Author: Della Zazzera, Elizabeth

Fellow’s Talk: Wesley Phelps on Uncovering the LGBTQ+ History of Texas

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2026–27 UCHI Fellow's Talk. Queering the Lone State State: The Power of Narrative, the Agency of Meaning, and the Effort to Uncover LGBTQ History in Texas. Wesley Phelps (Professor of History UNiversity of North Texas). October 21, 3:30 pm, UCHI Conference Room.

Queering the Lone Star State: The Power of Narrative, the Agency of Meaning, and the Effort to Uncover LGBTQ History in Texas

Wesley Phelps (Professor, History, University of North Texas)

with a response by Josh Mayer (Anthropology & Social and Critical Inquiry, UConn)

Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 3:30pm, Humanities Institute Conference Room (HBL 4-209)

The event will also be livestreamed with automated captioning.

Register to attend virtually

Queering the Lone Star State is a research-based, narrative-driven, documentary-style podcast series tracing LGBTQ history in Texas. Pairing traditional archival materials with oral history interviews, historical audio, and a compelling narrative structure, the podcast series broadens the boundaries of digital history and chronicles a neglected history that is at risk of suppression and erasure. The second season, scheduled to be released in October 2027, will explore twelve critical moments in the struggle for queer equality in Texas. Both individually and collectively, the twelve episodes that make up the new season will ask vital questions about human agency, demonstrate the potential of narrative social history to create a usable past, and highlight the process of meaning-making among individuals struggling to assert their civil rights and their human dignity.

Wesley Phelps is a Professor of History and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas. His research focuses on how democracy operates at the grassroots level and how marginalized groups of people have struggled to participate in the democratic experiment. His first book, A People’s War on Poverty: Urban Politics and Grassroots Activists in Houston, was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2014. Phelps’ second book, Before Lawrence v. Texas: The Making of a Queer Social Movement, was published by the University of Texas Press in 2023 and was awarded the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for the Best Book on Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association. He is also the creator of Queering the Lone Star State, a narrative podcast series tracing LGBTQ history in Texas.

Joshua Mayer is an assistant professor of Anthropology and Native American and Indigenous Studies (Department of Social and Critical Inquiry) at the University of Connecticut, where he is also affiliated with the Africana Studies Institute. He is a political anthropologist examining the relationships between settler capitalism, imperialism, territorial governance, and Black and Indigenous freedom. As a UCHI faculty fellow, he will be working on his book manuscript, “Territory as Freedom: Building a Black and Indigenous Future in Nicaragua,” which examines joint Rama and Kriol territory-building efforts amid settler colonial extraction, dispossession, and authoritarianism.

Access note

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.

Photography disclaimer

Photographs may be taken at this event and posted on social media or otherwise used for communication purposes.

Support UCHI

For twenty-five years the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute has served as the hub for the study of human society and culture at UConn. Help us celebrate UCHI at 25 with a gift to the Institute. Every gift will help us promote innovation and creativity in humanities research for the next twenty-five years.

How to Write Successful Fellowship Applications

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Faculty Success: How to Write Successful Fellowship Applications, with Daniel Hershenzon (LCL), Debapriya Sarkar (English), and Peter Zarrow (History). October 16, 12:15pm. Virtual.

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpreting, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible

How to Write Successful Fellowship Applications

October 16, 2025, 12:15pm
Live • Online • Registration Required

Register

Are you planning to apply for a UCHI fellowship, or other fellowship in the humanities or social sciences? Join us for an advice panel on writing successful fellowship applications!

This panel discussion will feature advice from past UCHI fellows Daniel Hershenzon (LCL), Debapriya Sarkar (English), and Peter Zarrow (History), who have all been successful in their applications for different kinds of fellowships. They will offer best practices for writing your fellowship applications and answer your questions about the application process.

Daniel Hershenzon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages at the University of Connecticut and a historian of early modern Spain and the Mediterranean. His award-winning book, The Captive Sea: Slavery, Communication, and Commerce in Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), examines the entangled histories of slavery, commerce, and communication across the western Mediterranean. His articles have appeared in Past & Present, Annales HSS, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Law and History Review, Quaderni Storici, and L’Année du Maghreb.

