Staff Bios
Dr. Pauline Strong, Director
512-471-9056 | strong@humanitiesinstitute.utexas.edu
(Photo credit: Ann Hamilton)
Biography
Pauline Strong has taught anthropology, women's and gender studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies at The University of Texas at Austin since 1993. After receiving a bachelor's degree in philosophy at The Colorado College, she completed master's and doctoral degrees in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her research centers on historical and contemporary representations of Native Americans and American national identity in such contexts as literature, films, museums, sports arenas, and youth organizations. Strong was a Fellow of the Humanities Institute in 2001 and 2005, and became Director in 2009.
Strong is the author of American Indians and the American Imaginary: Cultural Representation Across the Centuries (2012) and Captive Selves, Captivating Others: The Politics and Poetics of Colonial American Captivity Narratives (1999). She is also co-editor (with Sergei Kan) of New Perspectives on Native North America: Cultures, Histories, Representations (2006). Her articles appear in journals and anthologies in the fields of American Studies, cultural studies, history, media studies, Native American Studies, and sports studies as well as anthropology. She is the recipient of several teaching awards, most recently the Provost's Teaching Fellowship, and directs the Difficult Dialogues program.
Dr. Phillip Barrish, Associate Director for Health & Humanities
512-471-7840 | pbarrish@austin.utexas.edu
Biography
Phillip Barrish is the Tony Hilfer Professor of American and British literature in the Department of English and Professor of Medical Education at Dell Medical School, as well as a faculty affiliate with the Department of American Studies and the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies. His current book project is titled American Literature and the Political Economy of Health Care. His previously published books include The Cambridge Introduction to American Literary Realism (2011); White Liberal Identity, Literary Pedagogy, and Classic American Realism (2005); and American Literary Realism, Critical Theory, and Intellectual Prestige, 1880-1995 (2001). Barrish oversees Health Humanities programming at the Humanities Institute and teaches Health Humanities courses to undergraduate, graduate, and medical students. He also runs workshops in Narrative Medicine.
Kathryn N North, Associate Program Coordinator
512-471-9056 | knnorth@austin.utexas.edu
Madai Montes, Health & Humanites Assistant
512-471-9056 | madai.montes@utexas.edu
Madai Montes is the Administrative Assistant for the Health & Humanities Initiative. Madai also supports the Native American & Indigenous Studies Program at UT. She received her BA in History from the College of Idaho with a focus on Latin American Studies.
Madai has an interest in building communities through storytelling and resource sharing; especially for those who have been historically disenfranchised. Before coming to Austin, Madai worked at Rosie’s Place in Boston, MA, a shelter for poor and homeless women, where she taught residents the value of using their voices to influence local policy.
Melissa Biggs, Administrative Program Coordinator
512-471-9056 | melissa.biggs@austin.utexas.edu
(Photo credit: Brian Fitzsimmons)
Melissa Biggs is a cultural anthropologist specializing in issues of representation and cultural heritage, with a focus on food and museums. From 2016-2017, she was a Fulbright Garcia-Robles Scholar located in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Her research focused on culinary tourism and traditional cooks. Previous projects include “Native American Gaming and Self-Representation,” which examined the relationships between Native casinos, museums, and cultural centers, and her dissertation, “Exhibiting Mexicanidad: The National Museum of Anthropology and Mexico City in the Mexican Imaginary.”
Prior to receiving the Fulbright, she was the Difficult Dialogues Program Coordinator (2009-2013) and later the general Program Coordinator (2013-2016) at the Humanities Institute. Melissa has taught at Colorado College, the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio, Southwestern University, and Texas State University. She has worked as an ethnographer for a number of policy-oriented projects in Texas, and served as a consultant on a community journalism project addressing the gentrification of East Austin.
Sarah Ropp, Difficult Dialogues Program Coordinator
512-471-9056 | sarah.ropp@utexas.edu
Sarah Ropp holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and is a Mellon Engaged Scholars Initiative Fellow at UT-Austin. Her work focuses on the exploitation of the child victim/survivor as a symbol of national resilience and renewal in the U.S., Argentina, and the Netherlands. Prior to coming to UT, Sarah was a teacher of high school English in public schools on the Texas/Mexico border and in rural Alaska as well as English as a Second Language in Baltimore, China, and Thailand. She earned her BA at Goucher College, where she studied Spanish, Latin American Studies, and English, and her MA in Comparative Literature at UT-Austin.
Cheney Melton, Program Assistant
806-420-1937 | meltoncheney@gmail.com
Cheney Melton is the Humanities Institute’s Program Assistant and an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a McCombs Success Scholar and a member of the Class of 2023.
Cheney is interested in joining a non-profit organization later in her career. She holds particular interest in organizations related to animal welfare and fighting childhood poverty and studies these issues and their causes in her personal time.
Esha Ali, Communications Coordinator
512-471-9056 | esha0620@utexas.edu
Esha Ali is the Communications Coordinator at the Humanities Institute and works closely with the directors and staff to increase public engagement and publicize the Institute's activities through social media and various other websites. Esha is a second-year pre-law student at the University of Texas in Austin pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a minor in Philosophy of Law.
