HASTAC Scholars

Website: https://hastac.hcommons.org

The HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory) Scholar's fellowship program is an innovative student-driven community of graduate and undergraduate students. Each year, around 100 new Scholars are accepted into a new 2-year cohort of the program. Scholars come from dozens of disciplines and have been sponsored by over 200 colleges and universities—ranging from small liberal arts colleges to large Research 1 institutions. HASTAC has been building a community of students working at the intersection of technology and the arts, humanities and sciences. As HASTAC Scholars, students write blog posts; interview leaders within the digital research and digital humanities fields; host online forums; organize events around the future of higher education; organize collaborative book reviews; present and participate in the HASTAC Conference and much more. Work at HASTAC centers around rethinking pedagogy, learning, research & academia for the digital age.

CEDISH supports students with an interest in digital humanities. Students can use the two-year period to learn more about DH, develop a specific digital project, hone their technical skills, or pursue a project that intersects with their area of research and Digital Humanities. CEDISH will work with students interested in being part of the HASTAC Scholars, finding you a stipend and a mentor from UTSA and welcomes applications from students who want to develop their own DH research, take up a project suggested on the HASTAC Scholars page, or get involved in projects and initiatives with CEDISH. Selected Scholars will be expected to meet milestones/criteria suggested by HASTAC and offer a presentation or workshop on campus about their digital research.

Learn more about our fellows

Paulina Hernández-Trejo

  • Cohort 2022-2024
  • Mentor: Dr. Sylvia Fernandez
  • Supported by COLFA English Department

Paulina Hernández-Trejo is a recent graduate from the UTSA English M.A. program (Dec. 2023) and from the Ciudad Juárez/El Paso, Texas Borderlands area. Intrigued by the legal, emotional, and social complexities of U.S. immigration and migration history as a transfronteriza, Paulina explores the intersections between Borderland multicultural/multiethnic literature with the roles (im)migration plays in U.S. history and culture. Her literary research focuses on the haunting presences that illuminate the underlying socio-historical complexities of the Borderlands in 20th and 21st-century Chicanx & Latinx literature. Through digital humanities, Paulina converges her literary research with the archival preservation of folklore within (im)migrant communities. During her time as a HASTAC scholar under Dr. Sylvia Fernandez’s mentorship, Paulina has curated datasets, text mined, prepared pedagogical materials, and digitally mapped using different software. Paulina has also presented at HASTAC Scholars’ Digital Fridays and HASTAC’s 2023 conference.

Jessica Corona

  • Cohort 2023-2025
  • Mentor: Dr. Sylvia Fernandez
  • COLFA Spanish Program

Jessica V. Corona is a master's student in Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Jessica grew up on the Ciudad Juárez/El Paso border which has influenced her role as a research assistant. She received a bachelor’s degree from Our Lady of the Lake University in 2023 where she graduated with a Ronald E. McNair Scholarship and double majored in Psychology and Spanish. Her HASTAC project is the representations of Latina women in archival material through practices, methods, and tools used in the digital humanities, forging their connections between her knowledge as a fronteriza to better understand the role that publications and news sources play in perpetuating gender-based violence.

Niloufar Esmaeili

  • Cohort 2023-2025
  • Mentor: Sylvia Fernandez
  • Supported by COLFA English Department

Niloufar is a doctoral student in the department of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research focuses on digital media activism, transnational feminism and gender violence in Iran, with a global perspective that seeks to establish connections with other feminist movements, such as those in the borderlands between the U.S. and Mexico. Through her research, she aims to shed light on the experiences of those affected by gender violence in Iran, a population that often faces systemic discrimination and oppression. Her academic work seeks to bridge the gap between academia and the broader society. She is committed to making her research accessible to non-academic audiences. By disseminating knowledge and raising awareness about issues like gender violence and feminism, she hopes to inspire action and change in the wider community.

HASTAC Statement

HASTAC Scholars offers a unique platform to connect with fellow scholars and engage in relevant research discussions. Creating blog posts in HASTAC offers a unique opportunity to raise awareness about the challenges women face as a result of gender-based violence in Iran. The process involves a multifaceted approach that combines academic research with digital activism and transnational feminism to effectively communicate the issue.