NCSSM Morganton

Research in Humanities

Opportunities for the Class of 2027 will be announced in September/October 2025

About Research in Humanities

The Research Program in Humanities in Morganton is a year-long sequence in which students can take both Research Experience in Humanities (RexHUM) in the Spring semester of their Junior year and Research in Humanities (RHUM) during the Fall semester of their Senior year.

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RexHUM introduces students to the rigorous pleasures of research in the humanities. Through work in and out of class, including visits by guest lecturers and trips to local archives and museums, students learn the basic skills of research, including the identification of a compelling intellectual interest and the transformation of that interest into a question that at once requires and excites research of the highest quality. Students then answer this question, in a provisional way, by work that leads first to the statement of a thesis (the answer to the question), then to the initial development of that statement in a shorter paper of ten to twelve pages. Successful completion of the course may also lead to summer research, internships, or apprenticeships with local scholars. Following this course, optional enrollment in EN4610 Research in the Humanities offers selected students the opportunity for more substantial work in their chosen fields of scholarship.

Empires have been the dominant form of political governance throughout most of human history. RexHUM focuses on the topic of empires through historical case studies in the Americas, Africa and Asia during the period from 1500 to 1950, with some historical and geographic outliers. Languages, religions, food, and ideas such as modern science have all spread through the networks created by empires. The large number of Filipino health care workers in the United States is as rooted in an imperial past as is the replication of Spanish urban planning ideals in towns spanning from California to Chile. At the same time, imperial governments have been a source of brutal oppression for those they colonize.

Through our study, you will learn the basics of research in the humanities and apply those skills in identifying a topic of intellectual interest, developing a question that leads you to your own investigation and research, and writing and presenting your findings.

RHUM encourages writing and reading that is at once critical and necessarily creative, for by these acts of interdisciplinary scholarship, students seek to construct new objects of knowledge—a knowledge commensurate with their experience of the world, informed and indeed altered by the works and words of others. This course is necessarily interdisciplinary, because it is, among other things, a critique of the division of labor within institutions of knowledge. In other words, even as it seeks to understand how disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and literature constitute their objects of study (the human, the mind, society, etc.), it also attends carefully to the limits of disciplinary formation, to the ways in which the “human” or “nature” escape the classificatory systems within which they are defined and to which they are confined. Research in Humanities is organized around theories and practices of research in the humanities and the sciences. The study of theory is necessary because these researches should be critical and historical, interrogating both their subject’s conditions of possibility and the contemporary situation of their study.

What would I do in the program?

Practically speaking, the Research in Humanities program in Morganton teaches students how to manage a humanities research project from the conception stage, through investigation, write-up and revision with the goal of completing a public-facing product which can take the form of an article, website or other media. Students will learn how to conduct research and how to construct an effective thesis statement that will govern an argument developed and sustained throughout a paper of twenty- to twenty-five pages. The proper use of evidence, as well as considerations of evidentiary significance, will also be fundamental to the course’s concerns. Students will then transform their research into articles for scholarly publication, including NCSSM- Morganton's journal of interdisciplinary research in the humanities. They will serve on the editorial board for the journal, evaluating submissions, offering suggestions for revisions, and ensuring the timely delivery of the completed journal to the publisher.

How do I know this program is a good fit for me?

If you want to improve your writing and your ability to manage a long-term independent research project in the humanities alongside a community of burgeoning scholars, then come join RexHUM and RHUM. You should be able to work independently, be curious about your topic and intellectually flexible in order to adapt to obstacles and opportunities that will appear as part of the research process.

What projects have past / current students worked on?

