Seven New Fellows Expand Our Understanding of Virginia

Charlottesville—Virginia Humanities, the state humanities council, has awarded seven HBCU Scholars Fellowships for 2025-2026. The fellows are all affiliated with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in Virginia and North Carolina.

"Through their research and public engagement, our fellows demonstrate the enduring relevance of the humanities and collectively confront some of the most pressing social and cultural questions of our time," said Yosef Medina, Virginia Humanities' director of strategic initiatives. "The HBCU fellowship represents a vital investment in cultivating diverse scholarship and amplifying underrepresented narratives at a time when intellectual freedom and public discourse around inclusion are increasingly contested."

Established in 2021, Virginia Humanities’ HBCU Scholars Fellowship Program has helped writers, community scholars, alumni, faculty members, and doctoral candidates of HBCUs by providing financial support for their research, access to publishing outlets, public promotion, and professional community/peer support. 

Kemba Smith-Pradia says the fellowship will help her connect her to a community of people that can expand her work. "As a self-published author, this fellowship will personally help me reconnect with my voice as a writer and scholar by providing the support, visibility, and intellectual community I need," Smith-Pradia said. "It will allow me to transform over 25 years of lived experience as a criminal justice advocate into work that connects history, research, policy, and politics while bridging the power of storytelling, justice, and social impact."

The fellowships are made possible thanks to awards from the Mellon Foundation ($850k) and Google ($150k) that were announced earlier this year. Applications for the HBCU Scholars Fellowships will open in December 2025.

To learn more about Virginia Humanities’ fellowship programs, visit VirginiaHumanities.org/fellowships. 

HBCU Scholars Fellows
Margaret Cox
Hampton University
Project: Owning the Narrative—Decolonizing the Canon through Adaptation

Stephenie Howard
Norfolk State University
Project: Tracing African Diasporic Symbolism—A Curated Study of Cultural Continuities

Cheryl Mango
Virginia State University
Project: A Great American Story U.S. Presidents and HBCUs from Jimmy Carter to Joe Biden

Michelle Oliver
Virginia State University
Project: Profiting from the Oppressed—Life Insurance, Railroads, and Coal Mines in Antebellum Virginia

Kemba Smith Pradia
Virginia Union University
Project: Virginia's Prodigal Daughter 

Monika Rhue
Johnson C. Smith University 
Project: The Great Debate—Giving Archives Back to the Community 

Hannah Saltmarsh
Hampton Unversity
Project: ​Completion of Book Chapter, “‘Poetry is Not a Luxury’" 

Virginia Humanities is the state humanities council. We aim to tell the stories of all Virginians—or, better yet, find ways for people to tell their own stories. We want Virginians to connect with their history and culture and, in doing that, we hope we will all get to know each other a little better. Virginia Humanities is headquartered in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia, but our work covers the Commonwealth. Founded in 1974, we are one of fifty-six humanities councils created by Congress with money and support from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make the humanities available to all Americans. To learn more visit VirginiaHumanities.org.