A faculty member at Florida State University has been honored with a distinguished fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to assist her upcoming book endeavor.
Tarez Samra Graban, an Associate Professor of English and Honors Teaching Scholar, will utilize the fellowship to compose “Rhetorika Afrika: Finding (and Losing) Feminist Discourses in the Transnational Archive,” which advocates for examining the interactions between archival memory and authority in shaping or concealing feminist histories in various regions of Africa and globally.
“I feel privileged to be acknowledged by the NEH for this initiative, although I recognize that numerous commendable projects are being undertaken by my peers in English,” Graban remarked. “Much of our work focuses on depicting or deconstructing narratives of transformation.”
“Rhetorika Afrika” provides such deconstruction by exploring the rhetorical methodologies and dilemmas that arise in the portrayal and reception of women scholars, activists, and elected officials in specific African locales within archives, particularly as information becomes increasingly accessible.
“The NEH Fellowship will allow me to engage with a body of materials that is extensive in archives, complex in argumentation, and transnational in nature with the due consideration and vigilance it needs,” stated Graban, who also holds the position of director of the Rhetoric and Composition graduate program.
NEH fellowships promote advanced inquiries in the humanities for educators at colleges and universities as well as independent researchers and rank among the most prestigious national accolades available to faculty in the humanities at American research institutions. For her project, which shares a title with the book, Graban will receive a six-month sabbatical stipend of $30,000.
In “Rhetorika Afrika,” Graban examines how the global consumption of archival materials reinforces specific perceptions about the leadership of African women on the international landscape. This consumption is linked as much to practicality as it is to memory, as many documents illustrating the role of African women in establishing democratic governance are no longer held on the continent. In certain instances, entire collections have been relocated to — or digitized and taken over by — institutions in Europe and the United States.
“Arguably, a larger number of African nations have nominated women for key leadership positions than most other regions worldwide,” Graban observed. “Yet their histories are often poorly documented, sometimes due to a lack of control over their own narratives, or because of the absence of a stable archive. Alternatively, their documents might be under the curatorial management of nations with differing viewpoints on how best to represent those leaders’ political objectives.”
By directing attention initially towards the archives, Graban addresses the contentious nature of women as leaders across the African continent before considering the difficulties in archiving these leaders’ legacies for future historical usage.
“The long-term concern is that the more these materials are contextualized under alternate national narratives, the more challenging it becomes to identify both the material and immaterial obstacles encountered by women leaders, as well as to envision what it might signify to theorize a framework of feminist leadership in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Graban expressed. “For me, this endeavor intertwines studies of cultural heritage and memory with global rhetorical practices.”
Graban received her doctorate from Purdue University in 2006 and became part of FSU’s faculty in 2012, where she primarily teaches within the Editing, Writing, and Media undergraduate program and the Rhetoric and Composition graduate curriculum. This fellowship marks her second NEH recognition; Graban previously received a Summer Stipend award in 2024, which she utilized for travel to Ghana and South Africa to conduct archival research for “Rhetorika Afrika.”
“It’s wonderful to observe Dr. Graban’s contributions to global and feminist rhetorics receiving such a prestigious honor,” remarked Andrew Epstein, chair of the English department and Caldwell Professor of English. “This award reaffirms Dr. Graban’s prominence in her discipline, and it is yet another indication that the FSU English Department continues to generate impactful research of the highest quality.”
For additional details about the FSU Department of English and its research initiatives, please visit english.fsu.edu.
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