Fellows
Each year, the Kaplan Institute's Public Humanities Graduate Practicum supports a cohort of fellows as they develop a public humanities project of their own design. The 2024-2025 fellows and their projects are:
Daniel Atwood (Musicology)
Licks from the Loop: Highlighting Chicago’s Street Musicians
This project involves creating a series of short TikTok/YouTube/Instagram videos highlighting street musicians who perform in downtown Chicago. Each episode will feature a different musician, blending interview segments with live performances recorded on the streets. The musicians will share a bit about their music and background before demonstrating one or two of their favorite licks or musical techniques for the viewer. The videos will include on-screen sheet music or tablature of the riffs, offering viewers a chance to learn "licks from the Loop." Blending performance, music education, and storytelling, this series highlights the musical artists who contribute the unique soundscape and cultural fabric of downtown Chicago.
Austin Bryan (Anthropology)
Zine Series for Uganda’s Public Healthcare Workers
This project proposes the creation of a zine series aimed at Ugandan public healthcare workers, translating research on the stigmas they face under the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023. Each zine will address key challenges, ethical dilemmas, and coping strategies related to providing care for key populations affected by HIV. Topics include socio-legal stigma, stigma by association, navigating ethical responsibilities, and resilience through advocacy. By employing visual storytelling, these zines will serve as accessible tools for healthcare professionals, enhancing understanding of their rights and promoting LGBTQ+ affirming care. The project will facilitate broader discussions and support within the healthcare community.
Srishti Chatterjee (Rhetorics, Media, and Publics)
Mapping Dissent: Visualizing How Communities Design Dissent
In this project, Srish is working with community organizers, activists, designers, teachers, and policymakers to deliver a workshop and an exhibition of maps that archive and tell activist stories—those printed on paper, as well as interactive maps. Srish is also interested in developing a living archive of map outlines used as logos and motifs in political communications, such as the maps of Palestine and Kashmir.
Arundhati Chauhan (Screen Cultures)
Towards a Screening Commons
Building on the strategies towards a filmworker-led and people-oriented approach to cinema, the project is in conversation with some of the activist and people-led film festivals and collectives from South Asia. I explore the possibilities of bringing together a platform where invited programming of films can be made available to watch, for a limited period of time, accompanied with some public programming (such as a short discussion post screening, a public lecture, or a written essay) that can accompany the ‘event’ of the screening. This project aims to bring to light the vast and tireless work being done to state non-theatrical film through collaborative networks of filmmakers, film workers, and civil society. In exploring what a digital screening medium can do, I also open up a more diverse audience for the exciting new work happening in the region.
Sophia Elzie (Comparative Literary Studies)
Antigone in Chicago
Antigone in Chicago broadly asks the questions "why this play here?" and "why this play now?" Antigone is the most popular tragedy in the city, with more than 30 productions that engage with the tragedy since 1946 (and counting!). This project examines Chicago's own history through past productions of the play and considers why Antigone remains popular up to the present moment.
Bridgette Hulse (Anthropology)
Indiana Jones and the Real-World Implications of his Archaeological Methods
Indiana Jones is the most prominent archaeologist in the public consciousness. His fantastical exploits, his world travels, and his iconic accessories are many people's first introduction to archaeology. Although a beloved figure, there are some aspects of Indie's career that are glaringly flawed—most notably, that he is fictional. However, the Indiana Jones movies have instilled in people a fascination with archaeology. In my YouTube video essay, I utilize this fascination to introduce people to the real field of archaeology, discussing its faults, its successes, and the current state of the field. To do so, I analyze the Indiana Jones movies in order to contextualize them within real-world archaeological theory and methods. I discuss the archaeological theories of the time, their intellectual history, and the ethical implications of Indie's work. As such, I use Indiana Jones as a vehicle to correct misconceptions about archaeology, and demystify the real academic work happening in the field.
Dami Kim (History)
A Rememory of Harriet Hayden's Parlor
Building on her undergraduate honors thesis "A Rememory of Harriet Hayden," Dami will create a digital exhibition of Harriet’s parlor at 66 Phillips Street in Beacon Hill, Boston. Having escaped to freedom from slavery in Kentucky, Harriet ran an Underground Railroad boarding house that provided refuge to fugitives. Her parlor acted as a space of resistance, community, and respectability for herself and her family, as well as for many Black individuals who passed through. It displayed photograph albums of friends and allies, portraits of loved ones and abolitionist heroes, pikes from the Harpers Ferry raid, Governor Ames’s quill, and Victor Hugo’s artwork. This exhibition hopes to serve as a visual and accessible memorial to Harriet Hayden.
