Summer Practicum

Now accepting applications, due April 14!
This year's topic is Rural Environments in Public Practice.

Every summer, Rural Humanities offers a 6-week practicum seminar in Public Rural Humanities with a focal theme and a discussion of methods for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. 

The Rural Humanities Summer practicum seeks to bring qualitative humanities research methods to projects focusing on and/or collaborating with our rural neighbors in Central and Western New York. Examples of public-facing humanities projects and/or products that we invite for consideration include:

• community-based blogging, digital storytelling, comics;
• presentations, exhibitions, demonstrations;
• videos, documentaries, vlogs;
• community-coordinated case studies, teaching materials, pamphlets.

The Rural Humanities Summer Practicum guides and supports graduate students and advanced undergraduates in deepening locally-based public and engaged humanities projects that they have begun or are adequately prepared to undertake during this intensive 6-week program.

Participants in the Summer Practicum will each be awarded a grant of up to $8,000 to support their participation in the practicum and development of their projects. Up to $6,000 of this grant is designated for participant living expenses. Accepted participants should not accept other summer funding to support their living expenses. Up to $2,000 of this grant is available to support participant project expenses. Project budgets will be developed in collaboration with Summer Practicum instructors.

Topic for Summer 2023: Rural Environments in Public Practice
Application Deadline: Friday, April 14
Program Dates: June 1-July 6, Thursdays 10am-noon
Instructor: Anindita Banerjee, associate professor of Comparative Literature

Moving beyond rural environments as objects of study and fields of research in academic settings, this 6-week summer practicum will rely on ethical engagement with places, people, and practices that seek to transform Ithaca and its broader environs towards livable, equitable futures. Public-facing, site-based, and co-produced with community partners, student projects resulting from the practicum will highlight new ways of seeing, being, living, and acting with both human and non-human ecologies that connect Cornell with our place and our planet. 

The practicum meets as a group once a week on Thursdays, which includes guest and site visits. Transportation and food will be provided for excursions. The first class will meet at A.D. White House on Thursday, June 1, from 10 AM-12:00 PM.
 

Applications for the Summer 2023 Practicum are open. Current Cornell students who are not graduating in Spring 2023 are eligible to apply. Please submit the following materials to rural-hum@cornell.edu by the deadline of April 14.

1. Cover page, including the applicant's name, NetID, degree program and field of study, and proposed project title
2. A two-page project description that should detail how you plan to engage with the topic of "Rural Environments in Public Practice," including:
   • the project's goals and the preparatory work and planning that have already gone into the project
   • a description of anticipated deliverables by the end of the Practicum
   • a timeline for the project
3. If already working with a particular community partner, a letter of support from them (only if applicable)
4. A faculty letter of recommendation is required and should be sent under separate cover by the faculty member directly to rural-hum@cornell.edu.

Questions may be directed to rural-hum@cornell.edu.