Immersive Dissertation Research Fellowship

About

This innovative, competitive two-term research fellowship supports Humanities dissertation projects that involve substantial professional development and will likely result in dissertation formats other than the conventional proto-monograph. The Fellowship carries a competitive stipend and a tuition scholarship for the duration of the fellowship as well as professional development funds. For more information, see the immersive dissertation research fellowship flyer (PDF).

2023-2024 Fellows
In her dissertation project titled Stagnation Animated: Cutout Animation in the Soviet Bloc (1964-1985), Eve Barden (Film & Media Studies/Slavic) offers a survey of cross-cultural film-texts in the context of historical and socio-political factors that played a significant part in distinguishing the Soviet bloc (with its substantial varieties) as the producer of culturally notable avant-garde animated films distinctly different from the films made in the West. The project consists of a series of documentary-style video essays that will be available to the general audience on a public-facing website as an accessible and immersive educational tool. Eve was a 2020 Humanities Engage Pitch Your Own Immersive Fellow

Josh Brew's (Music) dissertation is a response to the Anthropocene, the current geological epoch characterized by human dominance over the planet and resulting in climate change and other environmental crises. His project aims to critically localize this global problem by examining the intersection of musical and ecological sustainability in Ghana. Specifically, he investigates how sustaining music cultures, musicians, and instruments contributes to sustaining the natural environment. One of his case studies focuses on Ghanaian palmwine music; hence he will continue his work with the Legon Palmwine Band to enhance the community-engaged aspect of the project. Josh was a 2022 Humanities Engage Pitch Your Own Summer Immersive Fellow and for 2023 Humanities Engage Pitch Your Own Summer Immersive Fellow.


By analyzing how Afro-Colombian literature promotes literacy, cultural awareness, and self-esteem, Marcelo Cabarcas (Hispanic Languages & Literatures) explores how identity-oriented materials can improve the academic performance of children who attend underfunded public schools in Colombia. LEARTE is a nonprofit organization specializing in community work from a legal perspective and with an ethnocultural approach. Its main goal is to promote human rights, entrepreneurship, and self-development in the predominantly Black communities of the country's impoverished areas. One of the foundation's objectives is cultural promotion, and within this field, reading and writing workshops are developed for public school students. Since Marcelo's work analyzes how these students engage with ethnoculturally-oriented materials, LEARTE has shown an interest in supporting his research by allowing him to develop a ten-month workshop as part of the "Guarapo de letras" (letter juice) initiative. The idea is to offer a group of children the chance to strengthen their learning. Marcelo's research goal is to explain how participating children interact with these materials and how they interpret, value, and connect them with their daily realities. By using texts written by Afro-descendant writers who reflect on the Afro-Colombian experience, Marcelo expects to build a meaningful learning environment.


Through an examination of sound and performances, M. Rizky Sasono (Music) traces the everyday politics of musicking in the "indie" scenes in Post-Reform Indonesia. His dissertation “Indie-nesia: the Audio-Politics of independent music (indie) in Indonesia” focuses on musicians’ politics in response to neoliberal manifestations in the state politics, ethnic politics, the authority of Euro-centric aesthetics, patriarchal society, and the Indonesian music history. To further circulate the audio-political lens of music and culture for publics outside the academia, he partners with an independent research hub LARAS - Studies of Music in Society and the art-collective ruangrupa, engaging in popular forms such as radio sessions, podcasts, art exhibition, and fictional short-films. 


Alexander Tough’s (Hispanic Languages & Literatures) thesis project examines how Pemón peoples in and around Canaima National Park of the Venezuelan Amazon use Internet and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for their social and political goals, and what we can learn about technology, natural resource extraction and resistance from these uses of technology. As part of his research, he will conduct ethnographic work to co-create a public-facing website of the Life Plan with the Pemón Kumarakapay community, original inhabitants of Canaima National Park but now exiled near Pacaraima, Brazil due to pressures from mining initiatives. This work is motivated by a desire of the community for the Life Plan, a reflective manifesto on communal well-being in the extraction zone, to reach the Venezuelan general public and other Indigenous groups.


Stella Wadiru (Music) investigates how South Sudanese refugee music and dance activities in Uganda lead toward psycho-social healing, community education, reflecting and redefining traditional gender roles and identities, and peaceful co-existence among South Sudanese refugees and Ugandan citizens. Her collaborative music workshop with refugee-popular artists in the Adjumani district, northern Uganda is to (1) discuss the challenges and opportunities that refugees face in communicating issues of violence, displacement, and trauma to the responsible humanitarian organizations in Adjumani. (2) Train refugee artists in basic songwriting, stage management, and vocal techniques, as well as music marketing and promotion; (3) promote peer mentorship among refugee artists; and (4) share knowledge about South Sudanese refugee life stories through music, dance, and drama. The workshop offers a platform for refugee artists to perform their musical compositions about their experiences and share how the songs are helpful to them. She will continue to work with the Lutheran World Federation-Adjumani, to promote peer mentorship for up-coming refugee artists in musicianship. Apart from a dissertation, Stella will produce documentaries and podcasts of refugee voices to promote post-conflict recovery and development in South Sudan.

