Welcome to the 2022 Mellon Public Scholars
The UC Davis Humanities Institute is proud to announce the 2022 cohort of Mellon Public Scholars (MPS). The MPS Faculty Advisory Board selected ten graduate student proposals for mutually beneficial research projects with community partners. In addition to the summer projects, the scholars will also take a preparatory spring seminar and return in the fall for a project showcase.
This year’s cohort represents seven departments from across the arts, humanities, and humanistic social sciences. They have proposed a range of projects focused on Indigenous-led language recovery, Arab American Studies K-12 education, Hmong language education, Punjabi Sikh food and land practices, historic Chinese cookbooks, Quinault sound protocols, and much more.
Mellon Public Scholars will create museum exhibits, curriculum, digital oral histories, cookbooks, multimedia websites, and help organize community events. Two scholars were selected to work specifically with DHI community partners: The City of Davis Arts & Cultural Affairs Program sought a public scholar to engage the archives and stories in the Davis Centennial Seal; and International House Davis sought a public scholar to join the organizing team for the 2022 International Festival (on October 2) as Artist Liaison to work directly with the artists participating in the festival.
Congratulations to the 2022 Mellon Public Scholars:
- Harleen Bal (Anthropology) Dharti Ma, “Earth Mother:” Cultivating Digital Narratives of Punjabi Sikh Human-Land Conceptions and Food Practices in Northern California
- Aaron Benedetti (Cultural Studies), A Digital Oral History of Sacramento's Lavender Library
- Benjamin Fong (Comparative Literature), Home Style Cooking: The Chinese Cookbook Collection Project
- Rosemary Hannon (Performance Studies), International House Davis: Artist Liaison for 2022 International Festival
- Tory Johnston (Native American Studies), Putting a Song on taptaanǝ: Quinault Musicking for Sound Protocols
- Beshara Kehdi (Cultural Studies), Arab American Studies K-12 Curriculum
- Cole Manley (History), City of Davis Arts & Cultural Affairs: Community Engagement with the Davis Centennial Seal
- Kimberly Morales Johnson (Native American Studies), Developing a Tongva-led Archive for the Kuruvungna Springs Collection
- Ingrid Sub Cuc (Native American Studies), Ruk’ux ri qawinaq: Indigenous-led Language Recovery in Kaqchikel Communities
- Sun Ny Vang (Music), Seev Suab [Sing Out!]: Kwv Txhiaj and Lug Txaj [Chant Stories] Concert with, by, and for Hmong in the Greater California Area
This year’s program is supported in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, but was ultimately made possible with the generous contributions of UC Davis Graduate Studies, the DHI Humanities & Arts Advisory Council, the Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement, and the College of Letters and Science.