2019-2020 E. Maynard Adams Fellows for the Public Humanities

Carolina Public Humanities is pleased to recognize the 2018-19 recipients of the Maynard Adams Fellowship for the Public Humanities. This fellowship honors the distinguished philosopher Maynard Adams (1919-2003), who was a long-time professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, a prominent advocate for the value of the humanities in public education and in public cultures, and a campus leader who established the Program in the Humanities in Human Values, now called Carolina Public Humanities, in 1979. The Adams Fellows focus on ideas and activities to promote public engagement with the humanities. The Adams Fellowships are made possible by a generous gift from the Taylor Charitable Trust.

		Nora Augustine is a Ph.D. candidate in English and Comparative Literature; she is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies (WGST). She grew up in Elyria, OH, and earned an honors B.A. in English at the University of Chicago. In years past, she has held research and/or teaching jobs in English, WGST, psychology, and public policy. Her current research focuses on representations of mental illness in popular media, and her dissertation explores how contemporary women’s memoirs posit a link between psychiatric disability and extraordinary mental gifts. Outside UNC, Nora can be found volunteering with the LGBT Center of Raleigh and facilitating support groups at the Compass Center in Chapel Hill. She also performs at irregular intervals with her band, High Bushy Tails.
		Allison Gose is a fifth-year PhD candidate in UNC’s Department of History. Her research focuses on early medieval Europe, specifically the Carolingian Empire (751-888 CE). Allison’s dissertation explores monasticism and larger spiritual reform during the reign of Louis the Pious and its enduring impact on monastic and pastoral theology in the Middle Ages. She received her MA in history from UNC in 2017 and her BA in history and political science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2015. Allison is also a member of the Royster Society of Fellows and is dedicated to the opportunities that interdisciplinary approaches provide for communicating with others across disciplines, both inside and outside of the academy.
		Minji Jang is a fourth-year doctoral student and teaching fellow in philosophy from Busan, South Korea. Before coming to Chapel Hill, she received a BA in philosophy from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Her primary research interests are in normative and applied ethics, moral psychology, and feminist philosophy. When she’s not writing and teaching philosophy, she enjoys reading and going to plays, and listening to musical soundtracks.
		Audra Jenson is a Ph.D. student in philosophy from Boise, Idaho. Before coming to UNC in 2018, she completed her Master’s degree in philosophy at Virginia Tech where she wrote her master’s thesis on adaptive preferences. Her research interests are in political philosophy, social philosophy, and feminism. When she is not doing philosophy she enjoys bouldering, vegan cooking, and playing with her sister’s frenchie/corgi dog.
		Daniel Kokotajlo is a PhD candidate at UNC’s philosophy department. He is concerned about the long-run future of humanity and devotes his research to lowering the probability of extremely bad outcomes. To that end, he’s specializing in cause prioritization and artificial intelligence. Fun fact: North Carolina is the only state in the world in which he has lived for more than 3 years, and that’s only because his PhD is a six-year program.
		Ben Murphy is a sixth-year PhD candidate in English. Originally from rural Western New York, where he earned his B.A. in Humanities from Houghton College, he currently lives in Carrboro with his wife, Hannah, their son, Calvin, and their lazy dog, Meadow. Ben’s research focuses on American literature of the long nineteenth century in relation to race, science, and political discourse. He is writing a dissertation on the idea of the crowd in post-Reconstruction culture. When not working, he prefers to be away from crowds—hiking, writing, reading, cycling, and watching or playing soccer.
		Pavel Nitchovski migrated from Bulgaria in 1999 and moved to a suburb of Dallas. After high school he attended the University of Texas at Austin where he majored in History and Philosophy, then worked for two years in a tech company in Austin. He completed the MA philosophy program at the University of Houston before joining the UNC philosophy department. He is currently in the process of starting his dissertation. In his spare time, he likes to watch movies, read about history, and do a bit of drawing and painting. He pets every dog he sees.
		Lindsay Oluyede is a second-year doctoral student in the Department of City and Regional Planning, with research interests in equitable transportation decision-making and inclusive public involvement. She grew up in Austin, Texas and once again finds herself living in a place where Mack Brown is the football coach. Lindsay holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Sociology from Tulane University and a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech. Before coming to UNC, she worked at a consulting firm and two environmental non-profits in Washington, DC. Her favorite book is anything written by Zadie Smith.
		Shreya Parikh is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She grew up in Ahmedabad (India), and studied at Sciences Po Paris and the American University of Beirut before joining UNC. In her dissertation project, she explores the intersections of race and religion in the immigrant-origin communities in France. Her work has appeared in Dawn, Maydan, and ThePrint.  As an Adams Fellow, Shreya will work on a film-screening project that hopes to challenge the assumptions of whiteness of both Europe and the United States.
		Megan Odom Tice is an Asheville Native working towards her MA in Folklore at UNC Chapel Hill. In the past she earned an Associates of Arts from Rockingham Community College and a BA from UNC Chapel Hill in Public Policy with a concentration in poverty reduction. Her current research interests are around the use of ghost stories and ghost tours in the American South as alternative forms of Oral Histories. She is currently studying three prevalent ghost stories in her hometown of Asheville, studying their intersections of culture, gender, race, and identity to find what they can tell us of modern movements, such as the #MeToo movement, and the cultural undercurrents that guide them. When she is not working on her thesis Megan is also a part-time front line bookseller at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, which she considers an outlet for her love of literature and community. Aside from work and school, Megan is a newlywed, a dog mom, an avid hiker, and coffee lover. Following degree completion Megan hopes to work at a community college and to make the humanities accessible and authentic for her students and their families.