Home / College of Arts & Sciences / Public Research Fellows / 2023-24 Projects / Building PRF

Building the PRF Program

This project blends multiple kinds of work that will help build the PRF program: telling the story of the PRF program for public audiences, building relationships with local community partners, and researching and designing a “Humanities Futures” course to help humanities students connect the work they do in their majors with their personal and professional goals. While distinct, these three areas all serve the goal of establishing a long-term trajectory for the program as we continue to grow our presence both on campus and in the community.

Fellows

Molly Hiro (English)

Molly Hiro is Professor of English and a co-founder of the Public Research Fellows program. She teaches courses in American, African American, and multi-ethnic American literature, and she has published on race, feeling, pedagogy, and the engaged humanities in books and in journals such as Novel, Arizona Quarterly, and Arts and Humanities in Higher Education.

Jen McDaneld (English)

Jen McDaneld’s research focuses on suffrage literature, U.S. women’s rights movements, and the engaged humanities, with essays published in journals like Legacy, Signs, Feminist Teacher, Pedagogy, and Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. One of the co-founders of the Public Research Fellows, she serves as the program’s Director and teaches the PRF course, Introduction to the Engaged Humanities, in addition to courses in American literature and the core curriculum in the English department. She holds a Ph.D. in American literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies from Duke University.

Katherine Johnson

Year: Junior
Major/Minor: Psychology & English Double Major
Hometown: Santa Clarita, CA

Why PRF: I am interested in working with PRF because I believe that this program is putting out truly groundbreaking work. With its focus on creating an interdisciplinary community and fostering a strong base for people of all backgrounds to participate in, I am truly honored to be a part of the group that will work on not only highlighting and uplifting all of the research being done on the other projects, but also fostering a program that will only grow stronger into the future.

Lilly Grey Rudge

Year: Senior
Major/minor: English major, Writing and Theater minors
Hometown: Seattle, WA

Why PRF: I am interested in working as a program fellow because it provides me with the opportunity to exercise my skills in and passion for storytelling in a way that will benefit a program and community that I care about deeply. I believe that the humanities are a necessity as our society continues to have meaningful conversations surrounding equity, justice and reparative action, and would be thrilled to have the opportunity to use my skills to promote and further develop a project that provides a platform for those conversations to flourish.