 

2022-2023 Fellows

S. Brook CorfmanTo support the argument that writing and art can make possible gender and gender change, rather than simply report it, S. Brook Corfman (English) is studying the practices and products of a group of trans artists. As part of this work, Corfman will continue to collaborate with the Greer Lankton archive at the Mattress Factory Museum and will create significant series of poems exploring Lankton’s work and legacy as part of the dissertation “All Trans People are Artists, All Artists are Poets.”


Luana Moreira ReisThrough her exploration of poetic and cultural productions in Brazil, Luana Moreira Reis (Hispanic Languages and Literatures) emphasizes a commitment to social justice and collective change in her dissertation, “A poesia é meu quilombo: Black Feminist Poetics of Insurgency.” She will continue to collaborate with the Kilomba Collective and ADDverse+Poesia and to showcase the results of her analysis and critical work through original poetry. In summer 2021, she worked with the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in a Humanities Engage Administrative Micro-internship.


Ilhan Ozan

In his dissertation “Exhibiting Contemporaneity: Turkish Art in International Biennials, 1955-92,” İlhan Ozan (History of Art and Architecture) examines the artistic and curatorial development of contemporary Turkish art as it was staged in international exhibitions and uses digital humanities methodologies to investigate art biennials as important sites within the global dynamics of the Cold War geopolitics. His public-facing research outcomes include a network graph with access to the historical materials and a museum exhibition, potentially with SALT.

Mathew Tembo

Mathew Tembo (Music) examines shifts in Zambia’s music labor, from the 1990s when proto-Zed Beats (Zambia’s pop) emerged, that have continued to shape, reshape and influence production. Tembo’s project also highlights musicians navigating their musicianship as they strive to stay relevant in Zambia's mostly Zed Beats-dominated music economy. To ensure that his ethnographic research is accessible to the Zambian music community, he will film his dissertation in form of a documentary, broadcasting five episodes on Flava TV, Zambian Music Blog, and Mwebantu. He was a summer 2020 Humanities Engage Pitch Your Own Immersive Fellow


2021-2022 Fellows

 

Brittney KnottsFor her dissertation, “Keywords, Practices, and Products of the Twenty-First Century Girl Coder,” Brittney Knotts (English) seeks to historicize and understand the emergence and significance of 21st century “girl coders” locally and nationally. As part of this work, she will extend her partnerships with community sites, such as The Ellis School and Assemble, to do ethnographic work that is useful and legible to them. She was a Humanities Engage 2020-2021 Pitch Your Own Immersive Fellow.


Manuel RoblesManuel Robles (History) seeks to illuminate how Mexico went from largely ignoring its Afrodescendant population to recognizing it as an integral part of the nation in his dissertation, “Black Inclusion: Afro-Mexicans and the International Struggle for Recognition, 1974-2020.” He will collaborate with the Asociación de Mujeres de la Costa de Oaxaca (AMCO) to produce a short documentary film and develop educational infographics emphasizing women’s roles in this history, which will be presented in local schools and communities.


Celena TodoraIn her dissertation “Rhetorical Imaginaries of Liberation within Anti-Liberatory Spaces: Liberatory Rhetoric in Prison Education,” Celena Todora (English) will examine liberatory rhetoric in contexts, such as scholarship, pedagogy, and community organizing, within the field of prison education. She will conduct ethnographic research with the local abolitionist organization Let’s Get Free (LGF) and will produce multimodal and public-facing work. She was a Humanities Engage 2020-2021 Pitch Your Own Immersive Fellow.

 

2020-2021 Fellows

Samuel BoatengDrawing on both ethnographic and historical methods, Samuel Boateng (Music)’s dissertation project, “Jazz Sustainability in Ghana: Performance, Space, and Representation in Urban Africa,” is a multi-disciplinary and multi-sited work that focuses on three geographic locations – Ghana, the United States, and Britain – in order to assess the impact of Ghanaian musicians on the development, performance, and meanings of jazz beyond America’s borders. He is working with the Institute of African Studies to update Adepa Jazz Collection (AJC) documents and is completing a documentary film.


Alyssa QuintanillaIn her dissertation “A Matter of Waste and Bodies: Life, Death, and Materiality in the United States-Mexico Borderlands 1990 to the Present,” Alyssa Quintanilla (English) uses literary representations and digital art to examine how concepts of waste are applied not just to the items border crossers leave behind, but to their bodies, leading to the diminishment of their voices, experiences, and deaths. She created Vistas de la Frontera, a digital memorial that captures some of the places where migrants’ bodies have been recovered.