UNC Pembroke professor Michele Fazio has been selected to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute for College and University Teachers: The New Deal Era's Federal Writers' Project History, Politics and Legacy.

The four-week program will be held July 11 through August 6 and will be hosted at Long Island University-Brooklyn. The institute will focus on the Federal Writers' Project, part of the New Deal Works Project Administration during the Great Depression. Participants will explore the project's history, accomplishments and literary legacy as our country's first government-sponsored public history program, particularly concerning its mission to document underrepresented stories about everyday American life and its impact on African American literature.

Dr. Fazio has been a member of the English department for the past 11 years and is the 2020-2021 Faculty-in-Residence of the Esther G. Maynor Honors College. She also serves as co-coordinator of the Gender Studies Minor.

She is the 2020 recipient of the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.