Addiction treatment to be subject of Virginia Humanities fellowship

A loss of federal funding has not stopped Virginia Humanities from pursuing their mission of telling stories about how people in the Commonwealth live, work, and overcome obstacles.

This week the state humanities council has awarded three new individual fellowships according to an information release.

“Our fellows bring to light untold stories and fresh perspectives on what it means to be a Virginian,” said Adam Courville, director of grants and fellowships at Virginia Humanities. “Their work is essential to building engaged communities across the commonwealth that seek to understand one another.”

One of the fellows is funded in part through the UVA Center for Health Humanities and Ethics and the recipient is ethan evans. This Health Humanities Fellowship project has the title “Our Own Narrative-Addiction & Reclaiming the Clinical Encounter.”

“Centered in Charlottesville, Virginia, the project consists of a series of creative writing workshops for individuals who have experienced addiction, with optional publication in a community zine and opportunities to participate in public readings— including one oriented toward medical students and healthcare providers,” reads a description sent by Virginia Humanities.

“Rather than advancing a single recovery model, the project offers an open, non-hierarchical space where
participants can explore personal narrative through poetry, essay, and hybrid forms,” the description continues. “It aims to amplify voices that are often silenced or misrepresented in clinical settings—particularly those navigating coexisting diagnoses like chronic illness or disability.

The other two projects are:

• The Rose Schewel Fellow goes to Morgan Avery McCoy Harris for a project called “Bricks Without Straw: Virginia’s Finest – Women of History Who Made It Despite the Odds”
• The Public Humanities Fellow goes to Lincoln Lewis for a project called “We want to tell our story our way,” Tangier History Museum Conversations

Earlier this year, Virginia Humanities announced the loss of $1.7 million in federal grants that had already been made. The organization has since vacated its offices in Dairy Central and made other cuts.

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