Brice Nordquist, A&S Dean’s Professor of Community Engagement, Associate Professor of Writing & Rhetoric

Brice is a community-engaged writing and rhetoric researcher and teacher. He works through participatory research and humanities- and arts-based programming to study and support students’ movements across contexts of learning and stages of education. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Narratio Fellowship, a storytelling program for resettled refugee youth, and the founder and director of the College of Arts & Sciences’ Engaged Humanities Network.

Lauren Cooper, Engaged Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow

Lauren Cooper (she/her) received her PhD in English from Syracuse University in May 2024. She is currently working on a book project, Climate Justice Before the Anthropocene: How Inclement Weather Shaped British and Irish Romanticism, which uses climate history to trace emergent conceptions of environmental justice in canonical and lesser-known works of British and Irish Romantic literature. Her research examines colonialism and the slave trade, class, gender, landscape aesthetics, changing conceptions of wastelands and wildernesses, and crucially, early discourses of environmental justice. She serves as a Community Program Director for Write Out programming at Girls Inc. and a collaborator with Environmental Storytelling Central New York.

Miryam Nacimento, Engaged Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow

Miryam Nacimento's doctoral dissertation, "Coca Mestiza: Small Farmers, Multiculturalism, and the War on Drugs in Colombia," provides the basis for her first book project, exploring the political struggles of impoverished small farmers who cultivate illicit coca in Colombia. Specifically, Nacimento follows these farmers as they advance their demands for cultural recognition, resist state criminalization, and attempt to survive the Colombian agrarian crisis. Nacimento’s future research will continue exploring illicit agrarian economies by focusing on how the expansion of illicit coca affects the Ticuna people, an Indigenous group living in the Peruvian Amazon. She aims to shed light upon the different experiences of dispossession the Ticuna must endure as international organized crime spreads into the Amazonian Forest, threatening Ticunas’ ancestral lands and territories.

Lizmarie Montemayor, Engaged Humanities SOURCE Undergraduate Research Assistant

Lizmarie is a junior pursuing a major in Anthropology. Her research and areas of interest include cross-cultural awareness and understanding, applied anthropology, and community engagement. She has worked as an undergrad research assistant on community engagement since her Freshman year, and continues to work on community-based centers, such as La Casita Cultural Center in Syracuse. Lizmarie’s current work involves growing community relationships, measuring impact, and strategic planning with La Casita.

Maggie Sardino, Engaged Humanities Undergraduate Research Assistant

Maggie is a senior at Syracuse University studying Writing & Rhetoric, Citizenship & Civic Engagement and public communications. She is invested in promoting more sustainable and inclusive town-gown relationships as well as innovative methods of storytelling. In addition to being an Engaged Humanities research assistant, she is a dialogue consultant for InterFaith Works of CNY and member of the civic and global responsibility community of practice..

Aidaruss Shirwa, Engaged Humanities SOURCE Undergraduate Research Assistant

Aidaruus is a senior in Policy Studies and Economics. He is committed to helping community members collaborate to improve systemic conditions. He has worked with We Rise Above the Streets, in aiding people with a lack of access to economic resources. He is also a part of the research collaborative Northside Futures, which aims to transform Syracuse’s Northside into a community-owned, operated, and accessible area. Stationed in the Northside Learning Center, he works with community members to develop solutions on how neighborhoods can be equitable.

Sophia Stokoe, Engaged Humanities SOURCE Undergraduate Research Assistant

Sophia is a junior majoring in English as well as in Communications and Rhetorical Studies. As a research assistant working with Write Out, Sophia develops and reviews lessons and collects and analyzes program data. She helps facilitate sessions to provide outlets and opportunities for the creative expression and well-being of Syracuse youth. She has volunteered with Girls Inc. and with Betts Branch Library in the past. Along with Write Out, she is also working as a Research Assistant with SU professor and discourse analyst Dr. Sylvia Sierra.

Justo Antonio Triana, Engaged Humanities SOURCE Undergraduate Research Assistant

Justo is a sophomore majoring in Classical Civilization. He is a poet, and a passionate advocate for free speech on and off campus. He has published articles on the dangers of political extremism and destructive ideological tendencies. As a former Narratio Fellow and current Narratio Facilitator, he has provided support and feedback on the fellows' creative projects and exhibitions. He strongly believes in the importance of mentoring as a way to help the young become the best version of themselves, and this is why he is currently developing a mentoring program for Narratio alumni.