OpEd Alumni Project Amplifies Mission of Changing Who Writes History -
The OpEd Alumni Project 2023 is a spin-off of the Public Voices Fellowship program at the University of Illinois System.
The fellowship is sponsored by The OpEd Project, a national program that strives “… to dramatically increase the public impact of our nation's top underrepresented thinkers and to ensure our ideas help shape the important conversations of our age."
The system selects 20 tenured faculty members each year for the fellowship, dramatically increasing the voices of professors from U of I System universities in news outlets nationwide.
The OpEd Alumni Project adds to the impact of the fellowship program by uniting a small group of program alumni to form a community of writers. OpEd Alumni articles appeared in Inside Higher Ed, Ms. Magazine, The Times Higher Education, Visible Magazine, The Public Seminar and The News-Gazette.
The most recent cohort of fellows participated in workshops and weekly writing/sharing sessions to brainstorm ideas, share feedback and seek publications. These fellows came from fields as diverse as dance, sociology, law, communications, health, humanities, disability studies, literacy education, Latino/a studies, history and comparative literature, and religion.
Their writing and thinking expanded richly in the dynamic discussions that evolved from the confluence of their perspectives.
"The OpEd Project’s mission is to '… change who writes history.' These groups do just that with every article published," said Jan Erkert, OpEd Alumni Project director and professor emerita in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "We offer appreciations to former system Vice President Barbara Wilson and Senior Assistant Vice President Sarah Gantz for their vision and support for this program."
Article credit: System Offices Spring Update
