Public Humanities Alumni Spotlight: Sreddy Yen
This series features interviews with alumni of the Kaplan Institute's Public Humanities Practicum. Learn more about their ongoing projects, community partners, and sources of inspiration!
Yuan-Chih (Sreddy) Yen is a PhD candidate in the Department of English committed to contemporary African literatures and photography.
What was your public humanities project? Did it extend beyond the practicum year, and if so, what is its current status?
I interviewed three writers for a series of Instagram Live conversations, "Race from Africa." My project was funded for a second year, and for this series, "Photos from Africa", I was in conversation with three photographers/photo critics.
How did you get interested in this topic?
For the first series, I was interested in not only engaging African writers working in various genres on how they think through race and racialisation in their creative work, but also in continuing to foster space for dialogue in the African and diasporic Bookstagram communities. As my academic research has turned to photography, I was interested in engaging photographers' practice.
Did you collaborate with any community partners during this project? If so, how did you build and maintain this relationship?
For the second series, I connected with Nairobi Print Project, an online platform "dedicated to open-access scholarship and conversation on art and curatorial practice in Africa and the Black diaspora," who will be publishing the edited transcriptions of "Photos from Africa" in a special issue this summer.
What was a rewarding event, experience, or connection that you built through this project?
The relationships that I've built with the writers and photographers I interviewed have been extremely meaningful, and I've been able to continue some of these collaborations in a new project (as yet unconfirmed, so I can't say more – sorry!)
Is there a public humanities project that particularly inspires you?
Emmanuel Iduma's Tender Photo Substack is deeply inspirational for how one might go about showcasing emerging photographers' work.
Keep up with Sreddy’s work on Instagram at @sreddyen!