The Humanities Institute (HI) Fellows program advances the scholarly writing and research of humanities faculty. The program includes two course releases, research funding, peer writing groups, and development of a cross-humanities faculty community. Additionally, the program assists faculty in grant writing and writing for a broad public.
Successful proposals for the fellow’s program describe a well-developed scholarly writing project rooted in the humanities that has clear and feasible outcomes for the fellowship year and that has the potential to be funded by outside agencies.
The fellowship will run through the 2025-26 academic year. The Fellowship provides funds for two-course releases and an additional $2,000 for research. Applications are closed.
2025-2026 Fellows
Evan Berry
Evan Berry, associate professor of environmental humanities in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Evan Berry’s book project on “fossil fueled religion” explores granular, theoretically rich stories about the cultural implications of fossil fuel extractivism, focusing on the religious characteristics of hydrocarbon-dependent societies.
Peter Joseph Torres
Peter Joseph Torres, assistant professor in the Department of English
Peter Joseph Torres’ book “Narcolinguistics and the Opioid Epidemic: Language, Power, and Human Experience in a Time of Crisis” reveals how words — in policies, patient narratives, and physician responses — create meaning and shape medical outcomes.
Linh Vu
Linh Vu, associate professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Linh Vu’s scholarly monograph, “Republic of Virtues: Honors and Awards in Modern China and Taiwan,” examines how the civilian award system shaped China’s transformation from empire to nation in the 1910s, state-building from the 1920s to the 1940s, and postwar reconstruction from the 1950s to the 1970s, contributing to our understanding of human motivations.
Jed Samer
Jed Samer, associate professor in the Department of English’s film and media studies program
Jed Samer’s project, “The Transgender Joke Book,” offers the first comprehensive study of the rise of transgender comedy, exploring the growing visibility of trans comedians and imploring audiences to let go of ideological frameworks meant to contain trans life.
Mónica Espaillat Lizardo
Mónica Espaillat Lizardo, assistant professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Mónica Espaillat Lizardo’s work, “‘The Most Perfect Identification Document’: Codifying the Twentieth Century Dominican Citizen,” presents the first historical analysis of the cédula (citizen ID), the cornerstone of modern Dominican citizenship, and explores how fluctuating categories on the cédula were used in service of an anti-Haitian and heteropatriarchal vision of citizenship.
Rachel Corbman
Rachel Corbman, assistant professor in the School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
Rachel Corban’s book “Before Crip Theory: A History of Lesbian Feminist Disability Activism” tells the previously untold story of a small network of disability activists in the lesbian feminist movement and positions lesbian feminist disability activism as a necessary precursor for work on the intersection of queer and disability studies today.
2023-2024 Fellows
Tyler Peterson | Assistant Professor, Department of English |
A Grammar of 'Onk Akimel O'odham |
Volker Benkert | Associate Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies |
Apologia and Redemption. Representations of Ordinary Germans in Contemporary Films on World War II and the Holocaust. |
Brian Goodman | Assistant Professor, Department of English |
The Antipolitical Imagination: Literature, Dissent, and Human Rights |
Katherine Bynum | Assistant Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies |
'We’ve Got Black Power and That’s Gonna Go a Long Way:’ Ruth Jefferson and the National Welfare Rights Organization in Dallas. |
Marcello Di Bello | Assistant Professor, SHPRS Philosophy Faculty |
“Probability on Trial: Making Sense of Arguments and Stories” |
Annika Mann | Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies |
“Still Lives: Physical Disability and Late Style in Romantic-era Women’s Writing" |
Past Fellows
Academic Year 2022
Matt Simonton | Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
Mark Hannah, Director of Writing, Rhetorics and Literacies; Associate Professor, English
Han Hsien Liew | Assistant Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Katherine Morrissey | Assistant Professor, English
Eugene Clay | Associate Professor, Religious Studies, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Patricia Webb | Associate Professor, English
Curtis Austin | Associate Professor of History, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Aviva Dove-Viebahn | Assistant Professor, English
Ilana Luna | Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
Isaac Joslin | Assistant Professor of French (contemporary Francophone literature and culture), School of International Letters and Cultures
Academic Year 2021
Daniel Gilfillan | Associate Professor, School of International Letters and Cultures
Alexander Aviña | Associate Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Lisa Han | Assistant Professor, Department of English
Serena Ferrando | Assistant Professor, School of International Letters and Cultures
Natalie Lozinski-Veach | Assistant Professor, School of International Letters and Cultures
Curtis Austin | Associate Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Shamara Alhassan | Assistant Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Francoise Mirguet | Associate Professor, School of International Letters and Cultures
Julia Sarreal | Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
Academic Year 2020
Linh D. Vu | Assistant Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Ana Hedberg Olenina | Assistant Professor, School of International Letters and Cultures
Dave Fossum | Assistant Professor, School of Music
James E. Wermers | Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts; Faculty Fellow, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy
Academic Year 2019
Calvin Schermerhorn | Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez | Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication
Laurie Manchester | Associate Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Anna Cichopek-Gajraj | Associate Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Miriam Mara | Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
William Hedberg | Assistant Professor, School of International Letters and Cultures
Academic Year 2018
Aaron Moore | Associate Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Monica De La Torre | Assistant Professor | School of Transborder Studies
Johanna K. Taylor | Assistant Professor, The Design School, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Myla Vicenti Carpio | Associate Professor | Director of Graduate Studies | American Indian Studies
Indulata Prasad | Assistant Professor | School of Social Transformation
Academic Year 2017
Karen Leong, Associate Professor, Asian and Pacific American Studies & Women and Gender Studies, School of Social Transformation
Kathy Nakagawa, Associate Professor, Asian and Pacific American Studies, School of Social Transformation
Aggie Noah, Associate Professor, Asian and Pacific American Studies & Justice and Social Inquiry, School of Social Transformation
Annika Mann, Assistant Professor of English, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
Tyler DesRoches, Assistant Professor, School of Sustainability
Christopher Wharton, Associate Professor, School of Nutrition and Health Promotion
Olga Davis, Professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication
Jenny Brian, Honors Faculty Fellow, Barrett Honors College
Academic Year 2016
Jonathan Barth, Assistant Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies
Ann Keniston, Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of English, University of Nevada, Reno
Chris Jones, Assistant Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies
Bradley Ryner, Associate Professor, Department of English
Julia Sarreal, Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Academic Year 2015
Joan McGregor, Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Rebecca Tsosie, Regents' Professor and Willard H Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Executive Director, Indian Legal Program
Gaymon Bennett, Assistant Professor of Religon, Science and Technology, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
Ben Hurlbut, Assistant Professor of History, School of Life Sciences
Academic Year 2014
Bradley J. Irish, Assistant Professor, Department of English
Academic Year 2013
Bambi Haggins, Department of English
Academic Year 2012
Academic Year 2011
Wei Li, Asian Pacific Studies
Academic Year 2010
Miriam Lowe, Professor of Modern Judaism
Rachel E. Scott, School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Academic Year 2009
Tracy Fessenden, Religious Studies, School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies
Rachel Bowditch, School of Theatre and Film
Megha Budruk, School of Community Resources and Development
Academic Year 2008
Daniel Cutrara, Film and Media Studies
Collaborator: Daniel Ramirez, Religious Studies
Yoav Gortzak, Political Science
Academic Year 2007
Steve Semken, Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration
Consultant: Christopher Boone, Associate Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change and School of Sustainability
David Birchfield, Assistant Professor, Arts, Media and Engineering
Claudia Mesch, Assistant Professor, School of Art
Academic Year 2006
Anna Holian, History
Diane Wolfthal, School of Art