The focus of humanities scholarship done at the Center for 21st Century Studies for 2009-2011 is “Figuring Place & Time.” Lectures, conferences and the work of its fellows are coordinated around this theme. This year’s fellows include:

David Allen

David S. Allen

Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication Allen’s project at the center concerns the recent proliferation of government-designated free speech zones and their impact on the public sphere. This research will develop into a book that argues that time and space designations for dissent limit discourse to the detriment of a discursive public sphere.

Erica Bornstein

Erica Bornstein

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Bornstein’s project at the center concerns the temporal and atemporal aspects of humanitarian relief efforts, commonly described as both an “urgent response to crises” and a “timeless” impulse. She anticipates that this work will contribute to a monograph that builds on ethnographic research on philanthropists, volunteers and humanitarian workers conducted in New Delhi.

Bruce Charlesworth

Bruce Charlesworth 

Assistant Professor of Film During his fellowship, Charlesworth will develop “Retraction,” a new multimedia narrative environment that explores anticipation and the passage of time through several successive video and sound-equipped rooms connected by closed doors. The project will allow viewers to engage with fictional characters and builds on earlier work concerning the psychology of anticipation.

Jennifer Johung

Jennifer Johung 

Assistant Professor of Art History Johung is the center’s first Masters in Liberal Studies (MLS) Fellow. Her fellowship research will examine the concept of home as re-imagined in the intersections of contemporary art and architecture. She will also teach a graduate seminar in the MLS program.

Nan Kim

Nan Kim 

Assistant Professor of History Kim will explore the residual Cold War with a focus on the ongoing division between North and South Korea. Her work examines how, in this period of continuing uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula, the disruptions caused by national division are being remembered, challenged and reconfigured.

Jason Puskar

Jason Puskar 

Assistant Professor of English Puskar’s research at the center will explore the cultural history of the “push” button, modernity’s most common interface with the mechanical world. His work will examine the button as a juncture in history. He expects to publish at least one scholarly article on the button during his fellowship.

Manu Sobti

Manu Sobti 

Assistant Professor of Architecture Sobti will focus on Central Asia’s Oxus River boundary to explore medieval cultural encounters between Persians and Arabs. His work examines how physical borders and boundaries delineate the nature of cultural interactions and determine the development of historical time and place.

Deborah J. Wilk

Deborah J. Wilk 

Assistant Professor of Art History, UW–Whitewater Wilk’s project examines the way architecture was used to structure and narrate visual and textual investigations of immigration, focusing on the architecture of Castle Garden and Ellis Island.

Robert P. Wolensky

Robert P. Wolensky

Professor of Sociology, UW–Stevens Point His research at the center addresses the complex relationships among narrative, memory, place and time in the anthracite coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

For more on the center, go to www4.uwm.edu/21st/