Civic Humanities
Cultural Change Through Scholarship
SJSU faculty bridge academic research with community engagement, creating meaningful
dialogue between academic scholarship and public discourse. Through innovative digital
humanities projects, oral history initiatives, and community-based research partnerships,
our scholars work directly with diverse populations to preserve, interpret, and share
the rich cultural narratives of Silicon Valley and beyond. Below is a rotating selection
of our standout investigators in this area.
○ Recent News and Highlights
○ Related Strength: Cultural Studies in Action
○ Related Strength: Public Arts
○ Related Strength: Inclusive Libraries
Selected Publications
Harris, K., et al (2023). Public Art as Resistance in San Jose.
Mendoza, V. (2020). “Our Agents” from the larger installation "O Custo de Vida". “de Young Open” Juried Exhibition, de Young Museum.
Norris, K. (2022). The Confession of Copeland Cane. Unnamed Press.
Samuelson, C. (2020). Towards a Transnational Criticism: Bridging the Mexico US Divide on Valeria Luiselli. Chasqui: Revista de Literatura Latinoamericana. 49.3.
Szydlowski, N., Mune, C., and Cramer S. (2025). Where Belonging Meets Innovation: Building a Public Digital Humanities Center in a Joint-Use Library [pdf]. ACRL Conference Proceedings.
Wilkes, L., Kreuter, N., and Skinnell, R., eds (2022). Rhetoric & Guns. Utah State University Press.
Award Highlights
Harris, K., et al., “Public Art as Resistance in San Jose,” for H&A in Action “Geography of the Arts,” — California Humanities Council, 2021
McNiece, Hackman, He, Szydlowski, "All of Us Research Program" — NIH, 2025
Norris, Northern California Book Award for Fiction: The Confession of Copeland Cane — Northern California Book Reviewers Association, 2022
Samuelson, Matakyev Research Fellowship — Center for Imagination in the Borderlands (CIB), Arizona State University, 2022
Skinnell, Smith, “First-Year Writing Program, Digital Literacy Initiative,” Adobe Systems, 2024.
Featured Faculty
Mary Elizabeth Anderson
Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Success, College of Humanities and the Arts
Teaching Artists, Theatre Arts, Teaching and Praxis
ORCID: 0000-0001-8903-0238
Wayne Silao Jopanda
Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies
Filipino Studies, Community Engaged Scholarship, Critical University Studies, Migrant
Labor, Higher Education
0009-0008-5809-849X
Shannon Miller
Dean, College of Humanities and the Arts
Community Engagement, Social Mobility, Renaissance Literature, 17th Century Women
Writers, John Milton
ORCID: 0000-0002-8035-206X
Keenan Norris
Associate Professor of Creative Writing
Creative Writing, Fiction, Place, Dystopia, Structural Disadvantage
ORCID: 0000-0001-8522-2750
Cheyla Samuelson
Associate Professor of World Languages and Literature
Spanish Contemporary Mexican Literature, Literary Translation, Environmental Humanities,
Cristina Rivera Garza
ORCID: 0000-0003-4496-5544
Ryan Skinnell
Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Rhetoric, Composition, Writing Instruction, Pedagogy, Political Rhetoric, Fascist
Rhetoric, Public Deliberation, Politics, Discourse
0000-0002-9759-724X
Nick Szydlowski
Digital Scholarship Librarian
Digital Humanities for Everyone, Intellectual Freedom and Social Justice, Minimal
Computing, Digital Preservation
ORCID: 0000-0002-6851-7490
Potential collaborators and members of the media may contact us at officeofresearch@sjsu.edu.
