Six grant recipients present their research at the annual HUM Grant Symposium.
Do you have a great idea for a research project, but you don’t have enough time or money to spend on it? If you’re a humanities major, a Humanities Undergraduate Mentoring (HUM) Grant would provide you with the means and guidance you need to pursue your research interests by offering funding and the mentorship of a full-time faculty advisor. On November 3, 2023, six recent HUM grant recipients presented their research at an annual Humanities Center symposium event to demonstrate how their experience receiving the grant helped them find success and fulfillment in pursuing their passions.
The event was divided into two panels with different themes. Each recipient had the opportunity to give an individual presentation of their work, then participated in one of two combined panels to answer questions from the audience. While each recipient researched completely unique topics from each other, their work intersected in interesting ways. Sharing their experiences in panel format allowed them to learn how each person’s work intersected with the others’.
The first panel focused on questions relating to identity borders—the metaphorical boundaries distinguishing one identity from another. Megan Hamilton (Editing and Publishing, French Studies ’24) engaged with this topic by sharing her corpus linguistic study on the French verb sentir. Her study focused on how the usage of the verb is changing in the Rennais dialect, a dialect that is closely tied to the identity of those who speak it. Joshua Cook-Wright (Mechanical Engineering, Portuguese ’24) sought to understand the identity of Afro-Brazilians by researching the works of Maria Firmina dos Reis, Brazil’s first female novelist. He compared the conventional academic understanding of her writing to the perceptions of her work by people in her hometown of Guimarães, Brazil. Caroline Johnson (Art History and Curatorial Studies ’23) researched the idea of identity borders as she studied how the architecture of The Round Stone Barn, considered the epitome of Shaker design, reflects the patriarchal shift in Shaker culture that took place after the death of the religion’s founder, Ann Lee.
The second panel concentrated on revisionary interpretations and new perspectives on particular subjects in art history, philosophy, and rhetorical composition. Ivy Griffiths (Art History and Curatorial Studies ’25) provided a new perspective on the 10th-century Byzantine ivory panel, Icon with the Crucifixion, expanding on previous, limited interpretation of the piece to show how its contrast of light and shadow plays with the Byzantine theme of light. Brandon Ascione’s (Philosophy ’24) work offers a reinterpretation of a particular passage of 18th-century philosopher David Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature based on other parts of Hume’s writings. Coleman Numbers (English ’26) presented a new perspective on how ChatGPT could perform as a writing tool for various stages of the writing process in different rhetorical genres to better understand the relationship between artificial intelligence and human creativity.
For each researcher, the HUM Grant provided the support they needed to complete their research. For example, Griffiths used the funding to travel to New York City to view the subject of her research in person at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. For others, the grant money allowed them to focus on research instead of spending time on a job to pay for their daily needs. The opportunity to participate in scholarly research as an undergraduate affords these students with better prospects when applying for graduate programs and provides valuable experience to help them in their future careers.
To learn more about how to apply for a HUM Grant, ask your faculty advisor or click here.