Jack Langdon (Composition and Music Technology)
Improvised Music with Pipe Organ
My project will be a series of organ performances held at various churches around Chicago that highlight the improvisational capacities of the organ by performing alongside esteemed members of the improvised music community. Each concert will take place in three parts and will last a total of ninety minutes: an opening musical performance with myself and my collaborator, a discussion with the collaborator about improvisation and their relationship to religious culture, and an open improvisation which will invite anyone from the audience to join in a performance with myself and the guest improviser. It is my hope that, through these performances, the pipe organ can be reimagined beyond its monolithic identity as an instrument in service of European Classical Music and Christendom—allowing a more capacious and complex identity to emerge through improvised performance, community discussion, and public advocacy.
Mariel Melendez Mulero (Theater and Drama)
Mapping the Cartographies of the BalletRican Imaginary
Through oral history, ethnography, and archival work, this project documents Puerto Rican ballet dancers’ histories into a series of digital maps to trace their trajectories across a transnational cartography. It engages the interdisciplinarity of theater and dance history, anthropology, the body, its corporealities, Caribbeanness and the Latinx experience. The following questions guide inquires: What is the relationship that exists between the island’s modern and contemporary history and the development of ballet as a discipline? What elements of the Puerto Rican diasporic and transnational experience inform ballet as a national and embodied aesthetic? By tracing individual dancers’ experiences, this mapping project visualizes the choreographies of the BalletRican imaginary. It furthers understanding on the role of ballet within the canon of Puerto Rican dance and corporeality, as well as its present-day importance in building community, memory, and belonging across the Rican transnational experience.
Achi Mishra (Technology and Social Behaviors)
Ethics in the Loop: Reimagining the AI Future
Ethics in the Loop: Reimagining the AI Future is a collaborative, speculative fiction anthology centered around ethical issues within AI systems. Through a seven-part workshop series, creative writers in Chicago will learn about the harms of AI. Each workshop will have a different theme and consist of an AI case study, a free-writing session, and a discussion devoid of writing critique. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to amplify the voices of creative writers in the Chicago area and see the AI future through their eyes. This interdisciplinary approach could shed light on key issues and nuances missed by those developing AI technologies with a siloed approach. The project will culminate in a book launch and public reading.
Uche Okpa-Iroha (Art History)
Shifts in Nigeria’s Contemporary Photography Landscape
Shifts in Nigeria’s Contemporary Photography Landscape aims to explore and amplify the voices of Nigerian photographers who are pushing boundaries using a wide range of mediums, forms, the exploration of materiality, engagement with archives, use of technology and artificial intelligence to challenge stereotypes, and creating works that resonate both locally and globally in art fairs, and photography biennials around the world. This project incorporates an exhibition, artists-public/community-based programs in Chicago that explore how contemporary Nigerian photographers address specific themes such as the impact of rapid urbanization in Lagos, the complexities of youth identity, cultural heritage, political activism, and how they navigate Nigeria’s place in global art and cultural conversations. By highlighting these diverse perspectives, the project will showcase the unique visual narratives from Nigeria. The project intends to connect the Nigerian visual culture to Chicago audiences, engaging a wide audience in meaningful dialogue about place, people, and cultural identity.
Sofia Sanchez (Spanish and Portuguese)
Stages of Redemption: A Manual for Restorative Justice through Theater
This project aims to publish a manual featuring writing and body exploration exercises rooted in theatrical principles, which have demonstrated effectiveness in working with young offenders in juvenile detention facilities in Medellín, Colombia. This initiative is a collaboration with La Parla, an organization dedicated to facilitating play creation in prisons to advance Restorative Justice processes. The manual will encompass six carefully curated exercises, each accompanied by detailed instructions, photographs, and testimonials from participants. These activities promote exploration and reflection on the traumatic experiences of these young individuals, who face the dual stigma of being both victims and perpetrators of conflict, as many were forcibly recruited by paramilitary groups during Colombia's internal strife. This project seeks to disseminate the effective tools derived from a local artistic experience to educators, social workers, therapists, and others interested in engaging with young offenders in diverse contexts.
Previous Fellows
Project descriptions for previous Public Humanities Graduate Practicum fellows are here: graduate/ph-research-workshop/participants/past-participants-pubhum-rw