Taft Professor of Public Humanities

Dr. Chandra Frank is the 2024 - 2027 Taft Professor of Public Humanities. Dr. Frank is a scholar–curator and assistant professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on feminist and queer of color movement work, possibilities of dissent, and the ways in which race and the environment work as terrains of power. She has worked closely with artists and art institutions to curate exhibitions and public activations, with archivists and activists to highlight forgotten public histories, and with gardeners and farmers to bring ecological to think about our connections to land and soil. 

She writes, “As a queer feminist scholar of color, I am particularly attentive to how we can ethically and responsibly engage with different forms of public and creative research.” During her tenure she will develop projects and partnerships related to ecologies, public memory and walking methodologies, with the goal of establishing a small public arts festival in Cincinnati. 

To learn more about Dr. Frank, please visit her research profile here: https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/frankc6

Dr. Holly McGee was the inaugural 2021-24 Taft Professor of Public Humanities. 

The Taft Professorship of Public Humanities recognizes the work of the most outstanding UC Faculty member with the greatest record of socially- and/or community-engaged humanistic inquiry, public-facing, humanistic scholarship and/or education, who is prepared to speak in accessible ways to a variety of audiences, both within and outside academia. Faculty with a strong reputation for outstanding scholarly and/or creative work in public humanities—broadly conceived—particularly those drawing on recent and ongoing projects that can be expected to continue into the future, will be most competitive. Taft faculty at all levels are encouraged to apply, including advanced assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors.

The Taft Professorship of Public Humanities is awarded for a term of three years, and annually provides $4,000 in research funding, to be used for their research, creative projects, and professional development, as well as $5,000 to their home department to support one course release. The Taft Professor of Public Humanities is expected to provide an annual lecture/event to the UC community, serve on the Taft Director’s advising committee, and participate in some Taft activities (contingent upon each individual’s areas of expertise).