Every year, PWR accepts proposals for lecturer research awards, which are designed to support PWR lecturers' intellectual and creative projects. Read on below for updates on how some of our colleagues put their awards to good use and the amazing work they did this past year.
Nissa Cannon
I used my Research Grant this summer to visit periodicals from the 1920s and 1930s in Paris, and to attend the Hemingway Society’s bi-annual conference, in Spain. The visit to the periodicals—housed at the American Library in Paris (ALP) and the Bibliothèque National de France (BNF)—was part of the research for my book project, “You’re an Expatriate”: Interwar Writing and the Infrastructure of Expatriation. My project argues for “expatriation” as a category of interwar mobility marked by a distinct constellation of infrastructures: the modern passport system’s introduction in the wake of WWI; transoceanic steam travel’s final decades; and foreign language periodicals’ abundant circulation. Each chapter examines how writing mediates the technologies of the 1920s and 1930s, and the newspapers, magazines, and directories I was able to examine at the ALP and BNF provide core evidence for how Americans living in Paris relied on periodicals to build an expatriate network.
At the Hemingway conference I presented a paper on “Pamplona in the Paris Papers”—comparing touristic and society coverage of the Basque Region in the Paris-American periodical press before and after the publication of Hemingway’s 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises. I even referred to some of the very periodicals I’d just visited in Paris! I also was able to meet with my fellow members of the Hemingway Review blog advisory board—the first time we’d met in person.
In addition to these opportunities to advance my own research, I’m looking forward to incorporating both these experiences into my teaching this fall, when I’ll be teaching a new PWR 2 on archival research. Doing my own archival work this summer reminded me of both the joys and challenges of archival work—which I am eager to share with my students—and I always find presenting my own research at conferences hones my ability to help my PWR 2 students develop their oral presentations.
Jenne Stonaker
My project came out of my Spring 2023 advanced PWR class where students created an exhibition about Stanford’s Arizona Garden. In our research about the garden’s history, we learned that it had been restored by a team of volunteers and Stanford employees beginning in 1999. In speaking with volunteers, they had amazing stories about the work they had done to restore the garden, and the sense of community and friendship that had resulted. I thought it would be interesting to gather an oral history of the volunteers and the Stanford employees who had initiated and coordinated the project, and so I applied for a research grant.I used my research grant funds to hire a research assistant, Diego Bustamante, who had been a student in my advanced PWR class and is currently completing the Notation in Science Communication. Diego has done the majority of the interviewing, and to date he has interviewed six volunteers and three current and former Stanford employees. Three of these interviews have been fully processed by the Stanford Oral History Program, who have been so generous in advising and supporting our project, and are available in the online Arizona Garden exhibition. It’s been so interesting to learn about, as one interviewee put it, the “wild patches” of the Stanford campus and to hear first-hand perspectives of how the restoration project was undertaken. I’m also fortunate to have some research funds remaining, which will let us continue the project in the coming year. We hope to interview at least two more volunteers and two more Stanford employees.
Roberta Wolfson
My 2023-24 PWR Research Award provided critical support as I moved through the final stages of publishing my manuscript, Refiguring Race and Risk: Counternarratives of Care in the US Security State, with The Ohio State University Press. In my book, I examine how novels, memoirs, and other cultural works disrupt racist US security regimes and model alternative strategies for managing risk by crafting stories of collective care and community building (for more information, please see Kevin Moore’s article showcasing the book’s development and argument). The process of moving my book through the final stages of production involved revising the manuscript based on copyedits from the editorial team, reviewing two rounds of final proofs, collaborating with the publicity team to finalize marketing materials, and compiling the final index for the book. With the aid of this grant, I was able to hire a professional indexer, cover the cost of a subvention required to offset additional printing and production fees, and organize a book talk that I’ll be delivering on October 17, 2024 (I invite all my colleagues to attend; more details coming soon). I am thrilled to report that my manuscript was officially published on July 12, 2024 (with a discount code WOLFSON for 30% off plus free shipping). Words can’t fully explain how surreal and emotional it felt to hold a physical copy of my book for the first time. I am beyond delighted that my work is finally out in the world and deeply grateful to PWR for helping me see this project to the end.
