Despite Challenges, 2020 Mellon Public Scholars Show Resilience and Compassion in their Work
By Lindsay Baltus on December 7, 2020
"2020 has been a uniquely challenging year for community-engaged research and for public life. And yet, amid a pandemic, an intensifying movement for racial justice, a terrifying wildfire season, and an election that revealed yet more cracks in the democratic foundation of the United States, this year’s 12 Mellon Public Scholars showed remarkable compassion and creativity in their work. The projects they completed over the summer of 2020 generated structures of community care, built platforms for art and stories from marginalized communities, provided necessary perspectives on systemic injustice, and served as examples of public scholarship’s crucial role in today’s world.
As in previous years of the program, each of this year’s Mellon Public Scholars was paired with a faculty mentor to develop a community-based research project. After completing a spring seminar (held virtually this year) that introduced the intellectual and practical aspects of public humanities scholarship, the scholars spent the summer working closely with their community partner to complete the project.
While a few of this year’s projects were able to continue mostly as planned, most changed significantly from the original proposals submitted by the scholars in January of this year. For example, Katelyn Stiles, who is a PhD student in Native American Studies as well as a Tlingit filmmaker, visual artist, and dancer, had originally planned to travel to Alaska to work with Sheet’ka Kwaan/Naa Kahidi dance groups to video document Tlingit performances. But the pandemic’s impact on arts organizations and travel made that project impossible."