Debapriya Sarkar is an associate professor of English and maritime studies at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Possible Knowledge: The Literary Forms of Early Modern Science (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023, paperback 2026). She is currently working on a second book project on early modern poetics and racecraft and (with Hillary Eklund) on the interdisciplinary public humanities project, Waterways: The Early Modern Past and Just Environmental Futures, which aims to foster community-driven, place-based, and historically informed initiatives on environmental studies.

Peter Zarrow has taught in the History Department at UConn since 2014. Prior to that he was a research fellow at the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. His research focuses on modern Chinese intellectual and cultural history, and most recently he has written on such topics as education, utopianism, and the Forbidden City.

Branching Out: The Public History of Trees

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2026–27 Environmental Humanities: Branching Out, The public History of trees. Leah Glaser, professor of history, Central Connecticut State University. October 15, 12:30pm, UCHI Conference Room, HBL 4th floor.

UCHI’s Environmental Humanities Initiative Presents:

Branching Out: The Public History of Trees

Leah Glaser (Professor of History & Public History, Central Connecticut State University)

Thursday, October 15, 2026, 12:30pm, Humanities Institute Conference Room (HBL 4-209)

The event will also be livestreamed with automated captioning.

Register to attend virtually

“Historic houses have more champions than old-growth trees.” So observed a neighbor as a century-old beech in Providence, RI, was removed to make way for the restoration of the historic house beside it. That story opens Branching Out: The Public History of Trees (University of Massachusetts Press, 2025), co-edited by Leah S. Glaser and Philip Levy. It also points to the broader question this talk will pose: how can we use public history to help people see trees as landmarks, memorials, and keepers of community stories and inspire them to become environmental champions for their care and protection?

Leah S. Glaser, PhD, is a Professor of History and Coordinator of the Public History Program at Central Connecticut State University. She has worked in the field of public history and historic preservation for the last thirty years, consulting with municipal, state, and federal agencies, including positions at the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service. For the last twenty years, she has worked closely with the National Council on Public History to emphasize issues of environmental sustainability. These commitments are also reflected in her earlier books, Interpreting Energy at Museums and Historic Sites (2023) and Electrifying the Rural American West: Stories of Power, People, and Place (2009).

Access note

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.

Photography disclaimer

Photographs may be taken at this event and posted on social media or otherwise used for communication purposes.

Support UCHI

For twenty-five years the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute has served as the hub for the study of human society and culture at UConn. Help us celebrate UCHI at 25 with a gift to the Institute. Every gift will help us promote innovation and creativity in humanities research for the next twenty-five years.

Alumni Successes: Undergraduate Fellows after UCHI

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UCHI at 25: Alumni Successes, Undergraduate Fellows after UCHI. A panel of former Humanities Undergraduate Research Fellows. October 14, 6:00pm, UCHI Conference Room, HBL 4th floor.

Alumni Successes: Undergraduate Fellows after UCHI

a UCHI at 25 event & an Honors event

Wednesday, October 14, 2026, 6:00pm, UCHI Conference Room, Homer Babbidge Library, 4th Floor

What’s the value of undergraduate research? What do humanities and social science graduates do after graduation? What kinds of successes do they find, in further education or in their careers? Join us as panel of former Humanities Undergraduate Research Fellows share their post-fellowship and post-graduation experiences and achievements and help you answer those questions.

As our undergraduate fellowship enters its fifth year, and as we celebrate the Institute’s 25th anniversary, we celebrate and commemorate the successes of former undergraduate fellows.

Panelists include Rylee Thomas (English & Communication), whose career is in communication and marketing; Breanna Bonner (Human Rights & Individualized) who is attending Harvard’s Graduate School of Design; and Autumn Scott (History) who is finishing his senior year, writing an honors thesis, and applying to graduate school.

Snacks and refreshments will be served.

Access note

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.

Photography disclaimer

Photographs may be taken at this event and posted on social media or otherwise used for communication purposes.

