Faculty Resources
Previous Cohorts
2022 - 2023
The Complexity of Diversity from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Lorena Madrigal, Anthropology
Adriana Novoa, History
Christina Richards, Integrative Biology
The 2022 –23 Faculty Fellows cohort studied “The Complexity of Diversity from an Interdisciplinary Approach” and explored the wider context of “diversity” including the scientific and humanistic study of the environment in which we live and our relationship with it; the effects that a loss of biological diversity has on all life; and the socio-political ramification of policies that shape the existence of diverse species on Earth in the Anthropocene. These scholars stressed the importance of overcoming the artificial separation between the sciences and humanities and how integrating the fields will lead to a deeper understanding of the cultural context of genetic diversity and the pitfalls of any biological concept of race.
The Fellows developed a successful seminar class that studied the emergence of scientific fields and how they impacted the philosophical understanding of what it means to be “human” as well as how those discoveries inform our current understanding of diversity.
2021 - 2022
Re-imagining Blackness: Storytelling the End of the (Racialized) World
Tangela Serls, Women's and Gender Studies
David Ponton III, School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies - Africana Studies
McArthur Freeman II, School of Art and Art History
The inaugural faculty fellows studied the theoretical underpinnings and legacy of legal scholar Derrick Bell’s provocative 1980s claim that racism is a permanent feature in American society and how that claim might inform USF’s goal to “understand and address blackness and anti-black racism.” Central to each faculty member’s research was the role of storytelling in subverting stubborn tales of race, gender, class, etc. that uphold inequality, replacing them with imagined worlds that may not exist, but are deeply yearned for. This cohort of scholars from different schools and colleges collaborated, discussed, created, and shared their work with the larger USF community through virtual seminars (view below).
Recorded Seminars
Fall 2021:
- October 1, 2021: “Re-imagining Blackness: An Introduction to the Inaugural USF Humanities Institute Faculty Fellows”
- October 29, 2021: “Re-imagining Blackness: A Discussion of Horror Noire”
- December 3, 2021: “Re-Imagining Blackness: A Roundtable Discussion on Blackness and Black Storytelling”
Spring 2022:
- February 11, 2022: “Black Love, (Black) Love, Black (Love)”
- May 12, 2022: "A Conversation with Saidiya Hartman" (transcript)
"Meet the Fellows" video by Fall 2021 Intern, Erin Vogel