Elaigwu Ameh, a PhD student in the Department of , has been selected as a 2019–2020 Public Humanities Fellow at Cornell University’s Society for the Humanities.
The fellowship, developed by the Society for the Humanities and Humanities New York, is aimed at encouraging scholars to bring their research interests into the public realm and strengthen New York State’s public humanities community. The graduate students selected for the yearlong fellowship represent several New York universities, and throughout the year they will gather in New York City and in online forums to develop their skills.
“This award will allow me to employ the visceral medium of documentary theater to explore the polygonal predicament of farmworkers in Upstate New York with a view to raising awareness on farmworkers’ unique prerequisites, plights, and perspectives, while also galvanizing support for the betterment of their lives," said Ameh. By privileging the affect and lived experiences of farmworkers over mere numerical data or a narrative of grief, this project will help to repurpose the viewpoints, subjectivity, and agency of farmworkers as a focal point for advocacy, community engagement, academic discourse and government intervention.”
