RPW Fellows
Transamazonic Bondage: Violence, Networks, and Race (Brazil, 1688-1798)
Mar. 2, 2023—Alexandre Pelegrino is a 2022-23 Graduate Student Fellow from the Department of History. It is beyond question that the enslavement of Indigenous Americans played a decisive role in the formation of colonial societies in the Americas. Yet, most people assume that it was a practice confined to the early moments of colonization. In other words, Indigenous...
The Trans in “Just Transition”
Feb. 9, 2023—Nicholas Reich is a 2022-23 “Mending and Transforming” Graduate Student Fellow. How to “transition” to a world that isn’t fuel dependent? Maybe this was always a utopic question. Fuel scholar Heidi C. M. Scott explains, “We can’t even see oil because we look through oil glasses…we are, ourselves, petroleum products.” Toothbrushes, lip balms, sex toys, the...
Stories We Tell about Addiction
Dec. 8, 2022—Arleen Tuchman is a 2022-2023 RPW Center Faculty Fellow. This year’s group is exploring the theme of “Mending and Transforming.” The stories we tell matter. They can do harm, as do the stories we tell about addiction in the United States today. They create borders, separating people with addictions and their families from their communities....
“It’s been getting weirder. I can’t wait for next year.”
Nov. 15, 2022—Diana Heney is a 2022-2023 RPW Center Faculty Fellow. This year’s group is exploring the theme of “Mending and Transforming.” “It’s been getting weirder. I can’t wait for next year.” This is the insight a colleague shared with me in the final session of my first trip to Imagining America. They had been to several previous...
“Mending and Transforming” at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books
Oct. 6, 2022—Serenity Gerbman, Director of Literature and Language Programs at Humanities Tennessee. After two years online during the pandemic, Humanities Tennessee welcomes back authors and audiences for an in-person Southern Festival of Books October 14-16. We are back. But we are not the same. And we know you’re not either. We hope you will join us...
Exploring the Religious and Spiritual Complexity of Black Activism in the U.S.
Sep. 13, 2022—Martina Schaefer is a 2022-23 Graduate Student Fellow from the Department of History. Upon entering graduate school, I was not quite clear what aspects of U.S. history I wanted to examine in my dissertation project. I had various ideas and knew that I wanted to learn more about the Black radical tradition. For my first-year...
Needlework saved my mother’s life. Literally.
Sep. 6, 2022—Laura Carpenter is a 2022-2023 RPW Center Faculty Fellow. This year’s group is exploring the theme of “Mending and Transforming.” Needlework saved my mother’s life. Literally. On a Monday evening in February 2021, I got a text from one of my mom’s cronies. Carole hadn’t logged on to Zoom with her crochet and knitting group...
Thinking in Language
Apr. 25, 2022—Meet Laura Carter-Stone, a 2021-2022 RPW Center Environments Graduate Student Fellow. She is a PhD student in the Teaching, Learning, and Diversity program at Peabody College. Her research explores how the performing arts–especially the art of dramatic improvisation–can create emotionally engaging and collaborative language and literacy learning environments. What is your research about and why does...
Expanding the Renaissance
Apr. 18, 2022—Willnide Lindor is the 2021-2022 Elizabeth E. Fleming Fellow from the Department of English. Her research interests include: Renaissance Lyric Poetry and Drama, Early Modern Race Studies, Gender and Sexuality, and Postcolonial Theory. What is your research about and why does it matter? My current research explores nuanced depictions of blackness through the intersection of...
Migrating in Climates
Apr. 11, 2022—Meet Kelsea Best, a 2021-2022 RPW Center Environments Graduate Student Fellow. She is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and her dissertation is entitled “Dynamics of Changing Landscapes, Livelihoods, and Migration in Bangladesh.” What is your research about and why does it matter? Climate change is one of the most urgent...