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:
Monica Reyes, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Read more Monica Reyes is an assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Texas - Brownsville, and her Ph.D. in English studies from Old Dominion University.
Living along the southern border allowed her to volunteer for many years with people seeking asylum at a local shelter. This experience opened up research opportunities and taught her about systemic inequalities in asylum policy, especially prevalent in the demand for narratives within asylum applications. Her scholarship led to an ongoing initiative for writing teachers to help people seeking asylum with the written portion of their asylum claim. While completing her Ph.D., she taught at The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, located on the national border where the majority of asylum claims are made. Teaching on the border allowed her to design service-learning courses that culminated in students creating promotional materials for local agencies that work with displaced populations.
Her teaching was recognized in 2019-20 with the highly selective University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Her scholarship has featured most recently in Postcolonial Text (2019), Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing and Culture (2020) and is forthcoming in the edited collection Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics in Localized Contexts (2021).