From the vaccination rollout to the constitutionality of the former president's impeachment trial, DePaul faculty in the 2020-21 OpEd Project cohort are making themselves heard. So far, the current cohort has placed more than 30 op-ed articles with national news outlets, including “The Washington Post" and “Scientific American."
“The OpEd Project is an exciting professional development opportunity for faculty who want to share their research and expertise with the broader public," says Carolyn Bronstein, associate dean and Vincent de Paul professor in the College of Communication and founding director of DePaul's OpEd Project. “This fellowship teaches participants to apply their knowledge to the most pressing issues of our times, from climate change to immigration, racism, homelessness, voting rights and addiction."
Launched in 2012-13, the Public Voices Fellowship program aims to provide a diverse group of scholars with the resources, support and skills needed to increase their influence as thought leaders in their fields. As fellows, faculty receive dedicated editorial support from an OpEd Project mentor, collaborate with fellow cohort members to brainstorm ideas and attend multiple seminars.
“The OpEd project is an amazing opportunity for faculty to learn how to engage in public dialogues on important topics," says Craig Klugman, professor health sciences and faculty director of the OpEd Project. “As a former fellow, the project gave me tools to be a successful public writer on issues such as racism in medicine, vaccine distribution and pandemic response. Seeing our new fellows fulfill their promise makes me proud and honored to be part of the DePaul OpEd family."
Despite this year's program taking place completely virtually due to COVID-19, the 2020-21 cohort is demonstrating plenty of momentum.
“The role of faculty in higher education is increasingly shifting toward a more public model, with public intellectualism comprising an important and lasting aspect of one's professional trajectory," Bronstein says. “I'm proud that we recognized this trend early on at DePaul and have made the OpEd Project fellowship program available to five cohorts since 2012-13."
A list of the 2020-21 cohort's published works is available on the College of Communication website. Keep an eye on Newsline's DePaul in the News section for the latest published pieces. The Public Voices Fellowship is sponsored by
Academic Affairs and the College of Communication’s Center for Communication
Engagement.
Get to know the 2020-21 cohort via the interactive gallery below:
Susana Martínez, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Read more Susana S. Martínez is an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages, where teaches Spanish, and Latin American and Latinx Literature. She also is the director of DePaul's Peace, Justice and Conflict Program Studies program. She studied at the University of California - Los Angeles and Yale University. Her research focuses on the representation of violence and lived experiences in Central American and Mexican literature and popular culture.
Martínez is working on a book on the depiction of child migration from Central America and Mexico to the U.S. in young adult literature. She has published articles on the Paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos, travel narratives to Guatemala, the ethnographic memoir by Cuban American writer Ruth Behar, reality television and crime novels.
She has written three book chapters on young adult literature that focus on political violence and resisting injustice. Her book review, "Documenting Limbo: Undocumented Life Narratives" in Latino Studies highlights the contributions of two monographs to larger debates on immigration. Her chapter "Learning about Archbishop Oscar Romero in the Special Collections Archives" has been accepted for publication in the anthology Teaching Central American Literature in a Global Context.