One of the cornerstones of the Humanities for the Public Good Program will be experiential learning. With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the University of Iowa Graduate College along with the help of our Graduate Summer Intern Fellows and our internship hosts, we’re asking what the “applied humanities” might look like. Students spend two summer months working with and for a campus or community partner on a thoughtfully designed project. Following orientation, the students attend several cohort gatherings over the summer to share their experiences. They also respond to prompts and to each other in an online discussion that continues throughout the two months. Together, they discuss what the humanities mean in their workplace, how concepts and methods from their disciplines translate into their workplace, and they are reimagining their own research and writing in their scholarly work in light of their internship experience. We are also deeply grateful for the patient, creative, resourceful mentors in the internship sites who are not only working closely with the students but also teaching and learning with us.
Ebenezer Adeyemi – Multicultural Development Center of Iowa
Ebenezer Olamiposi Adeyemi is a third-year Ph.D. student in the department of anthropology under the advisement of Dr. Theodore Powers. His doctoral research focuses on the strategies that people living in Makoko, a marginalized informal settlement in Lagos State Nigeria, use to advocate for themselves and access healthcare to treat malaria, the most prominent health problem in their community. Ebenezer is excited to work with the Multicultural Development Center of Iowa and its partners, including Astig Planning, to research social justice issues, comprising creating local inclusive economic development in Iowa.
Kristiana Baez- Civil Rights Heritage Center South Bend, IN
Kristiana L. Báez is a Doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies whose research is heavily influenced by Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Feminism and is at the intersections of rhetoric, protest, history, memory studies, art, and viscerality. Her dissertation research is about the rhetorical potential of visceral forms of protests, the use of blood and blood-like imagery, to counter monuments to enslavement and colonialism.
She is extremely excited to work at the Civil Rights Heritage Center, looking forward to the opportunity to learn alongside the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Tour with Dr. Heller and Dr. Howard, and to experience sites that are crucial to the ongoing fight for racial justice.
Matthew Bowman – Iowa City Area Business Partnership
Matt Bowman is a Ph.D. candidate in American and Native American art history at The University of Iowa. He specializes in public art, landscape painting, and art of the American West and Southwest throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In his Humanities for the Public Good internship, Matt is working with Jennifer Banta at the Iowa City Area Business Partnership, focusing on ecological and environmental facets of the upcoming civic improvement campaign Better Together 2030: A Shared Future for Johnson County.
Rebekah Erdman- Office of the State Archaeologist of Iowa
Rebekah Erdman is a Ph.D. student in musicology at the University of Iowa. Her primary research interest is the music of late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Great Britain, with an emphasis on underrepresented composers and works. Erdman is excited about her internship with the Office of the State Archaeologist because it will give her the opportunity to explore aspects of public-facing and applied research and collaborate with diverse audiences.
Amelia Goldsby- Public Space One
Amelia Goldsby is a Ph.D. student in Art History. As the Public Space One intern, she will research their newly acquired historic buildings to make connections between alternate histories, community building, and contemporary art practices. As she is specializing in contemporary art, Amelia is particularly excited to examine the links between historic buildings and contemporary practice.
Kaitlyn Lindgren-Hansen- Multicultural Development Center of Iowa
Kaitlyn Lindgren-Hansen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Religious Studies program researching spiritualism, writing, and media in the nineteenth-century U.S. At the Multicultural Development Center of Iowa (MDCI) , she will work alongside community partners to improve racial equity in Iowa City. Kaitlyn will support MDCI’s mission by applying national research on economic development with the experiences of locals in Iowa City.
Maria Leonor Márquez Ponce- UI Libraries & Special Collections
Maria Leonor Márquez Ponce is a first-generation Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. As the University of Iowa Libraries & Special Collections intern, she will collect and record oral histories of students, alumni, faculty, and staff affiliated with the Latino Native American Cultural Center (LNACC). Preserving BIPOC oral histories ensures their visibility and provides them with the opportunity to become sources of inspiration for future generations. Maria’s main interests are Mexican and Latino/a/x literature, migration, emotional transnationalism, placemaking and belonging.
María Marroquín Perez – Iowa Intersections
María Marroquín Perez is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. As the Iowa Intersections Intern, she will work to collect and record the histories of recently arrived Latina/o/x immigrants. These stories will be part of Iowa Intersections multilingual digital storytelling project that seek to preserve their narratives. María’s research on belonging, citizenship, migration, and placemaking and her own migrant experiences will enable her to connect with our local communities.
uihumanitiesforthepublicgood.com 