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Featured Research

Fellows at the National Humanities Center explore an astonishingly diverse array of topics, touching on people, events, and ideas across time and geography.

Below you'll find Fellows sharing a little about how they were inspired to pursue the subjects they study, insights they've gained through their research, and how their work contributes to their disciplines and to our understanding of the human experience.

collage of images cut from magazines

Featured Research: Female Authorship

This month we highlight the research of 2023–24 Fellows whose projects focus on the voices of women, from medieval hagiographers to contemporary rappers, exploring the ways that an author’s gender influences her perspective—across genres, eras, and geographies.

man looking at art gallery installation

Featured Research: Elements of Belief

This month we highlight the research of 2022–23 Fellows whose seemingly disparate projects both examine the vital role that texts and creative works play in establishing authority and shaping systems of belief.

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Featured Research: Inside the Institution

This month we highlight the research of 2022–23 Fellows whose projects examine two very different kinds of institutions—prisons and museums—and consider how they viscerally enact the ways we think about pleasure, punishment, and social status, both inside and beyond their walls.

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Featured Research: The Influence of the Artist

This month we highlight the research of Fellows from the class of 2022–23 whose projects examine the powerful influence artists can have, affecting the lives of others and the culture at large well beyond the page, the stage, or the recording studio.

child's drawing

Featured Research: Interrogating the Image

This month we highlight the research of Fellows from the class of 2022–23 whose projects consider the ways that powerful images are created, displayed, and deployed in service to larger ideas—social, political, and philosophical.

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Featured Research: African American Creators

This month we highlight the research of Fellows from the class of 2022–23 whose projects examine the ways that Black Americans, especially women, have shared their experiences and perspectives across creative genres and, in so doing, challenged the ways that we think about music, fiction, and art.