Author: Samantha Canevez

Brown Bag: Great Lakes Romanticism, Mark Lounibos

What:

Humanities’ Brown Bag talks kick off again on Friday, January 31 at 12pm in the Petersen Library with “Great Lakes Romanticism” a talk by Assistant Teaching Professor of English, Mark Lounibos.

Abstract: This emerging project aims to link the historical and cultural period of British Romanticism (1789-1832) to the Great Lakes region of North America, using digital mapping methods to identify locations, actors and events in the Great Lakes area which have influenced British Romantic culture.  In particular, the project’s goal is to emphasize and perhaps also recover the influence of Indigenous culture and thought on British Romanticism.   Although much work has been done on Transatlantic Romanticism, and some important contributions focus explicitly on indigeneity in this context, few have focused primarily on the Great Lakes region.  This waterway was a critical trade/exploration route, and therefore one of the most significant channels for contact with indigenous tribes in the interior of North America. The long-term goals of this project include the production of a digital resource for both scholars and the public, and the development of a Digital Humanities course.  

Who:

Presented by Mark Lounibos, Assistant Teaching Professor of English

Co-Hosted by the Department of Humanities and the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, Jan. 31, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.

Where:

The Peterson Library, Walker 318

Café Français French Conversation Hour

Parlez-vous français? Join us!

French conversation hour will take place in Walker 120C (in the HDMZ) twice monthly on Wednesdays through March. Whether you are a complete beginner, or a native French speaker looking to use your mother tongue, stop by for some casual conversation and cultural exchange. All levels of French are welcome!

  • Jan. 15
  • Jan. 29
  • Feb. 12
  • Feb. 19
  • March 12
  • March 26

For more information or to be added to our mailing list for French-related events, contact lalegref@mtu.edu

La Peña Spanish Conversation Hour

La Peña Spanish Conversation Hour will meet every other Tuesday in Walker 120A (in the HDMZ) for the spring semester.

The dates are:

  • Jan. 14
  • Jan. 28
  • Feb. 11
  • March 4
  • March 18
  • April 1

Join us for our next La Peña Spanish conversation hour!

All levels of Spanish are welcome, and you don’t need to be taking a Spanish class to participate. Stop by, chat and stay for a board game or bring your own!

¡Hasta pronto!

Faculty Research Highlight: The Big Ride Project

Assistant Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media Richard Canevez has big plans for the summer of 2025, when he will take on what he has titled “The Big Ride Project.” Richard has received a seed grant from the university’s Research Excellence Fund, as well as funding from the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture with which he is both funding this project, and hopes to publish a book documenting his experiences.

Assistant Professor Richard Canevez is collaborating with Studio 13 in Houghton to generate media for his upcoming research endeavor- The Big Ride Project.

From Richard:

The rise of American right-wing populism has been enabled in part by the politicization and targeting of institutions construed as left-leaning with harassment, hostile policy efforts, and in some cases outright violence. The range of institutions is broad, ranging from women’s healthcare to diversity-supporting organizations and even federal agencies tasked with environmental stewardship. This targeting has reduced these institutions to political footballs, exploiting an aggrieved and politically divided constituency for political gain.

But who are these institutions in reality? They reflect the people who are “where the rubber meets the road”: the professionals and volunteers. But what are their stories? How do their experiences and values shape these institutions and their mission? And how are they going to navigate the political divide in the upcoming years? And what can other institutions and their people learn from them?

In the summer of 2025, Rich Canevez (Asst. Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media at the Department of Humanities) will ride a bicycle from Houghton, MI to Chicago, IL and back on a route that covers over 900 miles by road, trail, and everything in between. In this time, he will gather the stories of professionals who staff these institutions, including libraries, institutions of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), reproductive rights, transgender affirming care, and environmental stewardship, dotted across one of the most politically divided and diverse sections of America. These stories and accounts will be layered with his own experiences, by covering the distance and connecting stories with notions of spatial divide and connection, as well as his own memories of being a ethnic minority raised in this curious section of America, with a personal relationship with many of the issues these institutions, and its people, face or continue to struggle with to this day.

You can visit the project’s website at thebigrideproject.carrd.co to follow along on his journey!

The Big Ride Project on Facebook | The Big Ride Project on Bluesky

Richard Canevez Awarded 2024 REF Seed Grant

Richard Canevez and Kette Thomas, Humanities, participate in a panel at the 2023 41 North Film Festival.
Richard Canevez, assistant professor of communication, culture, and media, has been awarded a 2024 REF Seed Grant.

Richard Canevez, assistant professor of communication, culture, and media in humanities, has been awarded a 2023 seed grant from the Vice President for Research Office Research Excellence Fund.

In its evaluation of the proposal the committee wrote: “The project will use narrative inquiry to gather and analyze information on the experiences of Ukrainian refugees, and thus is both timely and supportive of strategic goals of Michigan Tech related to global issues and those of the Humanities department.”

