ’05)
African, African American and Diaspora Studies
Published: Intersecting Aesthetics: Literary Adaptations and Cinematic Representations of Blackness (co-editor), University Press of Mississippi, 2023.
Courtney Rivard (FFP ’21, ALP ’23)
English and Comparative Literature Awarded: Faculty Award for Global Excellence, UNC Global Affairs.
Viji Sathy (ALP ’21)
Psychology and Neuroscience Awarded: Charles L. Brewer
Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award, American Psychological Foundation.
Petal Samuel (FFP ’20)
African, African American and Diaspora Studies
Awarded: Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship, American Association of University Women.
James Seay (FFP ’90)
English and Comparative Literature Published: Come! Come! Where? Where?, UNC Press, 2024.
Conghe Song (ALP ’17)
Geography and Environment Appointed: Department Chair.
Randall Styers (FFP ’04, ALP ’13)
Religious Studies
Appointed: Interim Department Chair.
Meenu Tewari (FFP ’17)
City and Regional Planning
Elected: Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee, College of Arts and Sciences.
Hồng-Ân Trương (FFP ’13)
Art and Art History
Exhibited: chân trời foot of the sky with Hương Ngô, commission for Chicago O’Hare Airport.
Liên Trương (FFP ’17)
Art and Art History
Exhibited: An Unbearable Lightness Between Sky and Water, solo exhibition, Galerie Quynh Contemporary Art, Vietnam. My mother, she fell from the sky, featured in Nasher Museum of Art exhibition, Duke University, 202324. Featured in Look Up to the Sky exhibition, Mills College Art Museum, 2024.
Katherine Turk (FFP ’21)
History
Published: The Women of NOW: How Feminists Built an Organization That Transformed America, MacMillan, 2023. Elected: Member, Society of American Historians.
Adam Versényi (FFP ’93, ALP ’04)
Dramatic Art
Dramaturg: Much Ado About Nothing, PlayMakers Repertory Company, 2023.
Ariana Vigil (FFP ’18, ALP ’22)
Women’s and Gender Studies
Awarded: Affirming Multivocal Humanities Initiative grant (PI), Mellon Foundation.
Robin Visser (FFP ’16)
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Published: Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan, Columbia University Press, 2023.
Claudia Yaghoobi (FFP ’21) poses next to a display featuring the book she edited, The #MeToo Movement in Iran: Reporting Sexual Violence and Harassment , at the Fellows Celebration.
Daniel Wallace (FFP ’18)
English and Comparative Literature
Published: Southern Lights: 75 Years of the Carolina Quarterly (co-editor), UNC Press, 2023.
Michael Waltman (FFP ’06)
Communication
Awarded: William C. Friday Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Benjamin Waterhouse (FFP ’22, ALP ’24)
History
Published: One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America, W.W. Norton & Company, 2024.
Rachel Willis (FFP ’00, ’14)
American Studies
Awarded: Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Alex Worsnip (FFP ’20)
Philosophy
Awarded: Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement.
Claudia Yaghoobi (FFP ’21)
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Published: The #MeToo Movement in Iran: Reporting Sexual Violence and Harassment (editor), Bloomsbury, 2023. Appointed: Roshan Distinguished Professor.
Nadia Yaqub (FFP ’04, ’16; ALP ’13)
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Published: Gaza on Screen (editor), Duke University Press, 2023.
Waleed Ziad (FFP ’22)
Religious Studies
Awarded: American Institute of Pakistan Studies Book Prize, 2023.
More publications by Faculty Fellows:
RECENT HONORS FOR DIRECTOR PARKER
Institute Director Patricia Parker (FFP ’02, ALP ’11) received the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Office of Faculty Governance, one of Carolina’s highest faculty honors.
Established in 1961, the award is given to a faculty member who “has best exemplified the ideals and objectives of Thomas Jefferson,” whose complex legacy includes the values of democracy, public service and the pursuit of knowledge.
Parker accepted the award in honor of Sally Hemings and of civil rights trailblazer Ella Baker, who has long influenced her. “I think the ideals the award represents are absolutely an affirmation of my life’s work,” Parker said. “It’s a reckoning with Thomas Jefferson’s legacy and, in a way, it’s symbolic of my being here at the University of North Carolina in the first place.”