Support UCHI

For twenty-five years the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute has served as the hub for the study of human society and culture at UConn. Help us celebrate UCHI at 25 with a gift to the Institute. Every gift will help us promote innovation and creativity in humanities research for the next twenty-five years.

Fellow’s Talk: Chloe Kwak on Memories of “Comfort Women”

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2026-27 UCHI Fellow's Talk. "Diasporic Group Subjectivity: Distinct Group Identities and Memories of ‘Comfort Women’ in Korean American Communities," Chloe Kwak, Ph.D. Candidate, Political Science, UConn. October 14, 3:30pm, UCHI Conference Room, Homer Babbidge Library, 4th floor.

Diasporic Group Subjectivity: Distinct Group Identities and Memories of ‘Comfort Women’ in Korean American Communities

Chloe Kwak (Ph.D. Candidate, Political Science, UConn)

with a response by Emma Amador (History, UConn)

Wednesday, October 14, 2026, 3:30pm, Humanities Institute Conference Room (HBL 4-209)

The event will also be livestreamed with automated captioning.

Register to attend virtually

This talk draws on Chloe Kwak’s dissertation, “Diasporic Group Subjectivity: Distinct Group Identities and Memories of ‘Comfort Women’ in Korean American Communities,” to examine how Korean American community groups construct distinct collective orientations toward themselves, their homeland, and the United States. Through a comparative study of Washington Butterfly for Hope in Virginia and the Connecticut Korean American Action Network, she introduces the concept of diasporic group subjectivity to explain how shared experiences of diaspora shape the ways groups understand who they are and how they relate to historical memory. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, organizational materials, and media sources, Kwak shows that Washington Butterfly members develop a liminal orientation situated between Korean and American belonging, leading them to frame the “comfort women” issue as a universal human rights concern. CTKAAN members, by contrast, remain more strongly oriented toward Korea and approach the issue through a localized Korean historical and ethical framework. The talk demonstrates how diasporic group subjectivity helps explain why communities sharing an ethnic background and historical memory can develop distinct forms of collective identity and memory activism. Ultimately, this research seeks to illuminate why these small diasporic groups matter beyond their immediate communities by examining their roles as pressure groups and local opinion-shaping actors in the United States, and how their activism contributes to the broader domestic environment in which U.S. foreign policy toward South Korea and Japan is debated and formulated.

Chloe M. Kwak is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and a 2026–2027 Draper Dissertation Fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. Her research lies at the intersection of international relations, feminist theory, diaspora studies, memory politics, international law, and transitional justice, with a particular focus on the politics and memory of “comfort women.” Her dissertation, “Diasporic Group Subjectivity: Distinct Group Identities and Memories of ‘Comfort Women’ in Korean American Communities,” examines how Korean American community groups develop distinct collective subjectivities and forms of memory activism. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the International Feminist Journal of Politics and The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.

Emma Amador Assistant Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. Her work focuses on Puerto Ricans, Latinas in the United States, and histories of women and gender. Dr. Amador’s first book, The Politics of Care Work: Puerto Rican Women Organizing for Social Justice (Duke University Press, 2025), received an Honorable Mention for the Sharon Harris Book Award from UCHI. As a Justice, Equity, and Repair fellow at UCHI, Dr. Amador will work on her second book, “Bright Futures: How Antonia Pantoja’s Vision of Community Organizing Sparked Movements for Latina and Puerto Rican Rights,” a biography of trailblazing Afro-Puerto Rican civil rights activist Dr. Antonia Pantoja who became the first Puerto Rican woman to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996.

Access note

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.

Photography disclaimer

Photographs may be taken at this event and posted on social media or otherwise used for communication purposes.

Support UCHI

For twenty-five years the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute has served as the hub for the study of human society and culture at UConn. Help us celebrate UCHI at 25 with a gift to the Institute. Every gift will help us promote innovation and creativity in humanities research for the next twenty-five years.

Liberation Summer: A Book Launch with Micki McElya

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UCHI at 25 presents, "Liberation Summer, a book launch with Micki McElya, professor of history, UConn." October 6, 4:00pm, Heritage Room, HBL 4th floor.