From the VPR web page, “REF-RS grants are designed to provide research faculty (including research scientists, engineers, and research assistant professors) and untenured, tenure-track academic faculty who have been in their current position with Michigan Tech for less than six years with additional resources to develop an externally supported research program.”

Canevez joined the humanities roster in spring 2023. His research focuses on social informatics, peace and conflict, social justice, and social movements and resistance, with a current focus on the war in Ukraine. He also teaches in communication, culture, and media, and will be teaching a course specifically in Power, Activism, & Technology next fall.

Congratulations, Dr. Canevez!

Lindsay Hiltunen Appointed to Ottawa National Forest Resource Advisory Committee

RTC PhD student and archivist in the University Archives, Lindsay Hiltunen, has been appointed to the advisory committee for the Ottawa National Forest.


University Archivist Lindsay Hiltunen (VPOL) has been appointed by Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to the new Ottawa National Forest Resource Advisory Committee (RAC). Members of the RAC are vetted and designated by the secretary of agriculture and meet under Federal Advisory Committee Act regulations. All meetings are open to the public.

A Secure Rural Schools RAC provides recommendations to the U.S. Forest Service on the development and implementation of special projects on federal lands as authorized under the Secure Rural Schools Act and Community Self-Determination Act in Public Law 110-343. This act was most recently reauthorized for two years by section 41202 of Public Law 117-58 (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 15, 2021.

Vilsack appointed Hiltunen, along with 14 others, to serve four-year terms on the Ottawa National Forest RAC. The inaugural meeting will be called in summer 2024.

Hernandez-Ramos Inducted into STC Student Honorary Society

Scientific and Technical Communication major Aracely Hernandez-Ramos was inducted into the Society for Technical Communication’s student honorary society Sigma Tau Chi.

Aracely Hernandez-Ramos was inducted into the Society for Technical Communication’s student honorary society Sigma Tau Chi in a ceremony at the society’s annual conference on May 18th. Membership into the society is an honor awarded to students enrolled in a technical communication program who “[…] have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or above, are exemplary in participation in STC, and demonstrate a potential for significant contribution to the profession. In 2024, only two STC student members were awarded this distinction.”

Hernandez-Ramos is an undergraduate in humanities’ scientific and technical communication program, as well as the president of MTU’s student chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. She is also a coach at the Michigan Tech writing center, and can commonly be seen around the department.

Our heartfelt congratulations to Aracely!

Brown Bag: Too Much Pink!: Influencer Barbie and the Mediatization of Little Girlhood

What:

Abstract:

The “girl-method” (Mitchell, 2011) is highly valued in girlhood studies and focuses on adults working with girls to understand more about the girl experience and, hopefully, advocate for them. Typically, the focus is on teen or tween girls (McRobbie, 2007; Ringrose & Harvey, 2013; Rossie, 2015; Willett, 2005), which has provided valuable insight into the girl perspective. However, little girls, or girls ages 5-9, have not yet been heavily included in the field. As part of my dissertation project, I facilitated two focus groups with little girls to explore their perspective on the Barbie’s Youtube Vlogs—where Barbie is now an influencer—and what they think about older girlhood in relation to media made for them. In this presentation, I will explore a content analysis of the Barbie Vlogs themselves, as well as themes from the focus groups.
Speaking to girls this age can bring new insight into the figure of the girl. Even at ages 5-9, girls are forming their identity. Barbie represents a specific girlhood—a white, (upper) middle-class, can-do girl. In her vlogs, she demonstrates an interior life focused on self-empowerment and competency, engaging girls in a culture of competency rather than of leisure. Barbie’s modern role-model worthy makeover as a lifestyle influencer is an interesting dichotomy of social forces at play—the unapologetically feminine and capable character is using social media to speak directly to her viewers. My goal with this study is to explore how little girls interpret Barbie’s performance of teenage girlhood. The presentation will also include reflections on the methods, working with girls this age, and recommendations for future research.

Who:

Presented by PhD Candidate Brilynn Janckila

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, March 15 2024

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

Brown Bag Talk: Agency, Ethics, and AI: A Conversation About the Ontology of Human and Non-Human Agency

What:

Abstract:

Humanities faculty Jason Archer, Scott Marratto and Alexandra Morrison will lead a Brown Bag panel discussion on agency — kicked off with three short presentations. The first will address 20th and 21st c. phenomenological philosophy that, through its rigorous descriptions of concrete lived embodied experience, challenges “mind-centered” and exclusively cognitive models of  human agency. The second will address the ways in which contemporary research in STEM ethics draws on that same phenomenological tradition to reveal the ways in which human engagement with technical objects and sociotechnical systems transform moral perception and agency. The third presentation will discuss the way in which a similar understanding of hybrid agency critically informs state-of-the-art research in Science and Technology Studies (STS), communication, and sensory studies, including human-machine communication and haptics.

Who:

Presented by Associate Professor of Philosophy Alexandra Morrison, Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Technologies Jason Archer, and Associate Professor of Philosophy Scott Maratto

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, March 22 2024

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center