Since 2015, the National Humanities Center (NHC) has offered graduate students and faculty in humanities doctoral programs an opportunity to learn about and experience best practices in teaching and learning. The annual, four-week summer residency program hosted by the NHC each June is intended to assist scholars in making substantial progress on a current research project.
Three members of the Stony Brook community have been chosen to be part of the 2025 program. They are Wan-Zi Lu, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences; Jenean McGee, an assistant professor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Frankie Petronio, a graduate instructor and doctoral student in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
The residencies give scholars an opportunity to experience a concentrated period of supported research and intellectual exchange at the NHC facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, a setting customized for and highly conducive to humanities research and writing.
During the four-week residency, Lu will work on her first monograph, The Many Hands of the Healthcare State: The Politics of Valuing Taboo Exchange in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This work is an examination of regulations and policy outcomes of organ donation for transplantation worldwide, focusing on three East Asian societies with prevalent cultural and religious norms that deem bodies to be kept intact.
“I’m grateful to receive this residency,” said Lu. “It’s an exciting opportunity to join a renowned institute for advanced study and take part in scholarly exchange within the vibrant academic environment in Durham. Having the time and space to work on my first monograph, alongside a group of engaged scholars, is truly a gift, and I’m looking forward to making the most of it.”
McGee will be working in the program’s Scholarly Writing Institute, a new pilot program at NHC.
“I am excited to be part of the inaugural cohort of the Scholarly Writing Institute,” she said. “It is an honor and a privilege to participate in what I hope will be a very generative program for myself and the other participants. It feels great and validating to receive this residency opportunity.”
During the residency, McGee will work on transitioning several dissertation chapters into book chapters.
“Situated within the Digital Humanities, my work is an interdisciplinary endeavor that interrogates African American women’s online parasocial relationships at the intersections of social media and surveillance capitalism,” said McGee. “My work explores how African American women’s online parasocial relationships intersect with 21st-century modes of capitalism. Using a Digital Black Feminist framework, I look at patterns of capitalist exploitation of Black women in the U.S., juxtaposing the exploitation of the enslavement to the exploitation of surveillance capitalism via social media and social media influencers.”
Petronio will take part in the program’s Graduate Student Residency, designed to equip graduate students in the humanities with fundamental principles in research, pedagogy and grant development.
“I’m thrilled to receive this residency opportunity,” said Petronio. “I’ll be focusing on innovative research methodologies, curriculum design and teaching strategies, and professional development for both academic and alt-academic careers.”
For more than a decade, Petronio has been deeply invested in teaching and the expansive question of audience and who knowledge is for.
“This raises a powerful question that still resonates today: What responsibilities do scholars have to make their work accessible and socially meaningful?” they said. “In an era where the academy is often seen as disconnected or privileged, I see this residency as an opportunity to engage deeply with questions of public-facing scholarship and socially reproductive knowledge — while also honing the practical skills I’ll need for the academic job market, curriculum design, and grant writing. As a fifth-year PhD student, I’m especially eager to prepare for the academic job market this fall while continuing to develop my dissertation.”
— Robert Emproto
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