Checking in with Public History PhD Student, Melody Hunter-Pillion

We may be in the middle of a pandemic, but that hasn’t prevented Public History PhD student Melody Hunter-Pillion from achieving her goals. In addition to preparing for comprehensive exams with the guidance of her dissertation chair Dr. Blair L.M. Kelley, Melody has been busy serving as Chair for the National Council on Public History (NCPH) Excellence in Consulting Award Committee. Melody, doctoral candidate Amanda Finn, and Professor of History Tammy Gordon will be presenting a virtual experiential session on public history and rhetorics of engagement during the 2022 Annual NCPH Meeting. In February, look for the essay Melody penned on climate change and oral histories for NCPH’s History@Work blog as the final installment for the “Our Climate Emergency”series.

 

As a Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (SE CASC) 2021-22 Global Change Fellow, Melody continues her oral history field research this semester in eastern North Carolina and attends lectures organized by Aranzazu Lascurain director of the fellowship program. The Global Change Fellows hosted a symposium with special guest EPA Administrator Michael Regan. Doctoral student and avian ecologist Lauren Pharr and Melody moderated the panel discussion. Melody is also serving as a contract panel writer/editor for the Africa to Carolina project with the NC African American Heritage Commission and exhibit curator and public historian Amber Pelham. This is Melody’s third project using her public history scholarship to craft copy and videos for NCAAHC in addition to a series of African American history videos for the North Carolina Museum of History.

 

We invite you to watch Melody on local public television beginning in February 2022. She is a contract correspondent for Season 4 of PBS North Carolina’s ncIMPACT, hosted by Anita Brown-Graham, the UNC-Chapel Hill Gladys Hall Coates Distinguished Professor of Public Law & Government and Director of ncIMPACT Initiative.

 

ncIMPACT Season 4 Episodes

Farmer Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
Friday, February 4 at 7:30pm 

COVID-19 Learning Loss 
Friday, February 11 at 7:30pm

Law Enforcement Shortage 
Friday, February 18 at 7:30pm 

School Safety 
Friday, February 25 at 7:30pm 

Maternal Health Disparities 
Friday, March 4 at 7:30pm

Aging in Place 
Friday, March 11 at 7:30pm

Childhood Trauma and COVID-19
Friday, March 18 at 7:30pm 

Attracting Big Business
Friday, March 25 at 7:30pm

Housing Boom 
Friday, April 1 at 7:30pm

Rural Response to the Opioid Crisis 
Friday, April 8 at 7:30pm   

Veterans Closing the Skills Gap
Friday, April 15 at 7:30pm

Working for a Living Wage 
Friday, April 22 at 7:30pm

Resilient Agriculture
Friday, April 29 at 7:30pm