U of A Humanities Center Announces New Round of Grant Recipients

Photo Submitted

Berdine Hall-Will, Ida Hall Henderson, and Dr. Valandra, the women whose interconnected stories ground professor Valandra's project.

The University of Arkansas Humanities Center is happy to announce the selection of recipients for its second round of fall funding competitions for publishing subvention grants and humanities research support.

The vibrant community of humanistic researchers at the University of Arkansas yielded many excellent proposals, but the below were deemed by the selection committees to best fit the competitions and the research mission of the center.

For those interested in funding for their humanities centered research, another round of consideration for publishing subventions and other research support opportunities will be available in the spring.

Check out the UAHC website funding tab for further information on upcoming competitions.

Publishing Subvention Grant Recipient

Assistant professor Alison Place of the graphic design program in the School of Art has received a publication subvention grant for visuals for her book, Feminist Design: Designing for Equity, Inclusion and Allyship, which is under contract with MIT Press. The book draws on intersectional feminist theory to confront the patriarchal origins of design culture, open new spaces for critical making and inquiry, and establish innovative design methods to counter discrimination and systemic oppression.

Faculty Research Grant Recipients

Assistant professor Manuel Olmedo Gobante of the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures will use his grant funding for the preparation and eventual publication of a translation and critical edition of a 17th century play by Andrés de Claramonte (c. 1580-1626). The play – The Valiant Black Man in Flanders – was extremely popular and its importance reverberated into later centuries. The end product – a bilingual critical edition – will be valuable across disciplines and will shed light on the silenced and marginalized early history of Black resistance to systemic racism.

With the project, "Structural Racism and Black Place Making: An Arkansas Story Rooted in a Legacy of Transgenerational Family Resilience," professor Valandra of the School of Social Work and the African and African American Studies program traces the historical and contemporary intersections of systemic racism and Black placemaking. Using the transgenerational family journey of four generations of Black Arkansan women, Valandra will create a compelling story of Black agency and resilience in the face of trauma and systemic barriers, which she will release in public talks, publications, and conference presentations. LaShawnda Fields, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, will assist with the data collection, data analysis, and development of the manuscripts.

Graduate Student Research Grant Recipients

Neba Evans is a master's student in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media working in the field of documentary film production. Her project, "A Song of the Bluff" will highlight the history of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in a short documentary film that flips the narratives of historical trauma to share stories of a thriving, hope-filled community. Using the creation of a city history exhibition as the backbone, the documentary incorporates film, history, art and music to address the roots of inequality in Pine Bluff and Arkansas more generally.

The project "Whiteness in the early 18c Louisiana and Orinoco," from Guillermo Pupo Pernet of the Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies program, brings together cartography with history, literature, power, discussions of whiteness, and the geography of the Caribbean from 1670-1770. Looking at the interplay between the French and Spanish empires, and utilizing techniques from Africana and Indigenous studies, Pupo Pernet intends to submit this work as an article as he completes his dissertation. 

About the University of Arkansas Humanities Center: The University of Arkansas Humanities Center, in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, promotes cross-disciplinary research and inquiry in the humanities, sponsors programs that engage humanities scholars and the wider public in conversations about critical topics, and fosters a strong role for the humanities in an increasingly global society. To find out about other research support from the UAHC, click on the funding link at the website.