Four University of Iowa PHD candidates have been selected to attend the 2019 Graduate Student Summer Residency Program at the National Humanities Center in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. From July 15 to 26, Aiden M. Bettine (History), Enrico Bruno (English), Hadley Galbraith (French & Italian), and Mary Wise (History) will join approximately 100 fellow humanities graduate students from universities across the U.S. for the two-week residency program aimed at building bridges to connect research, digital humanities (in this case geospatial tools), and classroom practice.. Participants will work in cross-university and interdisciplinary teams to create instructional materials for their teaching portfolio by integrating emerging instructional technology and scientific theory with instructional planning and design. This year’s participants will also be trained in the use of geospatial technology to create inquiry-based maps that they can use for their own teaching in the fall.

The University of Iowa was one of 28 partner institutions invited to nominate students for the program. Christine Getz, Associate Dean for Graduate Education and the Arts, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, led the effort to recruit and select students in collaboration with the Obermann Center and the UI Graduate College. The Graduate College is generously providing financial support for the four students to attend the program. 

Aiden M. Bettine is concurrently pursuing a PHD in History and a Master’s in Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa, working at the intersection of public history and archival science. He holds both a Bachelor’s in History and African & Black Diaspora Studies and a Master’s in Critical Ethnic Studies from DePaul University. His public facing doctoral work is grounded in interdisciplinary methodologies with an emphasis on developing local oral history projects and companion archives. Aiden is founder of the Transgender Oral History Project of Iowa with a mission to recognize, collect, preserve, and celebrate the lives and stories of transgender and gender non-conforming people across the state, while simultaneously building a digital archive of transgender history. His dissertation research examines the development of community archives in the city of Chicago, wrestling with issues of race, sexuality, access, preservation, knowledge production, historical memory, and the contemporary practice of public history.

Enrico Bruno studies American literature from the late 19th century to the present in his work toward a PHD in the English Department. His literary interests include early African-American literature, the migration of fabulist trends across geographic and cultural boundaries, and literature of the American South. In his research, he is particularly interested in the role of community/communal action and the use of fabulist tropes in narratives of the plantation and postplantation, especially as a means of escape. Before coming to Iowa, he earned a BA in English and Creative Writing from The College of New Jersey and worked in the publishing industry.

Hadley Galbraith is a student of French & Francophone World Studies in the Department of French & Italian. Her PHD research is grounded in Caribbean studies. She received a BA in French and Humanities from the University of Kansas. Before coming to Iowa, she was an English Assistant in southwest France with the TAPIF program and worked in environmental education in Colorado. In 2015–2016, she participated in an exchange between the University of Iowa and the University of Poitiers, France, working as an English lectrice in the Faculté de Lettres et Langues. She has also taught environmental and civic engagement and worked in nonprofits to develop outreach programming for teachers and students.

Mary Wise’s research interests center on public history and American Indian history, and she is completing her dissertation for a PHD in the History Department. She is specifically interested in the development of Effigy Mound parks at the local, state, and national levels. A member of the UI History Corps, she has completed several projects that examine Iowa’s complex history and is currently working on a large tribal digital project with the Ioway and Meskwaki. She earned a BA in history from Ohio University and a Master's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Library and Information Studies.

The National Humanities Center, founded in 1978, is an independent institute dedicated to advanced studies in the humanities. In addition to its acclaimed education programs, the Center hosts an annual residential fellowship and a variety of public programming focused on humanities scholarship. Congratulations to this outstanding group of UI graduate students!