Digital Humanities Summer Fellowships Cohort Archive

scholars in the fellowship program having a lively discussion at the conference table

The Simpson Center offers annual summer fellowships for faculty and doctoral students to pursue research projects that use digital technologies in innovative and intensive ways and/or explore the historical, social, aesthetic, and cross-cultural implications of digital cultures. The program has three primary goals:

  • To animate knowledge—using rich media, dynamic databases, and visualization tools
  • To circulate knowledge—among diverse publics
  • To understand digital culture—historically, theoretically, aesthetically, and generatively

UW faculty and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply either on an individual basis or in teams for Digital Humanities Summer Fellowships every fall. Where research in the humanities is often undertaken by a single scholar, this program enables faculty and graduate students to collaborate with each other as well as with designers, information technologists, and librarians. Applications from scholars using the open-source multimodal authoring and publishing platform Scalar are particularly encouraged; the Simpson Center is an affiliate of the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture, which developed Scalar. Review additional eligibility and application information for faculty and graduate students

Up to 8 scholars—4 faculty and 4 doctoral students—will be selected each year; they will be required to be in residence for 6-8 weeks during the summer and will meet weekly to share their research. In addition to summer salary, each will have a research budget that can be used for expenses such as hourly support and software.

The Simpson Center gratefully acknowledges the support of a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as well as many donors to the endowment which is underwriting these fellowships.

Apply for Support

Cohort Archives

2022 - 2023 Summer Fellows

Andreas P. Bassett stands in front of a large shrubbery while wearing a dark jacket blue shirt and tie.
Doctoral Candidate
Department of English
Anna Preus stands outside wearing a dark jacket and striped shirt.
Assistant Professor
English
Christopher Teuton sits in front of a bookcase wearing a maroon shirt.
Professor and Chair
American Indian Studies
A portrait of Jasmine Mahmoud standing in front of a bookcase.
Assistant Professor
School of Drama
A portrait of Leah Rubinsky standing in front of a body of water.
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Comparative Literature
Samantha Thompson stands in front of a beige wall while wearing glasses and a jacket.
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Geography
A black and white portrait of Sarah Choi.
Doctoral Student
Cinema & Media Studies
Sarah Moore stands outside while wearing a read cardigan and white shirt.
Doctoral Candidate
Department of English
Sonia De La Cruz looks to the right while standing behind a camera on a tripod.
Assistant Professor
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Tacoma

2021 - 2022 Summer Fellows

Close up of Hope smiling at the camera, long hair parted the side and in front of her right shoulder, behind her left shoulder. She is wearing a green patterned top and the backdrop is a cream color.
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Anthropology
Ayda smiling at the camera in a beige blazer and white shirt, curly hair pulled halfway back and a gray background
PhD Candidate
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Close-up portrait of Gözde in black white. She is smiling at the camera with her hair parted to the side, half in front of her shoulder and on the other side behind her shoulder.
PhD Candidate
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Profile of Beatrice in front of a book case. She has short brown hair and is wearing a sweater while smiling at the camera.
Associate Professor
French & Italian Studies
profile of Juliet Shields: short red hair, smiling at the camera, wearing a black blazer and shirt
Professor
Department of English
profile of Maya Smith smiling at the camera, hair pulled back with some curls along the left side, wearing a red top under a blue blazer with a necklace
Associate Professor
Department of French & Italian Studies
Jin-Kyu smiling at the camera in a blue sweater with blurred book stacks in the background
Associate Professor
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Nora smiling at the camera, shoulder length hair framing her face, wearing a black a v-neck sweater and standing in front of a gray background
Associate Professor
School of Nursing
medium close-up of Yandong. He is on the left of the frame in a black t-shirt looking at the camera. To the right is a light flare form the setting sun, while the background shows buildings and a park.
Graduate Student
Cinema & Media Studies

2020 - 2021 Summer Fellows

Taylor Soja wears a black shirt and tan jacket.
Doctoral Candidate
Department of History
Portrait of Solmaz Shakerifard wearing glasses.
Doctoral Candidate
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Laurie Marhoefer stands in front of a white brick wall wearing a grey shirt.
Associate Professor and Jon Bridgman Endowed Professor of History
Department of History
A black and white image of Melinda Cohoon.
Doctoral Candidate
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Cricket Keating sits behind a desk wearing a red and grey sweater.
Associate Professor
Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
A black and white portrait of Leila Kate Norako
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Geoffrey Turnovsky stands outside wearing a black shirt and grey jacket.
Chair and Associate Professor of French
Department of French & Italian Studies
Ying-Hsiu Chou stands in front of a white wall wearing a dark shirt.
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Asian Languages & Literature

2019 - 2020 Summer Fellows

Portrait of Jennifer Bean
Associate Professor
Cinema & Media Studies
Portrait of Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse
Assistant Professor and Curator of Northwest Art
Art History
Portrait of Ellen Y. Chang standing in front of a blurred background and wearing a blue collared shirt.
Graduate Student
Cinema & Media Studies
Portrait of Amanda Doxtater
Assistant Professor
Department of Scandinavian Studies
Isaac Rivera
Doctoral Student
Department of Geography
A black and white portrait of Leila Kate Norako
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Portrait of Rachel Schlotfeldt
Graduate Student
Department of English
Portrait of Judy Twedt
Graduate Student
Climate Data Sonification

