Current Fellows
The Center annually welcomes up to forty scholars from all fields of the humanities. Individually, the Fellows pursue their own research and writing. Together, they create a stimulating intellectual community.
The National Humanities Center appointed 36 Fellows for the academic year 2021–22. Chosen from 638 applicants, they represent humanistic scholarship in African American studies; Africana studies; classics; dance studies; diaspora studies; European studies; geography; history; history of art and architecture; history of science; indigenous studies; languages and literature; Latin American studies; medical humanities; medieval studies; Middle East studies; musicology; philosophy; and religious studies. Each Fellow will work on an individual research project and will have the opportunity to share ideas in seminars, lectures, and conferences at the Center.

Project disciplines and home institutions are noted for each Fellow.
Diaspora Studies, Spelman College
Discourses around the African Diaspora in Bolivia: From the Colonial Period to the Dawn of the National Life
History, Texas Tech University
The Deaf Shoemaker: Ability, Disability, and Daily Life in the Sixteenth Century
Musicology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Music's Fourth Wall and the Rise of Modern Listening
Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo
Settling Nature: The Biopolitics of Conservation in Palestine/Israel
European Studies, Grinnell College
Listening to Panoramas: Sonic and Visual Cultures of Commemoration
History of Art and Architecture, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Painting and the Making of American Empire‚ 1830–1898
History, Delaware State University
“Two Lives for a Mile”—African American Soldiers Building the Burma Road
History, University of California, Davis
A Transcultural Revolution of the Unconscious: Psychoanalysis and Chinese Culture across the Pacific
History of Science, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Science Goes Global
Africana Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Enyoró: A Collective Biography of Black Matanzas (Cuba) from Slavery to Nation-Making‚ 1835–1898
Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University
A History of Uighur Buddhism, 800–1800
History, North Carolina Central University
Slaves Without Wages: Runaway Black Slaves and Servants in Eighteenth-Century London
African American Studies, Prairie View A&M University
Raymond A. Brown and the Black Power Movement
Dance Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Dancing Brazil's Other: Choreographies of Race, Class, and Nation
Geography, National Taiwan University
Placing Tea: Mobility, Territory, and the Agri-food Transfer between Taiwan and the Southeast Asian Highlands
Classics, New York University
Gods around the Pond: Religion, Society and the Sea in the Early Mediterranean Economy
Middle East Studies, Duke University
Blacks in Arabic Sources: An Intellectual History of Africanism in the Arab World
History, Duke University
Capitalism and the Constitution: An Overlooked American Lineage and a Looming Peril
History, Xavier University of Louisiana
Imagining the Tropics: Women, Tourism, and Caribbean Island Fantasy, 1890–1980
Medieval Studies, Southeast Missouri State University
The Insular Globe: Environmental Change and Landscapes of Colonization‚ Ireland, 1000–1700
Indigenous Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Indigenous Science and Technologies: Nahuas and the World around Them
Languages and Literature, University of Miami
Queer Writing in Digital Times: The Mobile Nigerian Present
History, The University of Hong Kong
“Helping Hands”: U.S. Cultural Diplomacy, Soft Power and Theatre for Development
Languages and Literature, Federal University Lokoja
Sexualities and (Dis)Abilities: (Re)Valuing Being Sexual Humans through Body Narratives
Philosophy, Texas A&M University
Injustice: An Inter-American and Community of Inquiry Approach
Medieval Studies, Wittenberg University
Political Culture in the Arc of Medieval Europe, 1000–1300
Latin American Studies, College of the Holy Cross
Andean Modernismos: Affective Forms in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
Classics, American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Creating Collective Memories in Ancient Athens
Medieval Studies, North Carolina State University
Avenging Christ: Vengeance, Devotion, and Violence in Late Medieval England
History, University of Colorado Boulder
Pulling the Teeth of the Tropics: An Environmental History of the U.S. Sanitary Program in Panama
Philosophy, Swarthmore College
Worms in the Garden: Bad Feelings in a Good Life
Medical Humanities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Agony of Empathy: A Health Humanities Intervention
Languages and Literature, Illinois State University
The Cinema of Femi Odugbemi: Screen Media and Popular Culture in Nigeria
History, The University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of Hong Kong, 1930s–1998
Texas Tech University
Breast is Best?: The Long Debate Over Infant Feeding in the United States
Current Fellows by the Numbers
Disciplines 2021-22
- African American Studies 2
- Africana Studies 1
- Classics 2
- Dance Studies 1
- Diaspora Studies 1
- European Studies 1
- Geography 2
- History 9
- History of Art and Architecture 1
- History of Science 1
- Indigenous Studies 1
- Languages and Literature 4
- Latin American Studies 1
- Medical Humanities 1
- Medieval Studies 3
- Middle East Studies 1
- Musicology 1
- Philosophy 2
- Religious Studies 1