The HRI Research Clusters initiative enables faculty and graduate students in the humanities and arts from the Urbana campus to develop questions or subjects of inquiry that require or would be enhanced by collaborative work.

We are pleased to announce the Research Clusters for 2021–22. Please join us in congratulating the successful applicants! We hope you’ll look to benefit from their activities in the coming year.

The “Animal Turn”
Co-Directors:
Jane Desmond (Anthropology)
Jamie Jones (English)

Big Tech, Information, and Society
Director:
Nikki Usher (Journalism)

Co-Directors:    
Cabral Bigman-Galimore (Communication)
Stewart M. Coles (Communication)
Jacob Fisher (Advertising)
Carl Gunter (Computer Science)
Eva Maslowska (Advertising)
Emily Van Duyn (Communication)

Critical Interventions in Labor Studies
Co-Directors:
Emily E. LB. Twarog (Labor and Employment Relations)
Stephanie Fortado (Labor and Employment Relations)
Augustus Wood (Labor and Employment Relations)

Environmental Humanities
Co-Directors:
Robert Morrissey (History)
Rebecca Oh (English)
Pollyanna Rhee (Landscape Architecture)

Medical Humanities
Co-Directors:
Stephanie Hilger (Germanic Languages and Literatures)
Justine Murison (English)

Russia and the Global Color Line
Co-Directors:
Eugene M. Avrutin (History)
Valeria Sobol (Slavic Languages and Literatures)