More information on the Engaged Humanities Mellon Grant


Collaborative Summer Scholarship Awards

Funded by the URECA Center and the
Robert B. Outland, Sr. Family Fund for Academic Excellence

The goal of the Collaborative Summer Scholarship Award is to support an innovative scholarly partnership that will enhance our outstanding intellectual community centered around the engaged liberal arts, create new interdisciplinary collaboration across divisions of the College, and provide our talented students with a powerful mentored experience in a collaborative team environment. Congratulations to the awardees!

Eranda Jayawickreme and Eli Rice; Lisa Blee and Rebecca Boolba
Title: The Work of Life Narratives: A Project Re-entry Case Study
Description: Eranda Jayawickreme’s student, Eli Rice, will work on a longitudinal study examining the relationship between the themes of agency and redemption in psychological well-being in the narratives of formerly incarcerated individuals who participated in Project Re-entry (a Forsyth County-based program offering support services for offenders before and after release). Rice and Jayawickreme will provide study participants with disposable cameras with which to document and/or express their experiences and thoughts in parallel to their written narratives. Lisa Blee’s student Rebecca Boolba will use these photographs and narratives to develop an exhibition for the New Winston Museum on the role and value of life narratives in understanding community history and social dynamics. Boolba and Rice will also create a public program and panel discussion on different ways to understand the value of narrating life stories.

Sarah Mason and Lawton Manning; Andrew Gurstelle and Brianna Casini
Title: Escape the Museum: New Approaches to STEM and Anthropology Outreach through Narrative-Puzzle Exhibit Design
Description: Museum exhibits are an excellent medium for conveying academic research to the public. However, they sometimes fail to engage those not already interested in the exhibit’s subject. This collaborative research project between anthropology and mathematics explores how the introduction of narrative-puzzle elements to an exhibit can impact visitor engagement and knowledge retention, potentially providing a template for designing more compelling research presentations.

2017 Collaborative Summer Scholarship Recipients


Lisa Blee

Lisa Blee
Associate Professor of History and Program Coordinator for Cultural Heritage & Preservation Studies

Eranda Jayawickreme sits at his desk

Eranda Jayawickreme 
Assistant Professor of Psychology


Andrew Gurstelle
Assistant Teaching Professor of Museum Anthropology

Sarah Mason Associate Professor Mathmatics

Sarah Mason
Assistant Professor of Mathematics


Open Spaces:  Lives Impacted by Incarceration

In collaboration with Eranda Jayawickreme and student Eli Rice, Lisa Blee and student Rebecca Boolba have developed an exhibition for the New Winston Museum on the role and value of life narratives in understanding community history and social dynamics.  This exhibition shows photographs and narratives of  formerly incarcerated individuals who participated in Project Re-entry, a Forsyth County-based program offering support services for offenders before and after release.  The opening program with the artists and curator was held Tuesday, October 24, 2017 at Goodwill Industries.