The Institute for the Humanities supports cutting-edge research in the humanities in three ways. The Institute for Humanities Faculty Fellowship supports faculty members engaging in research in the humanities by providing a course release, discretionary funds, and a community of fellow humanists for engagement and support. Each year, the Institute awards a prize for the best undergraduate humanities project from the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

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Undergraduate
Research Prize

The Undergraduate Research Prize is awarded each year to an outstanding undergraduate research project presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. The prize winner has their work featured on the Institute website and social media.

Undergraduate Research Prize Winners

Current Winner

Past Winners

  • Karter Wilbert

    No tener límites: La monstruosidad de Susy Shock

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Graduate
Summer Support Program

Three graduate students will receive $1000, provided through the CAS and the home departments (CAS will provide $500, and the home department will provide $500), over the summer to support their research, internships, or other degree-related projects. The winning graduate students also will be able to display elements of their work on the Institute for the Humanities website. Both master's degree and Ph.D. students are eligible to apply, so long as their work is in the humanities or humanities-related. The application process and application portal can be found here: https://webapps.its.msstate.edu/cas/rfp/ihss/ and the Institute is ready to accept applications through the portal. The submission deadline to receive support for Summer 2025 is April 25, 2025. An interdisciplinary committee will decide who will receive support, so graduate students must be able to articulate their research and projects in accessible language. Students in the hard sciences are eligible to apply, so long as they can explain how their project is explicitly related to the humanities.

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Graduate Summer Support Program Scholars

Current Scholars

Past Scholars

2024

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Faculty
Fellowship

Humanities Fellowship

The Institute for the Humanities is now accepting applications for its Spring 2026 Institute for the Humanities Fellowship. The Fellowship comprises of one course release for Spring 2026 and $1000.00 in discretionary funds. Any faculty member working on a humanities-related project may apply, but priority will be given to professors at the Associate rank who are in the process of completing an on-going project. Applications are due August 27, 2025. You can access the full RFP and begin the application process here: https://w.msstate.edu/cas/rfp/ihfp/. For questions, please email Morgan Robinson at humanities@msstate.edu.

IH Fellows

Current Fellows

  • Dr. Courtney Thompson

    Dr. Courtney Thompson

    • Department of History
    • “A Calculus of Compassion: Medicine, Emotion, and Identity in Nineteenth-Century America”
  • Dr. Eric Vivier

    Dr. Eric Vivier

    • Department of English
    • “The Trouble with Elizabethan Satire”
  • Dr. Brian Davisson

    Dr. Brian Davisson

    • Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
    • "The Spatial Construction of Nineteenth-Century Central America"

Past Fellows

2024

  • Jim Giesen

    • Department of History
    • The Land of Cotton: Culture and Environment in the American South

  • Peter Messer

    • Department of History
    • Dictated by Nature: Science, Theology, and Politics in Early American Natural History

  • Bonnie O'Neill

    • Department of English
    • The Good News from Plymouth Church: The Faith, Politics, and Celebrity of Henry Ward Beecher

2023

  • Anne Marshall

    • Department of History
    • executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association and Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library

  • Sol Pelaez

    • Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures

  • Ted Atkinson

    • Department of English

2022

  • Pete Smith

    • Associate Professor of Communication in Mississippi State University's Department of Communication

  • Dr. Alix Hui

    • Associate Professor in Mississippi State University's Department of History
    • Co-Editor, Isis, the journal of the History of Science Society