For a university with an R1 research status, research is a big component of a professor’s work. Grants that allow a professor time to focus solely on research and have a respite from teaching are highly competitive. Three professors in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) received Oregon Humanities Center (OHC) Fellowships for 2026–27 to do just that. The professors — all members of the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages — include Roy Chan, Fabienne Moore and Eleanor Paynter.
The OHC Faculty Research Fellowship program identifies, fosters and promotes innovative humanities research produced by University of Oregon faculty. These fellowships are for UO tenure-track faculty only and are awarded annually on a competitive basis.
OHC fellowships offer faculty one term release, allowing them to have time free from teaching to pursue full-time research as part of a community of scholars. Faculty continue to receive their regular pay during the fellowship term.
Research in Chinese culture and law
Chan, associate professor of Chinese literature, was awarded a fellowship for spring 2027. He is writing a book about the interaction of Chinese culture and law from the 20th century to the present day.
For his research, he asks, “What are the universal norms or principles that bind us together as a society?” During the late 19th century, China entered a prolonged societal crisis and attempted to survive by creating a new set of rules for navigating the world. Chan said he became interested in the subject during the regulatory unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was fascinated by things like vaccines and masks and how we could not agree at all whether they were okay or whether it was an infringement on freedom.”
Chan said he is grateful to explore this topic: “When you're very busy with teaching and service, you don't get to spend enough time with your thoughts, and that's crucial for any kind of scholarly project. Everyone needs that quiet time to play with their ideas and to think and to feel.”
Research in Francophone literature
Moore, associate professor of French, was awarded the Ernest G. Moll fellowship for the most outstanding proposal in the field of literary studies. During fall 2026, she will also receive $1,000 in research support from the OHC.
Moore will write the third chapter of her book, "Singular Islands in French and Francophone Literature,” which focuses on the 1781 shipwreck of enslaved people who survived for 15 years on the tiny island Tromelin. Historical ignorance of this story about the real lived experience of Black islanders conflicts with dominant “island fictions” of the Robinson Crusoe type.
The idea came from her students, whose interest in her Francophone islands course encouraged her to dive deeper.
By asking, “Can islands speak?” she hopes to advance environmental consciousness.
“My biggest preoccupation at the moment is the climate crisis,” said Moore. “The mistreatment of the environment and the mistreatment of people are directly connected.”
For her, the fellowship is “a gift of time and concentration.” Moore considers the interactivity and enthusiasm of teaching critical to her research process but looks forward to the reflectivity of engaging with the OHC.
Research in migrant rights and asylum
Paynter, assistant professor of Italian, migration and global media studies, was awarded a fellowship to be used in winter 2027. She is preparing a book proposal on how differing notions of “protection” in legal, humanitarian and security terms shape debates about migrant rights, asylum and border control, and prompt new or alternative documentation practices.
One point she aims to discuss is, “Are we seeing the end of asylum? That is a question people have asked before, but I think we need to ask it in new and more urgent ways right now, as borders are being closed, and as people who have had asylum or protection status are being deported from the EU, from the US, in ways that violate people’s rights and challenge longstanding norms. These questions are pertinent right now.”
As a relatively new professor in CAS, Paynter looks forward to her fellowship. “The OHC seems like a great community to get to spend time in,” she said. "To be able to do this work and be in conversation with colleagues doing such compelling projects sounds like a really fruitful experience.”
— By Violet Ashley, College of Arts and Sciences