Liberation Summer: A Book Launch

a UCHI at 25 event

Micki McElya (Professor, History, UConn)

Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 4:00pm, Heritage Room, Homer Babbidge Library, 4th Floor

Join us for a celebration of the publication of former UCHI fellow Micki McElya’s new book, Liberation Summer: The Moment That Changed the Women’s Movement and the Future of American Politics (Simon & Schuster).

In the dying days of the summer of 1968 Atlantic City was the site of the first Miss Black America Pageant, mounted to protest its “lily-white” sister competition, as well as raucous actions from women’s liberationists. For just a few hours, the boardwalk became a site of vigorously contested ideas—ideas that would redefine the women’s movement and reverberate across American culture.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Micki McElya unfolds the full scope of this history, detailing the shocking injustices and passionate debates that led to the demonstrations, as well as the broader social and political landscape that gave rise to iconic women on both sides of the ideological spectrum.

After the talk, Professor McElya will be available to sign copies of her book. Light refreshments will be served.

In addition to the book launch, the UConn Humanities Institute and the Africana Studies Institute will host a joint read-along of Liberation Summer, open to faculty and graduate students, culminating in a collaborative discussion of the book on Wednesday February 17th. Sign-up sheets and free copies of the book will be available at Professor McElya’s talk on October 6th. While supplies last, copies will also be available for pickup at UCHI and the Africana Studies Department from October 7th onwards.

Micki McElya is a professor of history at the University of Connecticut, specializing in the histories of women, gender, race, and sexuality in the United States from the Civil War to the present, with an emphasis on political culture and memory. Her book The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and received a number of other accolades; her 2007 book, Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth-Century America was the cowinner of a 2007 Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. McElya has written for The Atlantic and Boston Review, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, The Nation, Elle, and more. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and New York University and is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Access note

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.

Photography disclaimer

Photographs may be taken at this event and posted on social media or otherwise used for communication purposes.

Support UCHI

For twenty-five years the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute has served as the hub for the study of human society and culture at UConn. Help us celebrate UCHI at 25 with a gift to the Institute. Every gift will help us promote innovation and creativity in humanities research for the next twenty-five years.

Fellow’s Talk: Ananda Griffin on Emotions and Black Feminist Thought

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2026–27 UCHI Fellow's Talk. "Feel: An Account of Emotion." Ananda Griffin, Ph.D. Candidate, Philosophy, UConn. September 30, 3:30pm, UCHI Conference Room, HBL 4th Floor.

Feel!: An Account of Emotion

Ananda Griffin (Ph.D. Candidate, Philosophy, UConn)

with a response by Daniel Adler (Anthropology, UConn)

Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 3:30pm, Humanities Institute Conference Room (HBL 4-209)

The event will also be livestreamed with automated captioning.

Register to attend virtually
In her 1984 speech “The Uses of Anger,” Audre Lorde describes anger as “a grief of distortions between peers” and “loaded with information and energy.” The goal of this project is to take her and other Black feminists’ claims about emotion seriously and place them in conversation with current philosophical and psychological discourses on the topic. “Feel: An Account of Emotion” argues that emotions have elements of feeling, evaluation, and motivation. Current debates argue that emotion is primarily or merely one of these things, while Black feminists often argue that emotion is more than a plot for action, a judgement, or a bodily sensation alone. “Feel!” argues that the experience of an emotion entails the brain tracking a feeling in the body, associating the sensation to past instances of it, while also prioritizing and/or deprioritizing certain sorts of action. This project introduces the concept of an affective scheme: a frame based on our associations with a given context and feeling through which we interpret events that also guides emotional (in)action. Importantly, affective schemes are, in part, formed by our upbringings, peers, and socio-political contexts; they emphasize the interconnectedness of our emotions. “Feel!” adds to the chorus of Black feminist philosophers of emotion, providing a new framework with which to think about the layers of emotional experience.

