Category: Faculty

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

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!

Brown Bag Talk: Bridging Knowledges and Expertise in Community-Engaged Research Partnerships

What:

Abstract:

Community-engaged research requires creating and navigating the pathway to equitable, inclusive partnerships. With the realization that a diversity of stakeholders, rights holders, and research sponsors require more than can be accomplished by the solo investigator, how might one engage in this work in a good way? This talk illustrates ‘bridging’ as an adaptable/adoptable concept and practice between Western and Indigenous knowledges and expertise systems. Gagnon will share the “Seasons of Research” framework, created in partnership with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Lake Superior Band of Ojibwa, and concludes by proposing future directions and good relations for strengthening research partnerships as a shared priority commitment.

Who:

Presented by Affiliated Assistant Professor in the Humanities, Valoree Gagnon.

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, February 2 2024

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

Brown Bag Talk: Redesigning an Automotive Feature from Gasoline to Electric, A User Experience Case Study

What:

Abstract:

Join us for a case study of engineering and user experience design from the automotive industry. Tim and Vyas will describe how they designed the human-machine interface (HMI) for Ford’s award-winning Pro Power Onboard feature that provides home- sized levels of power in electrical outlets on Ford trucks and vans.

Who:

Presented by Assistant Teaching Professor Timothy Keirnan and Core Feature Owner at Ford Product Development, Vyas Shenoy

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, January 12 2024

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

Brown Bag Talk: Fetishization of Algorithms in Everyday Life with Stefka Hristova and Soonkwan Hong

What:

Abstract:

The sheer presence of algorithms poses existential questions about how deeply computational mechanisms have come to permeate everyday life. Join the Director and Associate Director of the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture in discussing biases and unintended consequences of algorithms and AI.

Who:

Presented by Associate Professor of Digital Media, and Director of IPEC Stefka Hristova, and Associate Professor of Marketing and Associate Director of IPEC Soonkwan Hong

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, October 6, 2023

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

Brown Bag Talk: Disability Justice and (In)Visbility in Long Covid and ME Activism with Jennifer Nish

What:

Abstract:

This presentation explores how chronic disease activists with Long Covid and myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME, have mobilized embodied rhetorics in the context of a transnational crisis: the rapid rise in post-infections disease caused by COVID-19. I use (in)visibility as a conceptual framework for understanding the rhetorical and political problems that people with these post-infectious diseases face as well as the tactics with which activists respond.

Who:

Presented by Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Jennifer Nish

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, November 10, 2023

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

Brown Bag Talk: The Self-ish Gene: Retroactive Tropes in Richard Dawkins’s Evolutionary Rhetoric with Oren Abeles

What:

Abstract:

Building on recent developments in Lacanian rhetorical cricicism, this presentation demonstrates how contemporary evolutionary theory posits genetic determinism without a clear definition of the gene. It makes this case through close readings of Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene, the landmark text of neo-Darwinian genetics. It demonstrates how Dawkins uses metaphors to substitute a single determinate agent in place of the genome’s interactive complexity. Despite Dawkins’ admission that he could not define the gene, his metaphors give his “selfish gene” a sense of unity and coherence that allows him to describe all other levels of life (organisms, species, ecosystems) as reducible to it.

Who:

Presented by Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Oren Abeles.

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Wednesday, October 13, 2023.

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center.

Academic Job Market Roundtable Discussion, Humanities Brown Bag Series

Richard Canevez, Jennifer Nish, Jason Archer, James Hammond, and Holly Hassell participated in a panel discussion on the academic job market.

What:

A panel discussion featuring new tenure-track faculty hired in 2022/2023 to discuss the academic job market within the humanities, and their individual experiences with the academic job search that led them to Michigan Tech. Featuring Jason Archer, Richard Canevez, James Hammond, Holly Hassell, and Jennifer Nish.

Who:

Recent tenure-track faculty Jason Archer, Richard Canevez, James Hammond, Holly Hassell, and Jennifer Nish.

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, September 22, 2023

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

Fiss’s Fanciful Frolicking at the History of Science Society Virtual Festival

Andrew Fiss
Andrew Fiss


Andrew Fiss presented a research paper titled “Singing Songs of HSS: Joking about the Standards of our Discipline” on Dec. 9 as part of the History of Science Society Virtual Festival.

Fiss’ paper analyzed a History of Science Society meeting and a related alumni reunion that occurred in Bloomington, Indiana, on Oct. 31, 1985. It argued that singing together in educational communities has led to heightened experiences of belonging.

He also chaired the virtual session “Sites of Science,” with contributed papers about tribal medicine of Santhal, India; Berzelius’ home laboratory in Sweden; agricultural stations of Hainan and Guangdong provinces, China; and environmental farming practices of Bihar, India.