In further recognition of her work on Black feminist leadership and community engagement for social justice and equity, Parker received the IDEA Engagement Award from the National Communication Association. The award recognizes the efforts and activities to engage communities in work that enhances inclusion, diversity, equity, or access.
Parker was also appointed to the Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes international advisory board. CHCI, of which the IAH is a member, supports the future of the humanities by nurturing new forms and methods of global interdisciplinary collaboration.
Johnny Andrews
Advisory Boards
The Institute is able to carry out its mission with the guidance and investment of its advisory boards.
2024-2025 IAH ADVISORY BOARD
The IAH Advisory Board is made up of Carolina alumni and friends of the Institute who are passionate about and dedicated to supporting the Institute, helping to make strategic decisions through expert knowledge and guidance.
• Lane Morris McDonald Chair | New York, NY
• Allen Moseley Vice Chair | Atlanta, GA
• Lee Burrows Atlanta, GA
• Tom Chapman Jackson, WY
• Philip Robin Charles-Pierre New York, NY
• Phillip L. Clay Boston, MA
• Brent Michael Comstock Lincoln, NE
• Peter Diaz Atlanta, GA
• Catherine T. Edwards Charlotte, NC
• Mary Fieger Flanagan Chapel Hill, NC
• Julia S. Grumbles Chapel Hill, NC
• Harold P. Hope III New York, NY
• William A. Keyes McLean, VA
• Neil V. King III New York, NY
• John Miles Lamont Dallas, TX
• Kathryn Scott Long Greensboro, NC
• Karol V. Mason New York, NY
• Deborah Penley Miller Atlanta, GA
• James Moeser Chapel Hill, NC
• Walker Morris Charlotte, NC
• Alfred Clinton Perry Los Angeles, CA
• Brian Grover Strong New York, NY
• Reyna S. Walters-Morgan Raleigh, NC
• Amanda Giannini Watlington Durham, NC
• Margaret Williams Charlotte, NC
• Sandra Fay Wilson Chapel Hill, NC
• Walker Armfield Wilson Raleigh, NC
• Thomas M. Woodbury New York, NY
• Michael F. Yelverton Mill Valley, CA
As part of the advisory board’s spring enrichment session, creative writing professor Daniel Wallace (FFP ’18) shared the process behind his book, This Isn’t Going to End Well
Advisory board members Kathryn Long, Catherine Edwards, and Walker Morris greet each other before the fall meeting.
Jafar
Fallahi
Kristen Chavez
LIFETIME IAH ADVISORY BOARD
MEMBERS
• Buck Goldstein
• Barbara Hyde
• John O’Hara
• Roger Perry
• Nelson Schwab III
• Sherwood Smith
• John R. Wickham
• Caroline C. Williamson
2024-2025
FACULTY
ADVISORY BOARD
The Faculty Advisory Board runs the selection process for the Faculty Fellowship Program and the Tyson Academic Leadership Program and provides overall programmatic counsel.
• Danielle Christmas
English and Comparative Literature, Associate Professor
• Mark Crescenzi
Political Science, Professor
• Kathleen DuVal
History, Professor
• Samuel Ray Gates
Dramatic Art, Assistant Professor
• Mariska Leunissen
Philosophy, Professor
• Kara Millonzi
School of Government, Professor
• Abigail Panter
Psychology and Neuroscience, Professor
• Michelle Robinson
American Studies, Associate Professor
• Eunice Sahle
African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, Associate Professor
• Sara Smith
Geography, Professor
• Brendan Jamal Thornton
Religious Studies, Associate Professor
• Lee Weisert
Music, Associate Professor
FORMER ADVISORY BOARD RECEPTION
In November, the Institute invited current and former advisory board members to Hyde Hall for an evening of conversation and music. Music professor Stephen Anderson (FFP ’14) performed Danny Boy and Cole Porter’s What is this Thing Called Love on the piano, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the guests in the University Room. Held on Homecoming weekend, the reception was an opportunity to honor the legacy of board members’ service to the Institute and Carolina.
