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AHGS takes pride in helping PIs and Teams strategically execute project-based work in a way that grows its impact and makes management simpler and more creative. Our services encompass administration, collaboration, research, and communication support. We meet teams where they’re at and help them grow to what they didn’t realize they could become.

Here are just a few of the dynamic projects that have received support from the AHGS team:

Art Image Analysis (ArtIA) is a project to bring new tools and expanded ontologies to the curation, analysis, and sharing of images in the digital humanities. The research team is using a large corpus of curated images of political cartoons from 1750-1850 France. Th goal is to illustrate effective data sharing, in the digital humanities, using findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR) principles, with a public database.

Core Team: Kathryn Desplanque, Department of Art and Art History with co-PIs Chris Bizon, RENCI; Amanda Henley, University Libraries; and Corbin Jones, Department of Biology and School of Medicine, Department of Genetics


Bringing Southeast Asia Home is a five year initiative (2022-2027), generously funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, which aims to grow the profile of Southeast Asian studies at UNC-CH by providing research opportunities to faculty, students, and community members; strengthening ties with our global partners like Kenan Foundation Asia and the National University of Singapore; growing our network of scholars of Southeast Asia in the US Southeast; adding more course offerings on Southeast Asia; increasing library holdings on the region; supporting postdoctoral scholars; hosting speakers and workshops; and so much more.

Core Team: Christian C. Lentz, department of geography, and Becky Butler, Assistant Director of Southeast Asian Initiatives at the Carolina Asia Center


EX MACHINA is an interdisciplinary and multimedia project exploring the complex connections and relationship between technology and humanity through visual art and music. Evolving technology has been changing our lives, including how we experience arts and music. The title, Ex Machina, or From the Machine, reflects on humanity’s creativity and struggle of identity in this fast-changing world. This project brings together scholars and artists from different fields to contemplate the meanings of the “machine” and its role in our society.

Core Team: Clara Yang, Department of Music


Forever Chemicals in North Carolina: A Story Archive is aimed at bringing humanistic research methods to the study of PFAS contamination and remediation efforts. Using oral history methods to address this gap the research team is examining how individuals make sense of healthcare experiences that could be linked to PFAS. 

Core Team: Jordynn Jack, Founding Director of the Health and Humanities (HHIVE) Lab, and Courtney Rivard, Director of the Digital Literacy and Communications Lab


Multi-Vocal Humanities is seeks to strengthen intra-academic and university-community partnerships around social justice issues. The first event, held in April 2024, explored “Black Queerness and the Everyday.” Other plans includes a retreat for women’s and gender studies faculty, support for course development, and a keynote lecture. The project is supported by Mellon Foundation.

Core Team: Ariana Vigil, Chair and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies


Propaganda and the Digital Space investigates extremist propaganda across a range of digital platforms with rich visual and textual analysis. Project leaders are focused on developing shorthand tools, as well as empowering undergraduate research teams, which has included a presentation to soldiers at Fort Liberty in nearby Fayetteville.

Core Team: Professors Cori Dauber and Mike Waltman, along with Mark Robinson, Director of the Media Art Space, and Ashley Mattheis, Postdoctoral Researcher – Swansea University.


Roots and Reclamation was an Indigenous Music Festival focused on Native North Carolina and the LandBack Movement, held on March 25-26, 2024, in collaboration between Carolina Performing Arts (CPA) and the American Indian Center (AIC).

Curated with Rhiannon Giddens as part of the Southern Futures at CPA Artist in Residence initiative, the festival featured performances by Giddens and three other artists, the LandBack Abolition Project, archival events, open classrooms, and community conversations, offering a platform for celebrating indigenous music and narratives.

Core Team: Amanda Graham, Associate Director of Engagement, Danielle Hiraldo, Director of the American Indian Center


SOHP: Legal Defense Fund is a collection effort by UNC’s Southern Oral History Project (SOHP) funded by the NAACP to interview lawyers who have made crucial contributions to their Legal Defense Fund (LDF). These interviews, recorded by a professional videographer, capture the critical role the LDF played in the larger Civil Rights movement.

Core Team: Seth Kotch, Director of SOHP, Susie Penman, SOHP Field Scholar, Philip MacDonald, Associate Director of SOHP


Spark the Arts: Radical Inclusion is a multi-year initiative from the Playmakers Repertory Company (PRC) to build relationships between community and the creation of new plays, aiming to answer the questions: if we deeply center community over an extended time, giving unparalleled access to developing work, how will it impact the audience’s view of themselves as stakeholders with the artistic product? With our theatre? Does the artistic work have unique, meaningful impact on our partners? 

Core Team: Vivienne Benesch, Producing Artistic Director PRC, Jeffrey Meanza, Associate Artistic Director PRC, and Jeff Aguiar, Director of Engagement PRC


Teaching Ethics Through Conversation puts philosophical dilemmas right in the heart of the action–a school classroom. These workshops in local middle and high schools allow students to talk through complex ideas and decision making with the goal of encouraging ethical investigation and open conversation.

Core Team: Michael Vazquez, Outreach Director of the Parr Center for Ethics and Department of Philosophy, Michael Prinzing, Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor University, Kaitlyn Burnell, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and Alex Richardson, Director of the National High School Ethics Bowl


Want support from AHGS? Get in touch.