Current Projects

Mellon Grant Award: "Re-Storying the West for a Transformative Future: We Are Wyoming"

Primary Investigator, $850,000 over three years

This grant will fund a state-wide storywork project extending out to at least 20 Wyoming communities. A team of faculty and graduate students will adapt a range of oral history/public humanities methods for the purposes of supporting everyday citizens in telling about their own lived experiences in the state.  Initial press release is available here. Official project website is here.

Year 2 Highlights to date (Sept 1, 2025-Aug 31, 2026):

• Website launched September 1: 89 stories published

• Podcast launched September 1: 5 episodes published

• 2 tenure-line professors onboarded (N. Nomura, R. Jackson)

• 1 new PhD research assistant onboarded (J. Ryan)

• Public Humanities Engagement Lab opened

• $17,000 in UW faculty sub-awards distributed

• Robust two-part programming underway:

  • Keywords in Public Humanities panels (primarily internal)

  • Public engaged discussion over contemporary issues (external partnerships)

• Featured on Wyoming Public Radio’s Open Spaces (Nov 2025)

• Shoutout by Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander (Jan 30, 2026)

• Featured post on Mellon’s social media (Feb 2026)

Year 1 Highlights (Sept 1, 2024-Aug 31, 2025):

• Almost 4,000 hours of labor time committed (1,100 of my own)

• 3 PhD graduate assistants onboarded (2,000 labor hours)

• 4 summer graduate internships awarded (800 labor hours)

• 2 tenure-line professors hired, starting fall 2025

• $25,500 distributed in faculty sub-awards, community partnerships

• Mobile story-gathering lab and public activities developed

• 2,500 miles traveled

• 12 public story-gathering events via community partnerships:

Shepard Symposium          Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum

Laramie Plains Civic Center   Crimson Dawn Festival at Casper Mountain

Lincoln Community Center   Sunshine Coffee in Saratoga

Rock River School               Wyoming Wool and Sheep Growers Festival

• 5 community/university professional development events hosted

• State-wide news coverage: Elevations, Wyoming Chronicle (PBS), news coverage (Cheyenne TV, Sheridan press)

• Scholarly production

  • UW Humanities Summit, Fall 2024—panel discussion

  • Shepard Symposium, Fall 2024—presentation

  • Research Methods for Public Humanities, Spring 2025—scholarly edited collection

• Over 95% of Year 1 budget ($171,000) successfully spent, reconciled

Manuscripts in Process

Single Author/Single Editor

• Small, N. Estelle Reel  [working title]: Monograph using a braided methodology and deep archival research to consider an early proto-feminist’s accomplishments and implications at the state and national levels. Book-length project intended for Series in Rhetorics and Feminisms, Parlor Press. Current draft is ~66,000 words

• Small, N. Pantaloonatics of Wyoming: Rhetoric and Public Memory [working title]: Monograph blending memory, storytelling, interviews with contemporary women, and rhetorical analysis of women’s suffrage symbolism. Book-length project intended for Utah State University Press. Current draft is ~28,000 words

• Small, N. (Ed.). Research Methods for Public Humanities. Manuscript complete. Under review at CSU Press/WAC Clearinghouse.

More on my in-process monographs is available via this link.

Collaborative

N.B. All collaborative project authors are listed in alphabetical order. Contributions are equal.

• Kinney, K. & Small, N. Steering the ship: When an academic department goes public humanities. In K. Ritter (Ed.), Rhetoric and/as Academic Leadership. Draft due June 1, 2026.

• Fishman, J., LaFrance, M., Rickly, R., & Small, N. Story Method: Choose Your Own Adventure [working title]. In process. Book-length, co-authored. Currently ~53,000 words drafted.

• Abuwarda, A., Newlin, L., Small, N., Spring, M., & Youngman, L. Micropraxis in and beyond the classroom [working title]. Article under development. Currently seeking IRB approval.