“The time, talent, and resources you contributed during your board terms all helped lay a solid foundation for the IAH,” Director Patricia Parker told attendees. “Our fellowships, our many faculty programs, and even this very building flow from your generosity, your passion, and your love for Carolina.”
The reception was an opportunity to invite former IAH advisory board members, like Randall Roden (left), back to Hyde Hall in recognition of their service to the Institute.
After sharing about his experience with the IAH, music professor Stephen Anderson (FFP ’14) performed a piano solo for attendees.
Kristen Chavez
Kristen Chavez
Q &A with Reyna Walters-Morgan ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
Q: WHAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST IMPACTFUL MOMENTS FOR YOU AT CAROLINA THAT INFLUENCED YOUR CAREER DECISIONS?
A: During my senior year, I was the second woman and the first person of color to serve as Student Body President. As an ex-officio member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, I offered guidance, feedback and perspective on all matters concerning the University and, most importantly, its students.
Early in my term, I met with Walter Davis, a major benefactor and trustee of the University. I shared with him that I am very passionate about and had done a lot of past work with voter registration. He then asked me two questions: One, “did you know that the UNC campus is divided into about five precincts and that there is no one place where all students can go and vote?” And two, “what are you going to do about it?”
Since her time as an undergraduate at Carolina, IAH advisory board member Reyna Walters-Morgan (B.A. ’99, political science) has spent years protecting the right to vote.
In addition to her involvement with the IAH, Walters-Morgan is a former chair of the UNC Board of Visitors, a former member and chair of the Alumni Committee on Racial & Ethnic Diversity (ACRED), and former member of the Campaign for Carolina Diversity Strategy Committee. Walters-Morgan received a J.D. from Howard University School of Law. Today, Walters-Morgan is a presidential appointee at the U.S. Department of Justice.
This interview has been edited for length. Read the full Q&A at iah.unc.edu.
It was beyond simply writing a letter — this was about changing the law. Legislation needed to be introduced that would allow voting access for students. The project surpassed my one-year term and was passed to my successors who continued the work. Three years later, I attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first satellite polling location within walking distance of campus. From then on, my life and my career has been centered around voting rights advocacy.
Q: HOW DO YOU HOPE THE UNIVERSITY CAN FOSTER BELONGING FOR ALL STUDENTS AND FACULTY?
A: I believe the university can have clear and honest conversations with students and understand that the administration and students may not always agree on the best way to resolve a problem. Luckily, I got to have these kinds of thoughtful
conversations with administrators. I worked closely with Chancellor [Michael] Hooker and he was amazing at asking great inquisitive questions. He was never afraid to ask the tough questions to get what he needed to know to make informed decisions. Open and honest conversations are crucial.
“Faculty make such an incredible difference at Carolina.... It is so important to keep our talented faculty that provide students with the kind of experience I had.”
— REYNA WALTERS-MORGAN
Q: WHAT ARE YOU EXCITED FOR IN YOUR SECOND YEAR AS AN ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER?
A: I am looking forward to sharing information about what the IAH does with alumni and friends. One of the most rewarding experiences so far was hosting a salon event at my
20 2023-2024 Annual Highlights | Institute for the Arts and Humanities | iah.unc.edu
home in D.C. It was amazing to bring in faculty members, staff, and alumni together into one place.
After, one alumnus told me after that he really enjoys the basketball watch parties, but “there is nothing like having an intellectual experience full of thought-provoking conversation.” Alumni don’t often have the opportunity to do that. Knowing that we were able to provide that is something we can do more of and I can’t wait to discover other ways we can work to engage alumni.
Q: WHY DO YOU FEEL IT IS IMPORTANT TO SUPPORT THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES?
A: Faculty make such an incredible difference at Carolina and, even in my own experience as a student, I can think of a few professors that helped me grow as a person and as an intellectual. They challenged me, helped me, and inspired me. It is so important to keep our talented faculty that provide students with the kind of experience I had. We must continue the important work the IAH is doing.
by Gina Moser.
Join Reyna WaltersMorgan and others by making a gift to the Institute.
Interview
In May 2024, Reyna Walters-Morgan hosted a salon in Washington, D.C. for fellow Carolina alumni.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Campus Box 3322, Hyde Hall Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3322
