Two Professors Selected for National Humanities Center Summer Residencies

Kevin Coe and Jay Jordan were recently selected for summer residencies at the National Humanities Center (NHC)—a four-week program to give humanities scholars an opportunity to make progress on a current research project or jumpstart a new one.

Coe, a professor in the Communication Department, will work on the next two phases of his project analyzing a decade of national news coverage of high-casualty mass shootings in the U.S. Drawing from an original dataset of 544 news stories covering 263 mass shootings from 2013 to 2022, the project explores how journalists navigate the challenges of reporting on these recurring tragedies. During his NHC summer residency, Coe will complete an article examining the discursive strategies and journalistic values that shape mass shooting coverage and will also produce the first comprehensive review of existing research on this increasingly urgent area of media scholarship.

Jordan, professor of writing and rhetoric studies, plans to use the residency to draft a chapter of his forthcoming book manuscript, Rhetoric and Multilingual Composition. This project examines the evolving role of rhetoric within the fields of composition and second-language writing, offering a critical review of historical scholarship while challenging narrow, prescriptive approaches to teaching writing in “Standard” English. Instead, Jordan explores rhetoric’s broader potential to expand discursive possibilities and embrace creative, interdisciplinary understandings of language, identity, and place.

Professors Coe and Jordan will join approximately forty humanities scholars from universities across the country who will work together this summer in the National Humanities Center’s facilities in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. They will be assisted in their work by the Center’s team of librarians who draw on resources from the extensive holdings of surrounding universities as well as collections housed in libraries and archives around the world.

Through this program, faculty from participating institutions are able to experience a concentrated period of supported research in this world-renowned setting. Scholars who have participated in the Center’s programs have called it an “intellectual nirvana” and have often remarked that the contemplative space and intellectual community provided by the Center contributed significantly to the ultimate quality of their work, which includes over 1,600 published books.

Wanda Pillow, dean of the College of Humanities, is also an alum of the National Humanities Center summer residency program. Reflecting on her experience, she says, “It was a really formative experience to be spend dedicated time with other fellows and have access to the excellent library and research resources at NHC. You get to focus exclusively on your research during the month that you’re there, which is a rare pleasure! The immersive experience facilitates lasting intellectual and social bonds with the other scholars in the program. I am thrilled for Dr. Coe and Dr. Jordan to have been selected for this honor.”

 

About the National Humanities Center
The National Humanities Center is the world’s only independent institute dedicated exclusively to advanced study in all areas of the humanities. Through its residential programs for scholars, the Center provides researchers with the resources necessary to generate new knowledge and to further understanding of all forms of cultural expression, social interaction, and human thought. Through its education programs, the Center strengthens teaching on the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels. Through public engagement intimately linked to its scholarly and educational programs, the Center promotes understanding of the humanities and advocates for their foundational role in a democratic society.