Ananda Griffin is a 5th Year PhD candidate in the Philosophy Department at UConn and a proud graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, Ananda’s dissertation is titled, “What We Learn from Tears and Laughter: An Account of Emotion as an Epistemic Resource,” which explores the ways that emotion helps us understand the world around us. Ananda argues that emotion plays two important epistemic roles: allowing us to make meaning of the world around us and motivating the pursuit of knowledge. Additionally, the dissertation analyzes the harms that arise from the denial of emotion’s epistemic impact. Ananda shows the ways that affective injustice, social practices that systemically invalidate certain people’s emotions, can sometimes function as an epistemic injustice, invalidating or ignoring a group’s knowledge on account of their identity. She argues that these injustices do not pass without resistance, using Black women of the Great Migration as key examples of epistemic and affective refusal. Ananda draws on Black Feminism, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology, Social Epistemology, and other fields. 

Daniel Adler is and Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology with over 30 years experience investigating ancient human behaviors, cultures, and lifeways in Western Europe, the Middle East, and the south Caucasus. Since 1995 he has directed over 10 interdisciplinary archaeological projects in the republics of Georgia and Armenia spanning the last 2,000,000 to 20,000 years, with a primary focus on understanding Neanderthal-Modern Human interactions and what it means to be human. This work seeks to bridge the perceived behavioral and cognitive gaps between Neanderthals and ourselves, challenge traditional beliefs in our own uniqueness and question the validity of our sapiens-centric worldview, develop a deeper appreciation of Neanderthal resiliency and agency, and contribute to the ongoing restoration of Neanderthal humanity.

Access note

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.

Photography disclaimer

Photographs may be taken at this event and posted on social media or otherwise used for communication purposes.

Support UCHI

For twenty-five years the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute has served as the hub for the study of human society and culture at UConn. Help us celebrate UCHI at 25 with a gift to the Institute. Every gift will help us promote innovation and creativity in humanities research for the next twenty-five years.

Navigating the Academic Job Market

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2026–27 UCHI Student Success. Navigating the Academic Job Market with Katrina Kish (St. Catherine’s University), Britney Murphy (University of Alabama Birmingham), and Najnin Islam (UConn English). October 25, 12:15pm. Virtual.

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpreting, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Please send accommodation requests at least five days in advance whenever possible.

Navigating the Academic Job Market

with Najnin Islam (UConn English), Katrina Kish (St. Catherine’s University), and Britney Murphy (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
September 25, 2025, 12:15pm
Live • Online • Registration required

Register

Does applying for academic jobs feel like navigating a winding river without a map? Join us for this workshop where a panel of recent UConn PhDs and UConn faculty will offer advice for current graduate students on navigating the academic job market. There will be plenty of time for questions.

Najnin Islam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at UConn. Her research focuses on post-emancipation labor economies in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean world. She is currently working on a project that offers a literary-historical account of race and caste in the Anglophone Caribbean during the era of indentureship. Work from this project has appeared in Small Axe, Interventions, Global South Studies, and elsewhere.

Katrina Kish is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at St. Catherine University, a small Catholic women’s college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Katrina successfully defended her dissertation in spring 2024, and started at St. Catherine University the following August. Katrina studies trust and distrust in relation to ethics and epistemology and is passionate about teaching.

Britney C. Murphy is an Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she also serves as Internship Coordinator for both programs. She earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Connecticut in 2023 and specializes in modern U.S. history, African American history, urban history, and public history. Her research on national service, citizenship, and community activism has received competitive recognition, including the Huggins‑Quarles Award from the Organization of American Historians and a Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. A former AmeriCorps VISTA and National Civilian Community Corps member, Dr. Murphy integrates community‑engaged scholarship into both her teaching and research.

Support UCHI

For twenty-five years the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute has served as the hub for the study of human society and culture at UConn. Help us celebrate UCHI at 25 with a gift to the Institute. Every gift will help us promote innovation and creativity in humanities research for the next twenty-five years.

In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters: Film Screening and Q&A

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UCHI at 25: In search of Phillis Wheatley Peters, film screening and Q&A, with filmmakers Leslie Askew and Turlough White and Professors Manisha Sinha and Anna Mae Duane. September 23, 12:15pm, Konover.

