Projects
Eleanor Harrison-Buck (Department of Anthropology) traveled to Belize to document the rich heritage of two Kriol communities located in the lower Belize Watershed, developing, in partnership with these communities, a public history exhibit within a local visitor center. After receiving a fellowship here at UNH, Professor Harrison-Buck was a 2017-2018 recipient of a Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship. Read more... She also was featured on the Humanities for All website, which showcases examples of publicly engaged humanities work at colleges and universities across the United States.
David Kaye (Department of Theatre and Dance) Molly Donovan (Cooperative Extension) and Michelle Holt-Shannon (New Hampshire Listens) furthered their work in engaged theater in New Hampshire. The Facilitation Laboratory trains community leaders and facilitators to manage anger and disruption in public meeting settings through a specially designed interactive theater model, using trained actors. The purpose is to bring civility back to community discussions.
Svetlana Peshkova (Department of Anthropology) guided a collaboration between the University of New Hampshire’s Anthropology Department and Paul and Denise Pouliot of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People. Through the work of student interns (starting with Grace Dietz in the spring of 2017), this long-term project intends to reframe New Hampshire’s history from an Indigenous perspective by mapping Indigenous sites of cultural and historical significance.
Alecia Magnifico and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper (Department of English) led the project "Putting Research on Student Writing and College-Readiness to Work: A Cooperative Project of NH High School Teachers and College Instructors." The project, in collaboration with members of related public institutions—secondary English teachers, community college faculty, and English 401 lecturers—developed areas of inquiry in student writing, expressive literacies, English teaching and learning, and students’ preparation for advanced study through the creation of a public presentation and a collaborative book project.
Nick Smith (Department of Philosophy) helmed multiple programs under the The New Hampshire Public Philosophy Initiative, which has been working to demonstrate not only the relevance of philosophy, but the power and urgency of philosophical thinking for our daily lives. It does so through many threads—media outreach, the Socrates Exchange program on NHPR, HYPE (Hosting Young Philosophy Enthusiasts), the Future Leaders Institute, philosophy for children, and Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics ethics courses. If you'd like to learn more about HYPE, you can read more, watch a short video, or take a more extended look at the conference in action.
Jaed Coffin (Department of English) oversaw the creation of a public online creative writing platform to include a video series built around the existing Visiting Writers Series, podcast-style master classes featuring UNH creative writing faculty and notable alums, and an eight-week curriculum to include a bibliography and craft exercises. The project built significant relationships between the UNH community and the world-at-large, using already available resources to amplify the kind of high-quality writing instruction and experience that UNH already offers its students. Coffin eventually plans on working with NH schools and communities to implement the platform into various writing curriculum initiatives. He also hopes that the implementation of the platform will function as a model for continued efforts in multimedia open education in the humanities.