“British Colonialism and its impact on Indian Ayurvedic Medicine.”
“The long-term impacts of colonial famines during the British Raj on South Asian Public Health”
“La Malinche and changing ideas of femininity in Mexico from the Aztec Empire to Colonial New Spain”
“Hispanic or Latino?: the history of US census categories for Latin American Immigrants”
“Scientific activism by women physicists during the Early Cold War”

Application Deadline

Enroll in Pre-Requisite Course (EN4600)

Scheduling

Junior Spring,
Senior Fall

Commitment

Two Semesters

Course Information

EN4600 & EN4610, Academic Year

Marcelo Aranda, NCSSM Morganton Instructor of American Studies & Humanities

marcelo.aranda@ncssm.edu

Marcelo Aranda joined NCSSM-Morganton in July 2022 as one of the founding faculty members. Born in Nicaragua, he grew up in South Florida in close proximity to space shuttles, Cold War politics, and a diverse community of people from all over Latin America. As a child, he became curious about the historical accidents, circumstances, and decisions that led him to the United States, which in turn sparked his study of history. Marcelo studied history at UC Berkeley and Stanford and has written scholarly articles about early modern scientific networks and practices in the Spanish Empire and has merged new digital methods with traditional historical instruction. He taught in the SIMILE program at Stanford, and was then chair of the History Department at Quarry Lane School in Dublin, CA. He has also written about historical world-building in video games. His other interests include local food, graphic novels, animation, and science fiction novels. Marcelo, his wife, Lucinda, and their four cats are pleased to be part of the Morganton community.

Course Descriptions

EN4600 Research Experience in the Humanities

Prerequisite(s): Completion of AS4051 American Studies I

Corequisite(s): None

Graduation Requirements Met: One English credit

Schedule Requirements Met: One of five courses required each semester

Meeting Times: Three periods and a lab OR two 100-min. evening periods

This interdisciplinary course introduces students to the rigorous pleasures of research in the humanities. Through work in and out of class, including visits by guest lecturers and trips to local archives and museums, students learn the basic skills of research, including the identification of a compelling intellectual interest and the transformation of that interest into a question that at once requires and excites research of the highest quality. Students then answer this question, in a provisional way, by work that leads first to the statement of a thesis (the answer to the question), then to the initial development of that statement in a shorter paper of ten to twelve pages. Successful completion of the course may also lead to summer research, internships, or apprenticeships with local scholars. Following this course, optional enrollment in EN4610 Research in the Humanities offers selected students the opportunity for more substantial work in their chosen fields of scholarship.

EN4610 Research in the Humanities

Prerequisite(s): Completion of EN4600, AS4051/AS4052 American Studies I/II or Summer Research in the Humanities.

Corequisite(s): None

Graduation Requirements Met: One English credit

Schedule Requirements Met: One of five courses required each semester

Meeting Times: Three periods and a lab OR two 100-min. evening periods

Research in Humanities encourages writing and reading that is at once critical and necessarily creative, for by these acts of interdisciplinary scholarship, students seek to construct new objects of knowledge—a knowledge commensurate with their experience of the world, informed and indeed altered by the works and words of others. This course is necessarily interdisciplinary, because it is, among other things, a critique of the division of labor within institutions of knowledge. In other words, even as it seeks to understand how disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and literature constitute their objects of study (the human, the mind, society, etc.), it also attends carefully to the limits of disciplinary formation, to the ways in which the “human” or “nature” escape the classificatory systems within which they are defined and to which they are confined. Research in Humanities is organized around theories and practices of research in the humanities and the sciences. The study of theory is necessary because these researches should be critical and historical, interrogating both their subject’s conditions of possibility and the contemporary situation of their study. Each week, members of the seminar will consider different theoretical approaches to reading and writing about diverse texts. These approaches include, but are not limited to, political criticism, cultural and ethnic studies, feminism, gender and sexuality, historicism, and colonial and post-colonial critique. As for practice, students will learn how to conduct research and how to construct an effective thesis statement that will govern an argument developed and sustained throughout a paper of twenty- to twenty-five pages. The proper use of evidence, as well as considerations of evidentiary significance, will also be fundamental to the course’s concerns. Students will then transform their research into articles for scholarly publication, including Fifth World, NCSSM’s journal of interdisciplinary research in the humanities. They will serve on the editorial board for Fifth World, evaluating submissions, offering suggestions for revisions, and ensuring the timely delivery of the completed journal to the publisher.