2018 - 2019 Summer Fellows

Abraham Avnisan stands in front of a white wall wearing a patterned shirt.
Assistant Professor
School of Emerging Media and Technology and School of Media and Journalism at Kent State University
Kristin Dew stands in front of a dark wall wearing a white shirt and dark jacket.
Assistant Teaching Professor
Human Centered Design & Engineering
Phillip Thurtle wears a blue shirt and glasses.
Professor and Director
Comparative History of Ideas
James Gregory stands outside wearing glasses.
Professor, Williams Endowed Professor, and Associate Chair
Department of History
Sarah Ross sits on a beach looking toward the water.
Doctoral Candidate
Cinema & Media Studies
Verena Kick stands in front of a bookcase wearing glasses and a dark shirt.
Assistant Professor
Department of German
Jocelyn Moon stands outside wearing a dark shirt.
Part Time Faculty, Highline College
Department of Music
Ted Hiebert sits in front of a dark wall wearing an orange shirt and googly eyes all over his face.
Professor
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell

2017 - 2018 Summer Fellows

Sarah Ross sits on a beach looking toward the water.
Doctoral Candidate
Cinema & Media Studies
Portrait of José I. Fusté
Assistant Professor
Ethnic Studies
Portrait of Jade Power-Sotomayor
Assistant Professor
Performance Studies
Portrait of Sasha Welland
Associate Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
Portrait of Michael Degerald
Recent PhD
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Portrait of Eleanor Mahoney
Alumni
History
Portrait of Roneva Keel
PhD Graduate
History
Portrait of Dan Berger leaning against a brick wall
Associate Professor
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Portrait of Negin Dahya
Assistant Professor
Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology
Portrait of alma khasawnih
Assistant Professor
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The College of New Jersey

2016 - 2017 Summer Fellows

Jane Wong stands in front of a patterned wall wearing a grey shirt.
Associate Professor
English Department, Western Washington University
Matthew Bellinger stands in front of a white wall wearing a patterned shirt and glasses.
Assistant Professor
Communication, Journalism, and Film Department, Seattle Pacific University
A black and white image of Darren Byler wearing glasses.
Assistant Professor
International Studies, Simon Fraser University
Benjamin Gardner sits in front of a black wall.
Associate Professor
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Josephine Ensign stands in front of a gray wall wearing a purple scarf and shirt..
Professor
School of Nursing
Minda Martin sits outside wearing a denim jacket and patterned shirt.
Professor
School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Brian Gutierrez stands in front of a door wearing a suit and tie.
Senior Instructional Designer
University of Washington
Stephen Groening looking at a computer monitor
Associate Professor
Cinema & Media Studies

2015 - 2016 Summer Fellows

Headshot of Tyler Babbie
Part-Time Lecturer
Department of English
Phillip Thurtle wears a blue shirt and glasses.
Professor and Director
Comparative History of Ideas
James Gregory stands outside wearing glasses.
Professor, Williams Endowed Professor, and Associate Chair
Department of History
Portrait of Shuxuan Zhou
Alum
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
Portrait of Luke Bergmann
Associate Professor
Department of Geography
Portrait of Tad Hirsch
Professor
Art + Design
Portrait of K. Mehmet Kentel
Alum
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Portrait of Sarah Kremen-Hicks
Alum
Department of English

2014 - 2015 Summer Fellows

Annie Fee sits in front of a dark wall wearing a blue shirt.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo
Sonnet Retman sits in front of a dark wall wearing a grey shirt and green necklace.
Associate Professor
Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
Portrait of Michelle Habell-Pallán
Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
Pamela Pietrucci stands in front of a brick wall wearing glasses an a green shirt.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen
P. Joshua Griffin sits in front of a gray wall wearing glasses, a blue shirt, and a dark jacket.
Assistant Professor
School of Marine and Environmental Affairs; Department of American Indian Studies
Jeffrey Knight wears a plaid shirt and glasses.
Associate Professor
Department of English
Portrait of Sasha Welland
Associate Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies

2021 - 2022 Digital Humanities Summer Fellow

medium close-up of Yandong. He is on the left of the frame in a black t-shirt looking at the camera. To the right is a light flare form the setting sun, while the background shows buildings and a park.

Yandong Li (he/him/his)

Graduate Student

Mediating Energy Past and Present: Infrastructures of Standard Oil

This digital curation will serve as a resource for the general public and scholars who share interests in the emerging academic fields of energy humanities and media infrastructure. Specifically, this online project uses the history of Standard Oil to rethink the histories of media and infrastructure in California and China. By borrowing methods from the fields of (media) infrastructure studies, energy humanities, and research on media and the environment, this project emerges as a complement to my dissertation project on the history of petroleum infrastructures. This digital platform will contain three components: curations of images and films, an interactive map, and a collection of recent scholarly works.