All of the work in the program this year is part of a larger project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant titled "Hub, Pathway, Core: Implementing Engaged Humanities Curriculum Across the University of Portland." With the support of this award, in 24-25 PRF will begin an expansion of its successful undergraduate research program into an Engaged Humanities Hub that will operate as a center for innovative humanities work at UP, including the development of engaged humanities curriculum, experiences, and infrastructure. The 3-year award, the largest humanities grant in UP history, will bring together interdisciplinary faculty working groups from 10 academic disciplines to focus on Civic Humanities, Environmental Humanities and Health Humanities.
In support of this work, the PIs of the project will work alongside a student fellow across the year to manage, document, and publicize grant activities. The team will also research other institutions' engaged humanities programs and design and host related campus and community events.
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’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 founders of the Public Research Fellows, she serves as the program’s Director and teaches the PRF courses, Engaged Humanities Fundamentals and Engaged Humanities Futures, in addition to courses in American literature and the core curriculum in the English department. She is one of the PIs on a 3-year NEH grant project to build an Engaged Humanities Hub at UP. 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.
Year: Senior
Major/minor: Psychology and English
Hometown: Santa Clarita, CA
Why PRF: Getting a peek into the work behind the Public Research Fellows program is such a valuable experience! With this project, I will be developing a big-picture understanding of the public humanities whilst helping expand and publicize the work of the program itself, which ensures that I am constantly learning new things and advancing my own skills in many different areas. Entering my second year with this program, I am interested in getting to connect with not only the larger UP community, but also our community partners and the communities we hope to support outside of campus.
University of Portland
5000 N. Willamette Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97203-5798
503.943.8000
