Humanities Center Grant Testimonials
Nina Assimakopoulos, School of Music (Flutist)
Project: “The New: Appalachian Resilience in the Land, River, and People of the New River Gorge”
Without this vital funding, the research, storytelling, and community engagement at the heart of my work as a filmmaker on this project—exploring Appalachian resilience—would simply not be possible. I am deeply grateful for the support that allows me to continue this important work.
Maria Perez, Geology and Geography Department
Project: “The Human Story of Unusual Geologic Encounters: Lessons from Southwestern Puerto Rico”
Since 2019, I have been exploring Puerto Rico’s coastal geology—including caves and other karst features. Many of these places are environmentally and culturally important, but they are under threat. I am thrilled to work with a wonderful team to tell the human story of this amazing geology, as well as efforts to understand and conserve them.
Rose Casey, English Department
This funding means that I can visit archives and look at materials about South African Succession laws. The material is directly relevant to big questions that U.S. legal scholars are also asking about inheritance law. I’m so grateful to finally get this chance.
Michael Allen, History Department
There is no way for my work to be successful without visiting sites and archives. This grant allows me to do the work to its fullest possibility.
Erik Herron, Political Science Department
Support from the Humanities Center led me to the Smithsonian archives and helped me find a treasure—a mislabeled document showing how people voted in the mid-19th-century election. I am now using it to better understand how the voting process has changed over time.
Jenny Johnson, English Department
Project: “Good Bully”
This grant will offer me the opportunity to do archival research that is crucial to my creative work as a poet and essayist. My goal is to break silences around gender and sexuality through storytelling and to grant permission to students, emerging as creative writers, to share their own. This support is very meaningful to me because I consider the grant to be an interdisciplinary affirmation of the value of my writing projects.
Dylan Collins, School of Art and Design (Sculptor)
Project: “Digital Stone Carving”
International research is a critically important component for our University’s R1 mission. I am thrilled to have this support as I travel to northern Italy this summer for the 2025 Digital Stone Carving Residency, a monthlong program which assembles a diverse, interdisciplinary cohort of studio artists, architects, designers, and students in a region of Tuscany renowned for its storied history in the creation of marble sculpture.
Adam Komisaruk, English Department
Project: “Reading Enlightenment Sexualities”
I cannot overstate the importance of an independent, intramural organization like the WVU Humanities Center, enabling me and my colleagues to conduct research that thinks critically about the very social forces that could otherwise be stifling.
Micheal Sherwin, School of Art and Design
This award not only fuels my creative journey but also strengthens my commitment to exploring how art can deepen our connection to the landscapes we inhabit.
Joseph Hodge, History Department
As a historian, there is nothing more important for my work as a scholar than to be able to travel to archives and libraries to carry out research.
Tania de Miguel Magro, World Languages Program (Spanish)
As a scholar of Spanish theater, much of my research requires traveling to Spanish archives and theaters. Without the financial support provided by the Humanities Center, I would not be able to develop my research.