College of Humanities faculty share their experience researching at the National Humanities Center.
What do you get when you combine a passion for humanities research and classic Southern hospitality? According to Associate Professor Sara Phenix (19th-Century French Literature and History), Associate Professor Jacob Rawlins (Applied Rhetoric, History of Publishing), and Associate Professor Dawan Coombs (Adolescent Literacy and Struggling Readers), you get the National Humanities Center (NHC). Sponsored by the BYU Humanities Center, these three faculty members attended the summer fellowship program at the NHC in June 2023. They each presented a brief summary of their research and shared their favorite experiences from the program at the BYU Humanities Center Colloquium on September 21, 2023.
The National Humanities Center, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is an independent institution dedicated to promoting and advancing research in the humanities. In addition to a variety of education and public engagement programs, the NHC runs a Residential Fellowship Program, where faculty scholars from affiliated universities can spend either one month or a full year at the NHC to further their research goals. This is BYU’s first year sending faculty for the summer fellowship program, and all three reported having a fantastic experience.
Phenix spent the month polishing her research on historical attitudes and perceptions about the effects of women’s corsets on female fertility in France during the 19th century. Phenix said she loved the opportunity to rub shoulders with scholars from other walks of life, especially because she got to discuss her research with someone who was working on a similar topic. She said, “The best thing about the NHC was the people there. Both the lovely humans from BYU who were there with me, and also the other fellows. I had so many fascinating, surprising, and really fun conversations at the lunches where they gathered us all.”
Rawlins, who continued his research into Welsh publishing history while at the NHC, said one major benefit of the fellowship came from being able to dedicate his time to just one project instead of having to switch between various responsibilities. He found many opportunities to talk about BYU and answer questions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said, “Every conversation, they would ask something like, ‘How does BYU do this? What about this in the Church? What do you believe about this?’ It was a really great thing to be a representative of BYU at the NHC.”
During her time at the NHC, Coombs developed her new book project about dialogical approaches to teaching English literature to adolescents. For Coombs, the beautiful setting and the distance from distractions helped her focus on her writing in a way she said she hadn’t been able to do since graduate school. Coombs also loved how passionate and welcoming the NHC staff and leadership were and mentioned that they held weekly workshops that included writing coaching, access to editors, and professional advising.
Rex Nielson (Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literature and Culture), director of the BYU Humanities Center, hopes to send another group of scholars to next year’s summer program and encouraged the Colloquium attendees to apply. The call for applications will most likely go out sometime in October. He invited any interested faculty to consult with him for more information on the process.
For more information about the National Humanities Center and their programs, visit their website. Learn more about this semester’s Humanities Center Colloquium series here.