In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters: Film Screening and Q&A

a UCHI at 25 event

with filmmakers Leslie Askew and Turlough White and Professors Manisha Sinha (History) and Anna Mae Duane (English)

Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 12:15pm, Konover Auditorium

In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters (dir. Leslie Askew) is a documentary that uncovers the little-known love story of Phillis Wheatley—America’s first Black published poet—and John Peters, a free Black man she married in 1778.

Drawing on the groundbreaking research of historian Dr. Cornelia Dayton, the film brings newly unearthed archival discoveries to life, revealing the couple’s pursuit of autonomy, dignity, and survival in Revolutionary-era Boston. Featuring insights from leading scholars and poets—including Dr. Vincent Carretta, Dr. Cornelia Dayton, Dr. Nicole Aljoe, Dr. Manisha Sinha, Dr. Kabria Baumgartner, and Dr. Joanne Gabbin—the film reimagines Phillis not only as a literary icon but as a woman who chose love, partnership, and resistance against extraordinary odds.

The short film (35 min) will be followed by a Q&A with director Leslie Askew and producer Turlough White and Professors Manisha Sinha (History) and Anna Mae Duane (English).

Access note

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.

Photography disclaimer

Photographs may be taken at this event and posted on social media or otherwise used for communication purposes.

Support UCHI

For twenty-five years the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute has served as the hub for the study of human society and culture at UConn. Help us celebrate UCHI at 25 with a gift to the Institute. Every gift will help us promote innovation and creativity in humanities research for the next twenty-five years.

Fellow’s Talk: Sarah Boateng on Black Women’s Agency in Maternal Healthcare

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2026–27 UCHI Fellow's talk. Making Oneself Heard: Black Women’s Communicative Agency in Racialized Maternal Healthcare in the U.S.. Sarah Nuamah Boateng (PhD candidate, communication, UConn. Wed, Sept 16, 2026. 3:30 pm, UCHI conference room, homer babbidge library, fourth floor.

Making Oneself Heard: Black Women’s Communicative Agency in Racialized Maternal Healthcare in the U.S.

Sarah Nuamah Boateng (Ph.D. candidate, Communication, UConn)

with a response by Eleni Coundouriotis (English & Comparative Literary Studies, UConn)

Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 3:30pm, Humanities Institute Conference Room (HBL 4-209)

The event will also be livestreamed with automated captioning.

Register to attend virtually
Maternal health disparities disproportionately impact women of color, particularly Black women. Existing research documents the mistreatment of Black women in clinical settings, which often marginalizes their voices and underscores the necessity for agency. This dissertation investigates the lived experiences of Black women to understand how agency is enacted through communication in perinatal care contexts within clinical settings across the United States.

Employing a qualitative methodology and a critical perspective, this dissertation introduces a communicative agentic framework to analyze how Black women in the United States navigate perinatal healthcare interactions within a racialized medical system. The research positions communication as a central site for agency, resistance, and meaning-making, providing insights to improve patient–provider relationships and advance equitable maternal healthcare.

Sarah Nuamah Boateng is a final-year doctoral student in Communication at the University of Connecticut whose research focuses on health communication, specifically women’s reproductive health and rights in interpersonal and organizational contexts. As a qualitative communication researcher, she investigates communication dynamics at the intersections of gender, structural inequities, and cultural contexts, particularly within maternal healthcare interactions involving women of color. Her work aims to elucidate how these dynamics contribute to health disparities and has also addressed communication challenges faced by women living with chronic illness. Her research has been published in leading journals, including Social Science & Medicine and the Journal of Health Communication, and has received recognition from the Christine N. Witzel Award Fund and the UConn 100 Years of Women Scholarship. She is committed to advancing quality and equitable healthcare for women of all racial and demographic backgrounds.

Eleni Coundouriotis is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the narration and documentation of war, humanitarianism, statelessness, and the history of anticolonial struggle. She is the author of Claiming History: Colonialism, Ethnography and the Novel (1999), The People’s Right to the Novel: War Fiction in the Postcolony (2014) and Narrating Human Rights in Africa (2021).

Access note

If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.

Photography disclaimer

Photographs may be taken at this event and posted on social media or otherwise used for communication purposes.