The David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities and the WSU Graduate School have selected four graduate students for the 2026 cohort of Publicly Engaged Fellows.
Funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities NextGen grant, the PEF program provides the skills training needed for equitable work with community partners while also developing an independent and fully funded project of engaged scholarship.
The 2026 cohort of graduate scholars, all from the College of Arts and Sciences, include: Kyley Canion Brewer, Nickolas Hurlbut, Golrokh (Rose) Maleki, and Shae Ortega.
“This new cohort of Fellows showcases the strong scholarly and creative work being led by WSU graduate students,” said Chris Dickey, outgoing director of the David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities. “These graduate students stood out in a competitive pool because of their well-defined projects and a commitment to community-engaged action.”
These graduate students stood out in a competitive pool because of their well-defined projects and a commitment to community-engaged action.
Chris Dickey, outgoing director
David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities
Washington State University
Kyley Canion Brewer will document the historically significant Black-owned businesses and community sites of East Pasco, WA, by conducting oral history interviews and creating a digitized ArcGIS map exhibit for the Eastern Washington Institute for Black History and Culture.
Nickolas Hurlbut will lead community workshops on cyanotype photography, helping participants create self-portrait artworks as an exploration of gender identity. The project will incorporate viewings at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU and will culminate in a public exhibition of participant’s artworks.
Golrokh (Rose) Maleki will develop a multilingual family literacy program featuring global myths and folktales which will be shared by guest storytellers from multilingual families. The project will encourage families to donate children’s books in their home languages to expand culturally inclusive library programming.
Shae Ortega will work to convert underutilized landscaping at Yakama Village into a pesticide-free Native Food Forest. Through working with Indigenous nations and campus units, the project aims to replace non-native ornamental plants with culturally significant native species and provide a model for advancing Indigenous food sovereignty and land rematriation.
Visit the PEF website to learn more about previous cohorts.
