Scott Bonham, Mary Griffin, and Magdalena Welch
It gives us an immense pleasure to end 2021 with a shout-out to our MA faculty and students!
We have a record number of MA graduates this Fall, and each one of them has engaged with the Humanities in an interdisciplinary, creative, and original way. Congratulations to Scott Bonham, Mary Griffin, and Magdalena Welch!
Together they showcase the breadth of our program, they exemplify the full range of our wonderful student body, and with their projects, they highlight the complementary strengths of our faculty.
Please read below the fascinating projects that they brought to our program and that they promise to share with the world at large. We, in the Humanities Graduate Programs and in the Department of Comparative Humanities, are so proud of you!
Scott Bonham, an Associate Professor of Physics at Western Kentucky University, took the unusual challenge to join our MA program in 2018 to become a student again! He took classes in Humanities, Philosophy, Sociology, and Linguistics and completed his MA in Humanities this December. His Directed Study Project was titled “Comprehension of and Engagement in Socio-scientific Issues” and was directed by Professor Elaine Wise.
This project involved creating an interdisciplinary course, which he is currently teaching at WKU seeking to help students develop their capacity to think about socio-scientific issues (origins, climate change, race, technology, etc.) in an interdisciplinary way in order to develop evidence-based arguments that could bridge cultural and social differences. To design his course, Scott studied the “original” controversy of heliocentric vs. geocentric models of the cosmos—and in particular Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Chief Two World Systems—to explore the different social, cultural, and scientific dimensions of such conflicts.
This is what Scott Bonham had to say about his experience in the Humanities MA program:
“The best part of my experience was being able to interact with faculty in a wide range of subjects and develop new ways and complementary ways of thinking about things. After two decades of teaching physics, it helped me get out of an intellectual rut.
“The thing the program gave me that is particularly meaningful is an intellectual breadth, both in my own knowledge and understanding, and also having the academic credentials to teach courses that study both culture and science.
“One of the great things about the MA in Humanities at the University of Louisville is that it is a very flexible program that allows one to take a wide range of classes, which means that it is fairly easy to tailor the program to fit one’s professional goals.”
Mary Griffin is another champion of our program. A retired teacher, she joined our MA program in 2019 with a wealth of experience which she shared generously with her fellow students. She took courses in Humanities, Women’s and Gender Studies, Linguistics and Endangered Languages, and completed her MA in Humanities with a Directed Study Project entitled “Documenting a Spoken Language: Encountering Chatino in an Endangered Languages Course” directed by Professor Hilaria Cruz. Mary’s project complemented another project, led by Dr. Cruz, to publish a collection of children’s stories in an indigenous language. The stories were created in Dr. Cruz’s course in Endangered Languages in Fall 2019. The project resulted in the first published anthology of children’s stories in Chatino, a project that has the important goal to revitalize the Chatino language, an indigenous language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. Mary’s critical essay makes a compelling case for writing children’s narratives with and for speakers of Indigenous and minority languages.
Mary had this to say about her experience in the Humanities MA program:
“As a non-traditional student, the best part of my experience working towards a MA in Humanities was challenging myself to read more, becoming more confident in communicating ideas, and learning how to integrate what I knew from my non-academic life and work experience with what I was learning in courses taken here. My thinking has matured and become more sophisticated. My culminating Directed Study Project allowed me an opportunity to work closely with Professor Hilaria Cruz in a project to create and publish six Chatino language children’s books.”
Magdalena Welch completed her MA this Fall in record time, having blended the BA with the MA through the Accelerated Study Option! Her Directed Study Project was titled “Modern American Culture: America Through a Gothic Window” and was directed by Professor Michael Williams. In her project, Magdalena explores a new interdisciplinary way in which American Modern Culture can be taught in higher education—through the lens of the Gothic genre. She designed a course that would give students a more rounded consideration of the role of the Gothic in American culture through the use of an interdisciplinary methodology. While working on this project, Magdalena was also able to “try out” her approach by teaching several classes within a Humanities Modern Culture course.
Here is what Magdalena had to say about her time in the Humanities MA:
“During my experience within the Humanities MA program, I was not only able to form meaningful relationships with faculty members across the different departments of the Arts and Sciences, but I also found strong support systems and made lasting friendships with the other graduate students in the Humanities Graduate Programs. Not only does the Humanities department provide a well-rounded education that extends beyond the world of the classroom, but it culminates in deep interpersonal relationships, creates a compassionate environment for education, and champions empathy and diversity. This MA program is one I will continuously recommend to other students.”
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