CUNY Humanities Alliance

Bridging Teaching and Learning through the Humanities

Graduate Center

The CUNY Graduate Center is located in the heart of Manhattan and set within the large and multi-campus City University of New York. It fosters advanced graduate education, original research and scholarship, innovative university-wide programs, and vibrant public events that draw upon and contribute to the complex communities of New York City and beyond. Through a broad range of nationally prominent doctoral programs, the Graduate School prepares students to be scholars, teachers, experts, and leaders in the academy, the arts and in the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. Committed to CUNY‘s historic mission of educating the children of the whole people, we work to provide access to graduate education for diverse groups of highly-talented students, including those who have been underrepresented in higher education.

As an institution primarily focused on supporting graduate research and granting graduate degrees, the GC cultivates a culture of scholarly critique. In coursework and dissertation research, GC doctoral students are encouraged to read with a critical eye and position their original scholarship as timely and necessary interventions into existing scholarship and academic practice. GC students are often incredibly passionate about their work, committed to its urgent importance, and dedicated to its success. While individual departments differ in this respect, as a whole, GC students in the humanities or humanistic social sciences have limited opportunities in their degree-related activities to collaborate with each other or with scholars, faculty, or staff from other disciplines: individual, single-authored scholarship is encouraged and rewarded, and collaborative projects, while celebrated, may not always be fully valued or prioritized. Despite this, many GC students are collegial and supportive of one another, rejecting the aggressive competitiveness that often characterizes graduate programs at other universities. GC students provide a tremendous service to the university, teaching as many as 150,000 undergraduates a year in graduate teaching fellowship and via adjunct appointments. As students in an expansive public university serving NYC’s working-class, BIPOC, and immigrant populations, GC students are often keenly aware of issues of social injustice within CUNY, NYC, and academic and public spheres more broadly; and of the importance of fighting to address such issues in scholarship, teaching, and beyond.

HA Team at the GC

  • Monica Varsanyi (she/her), Principal Investigator
    • Serves as liaison between project and the Mellon Foundation
    • Meets regularly with the directors to advise on both long-term planning and issues that arise
    • Interfaces with Graduate Center administration as needed
  • Luke Waltzer (he/him), Program Co-Director
    • Directs Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) at Graduate Center
    • Conceptualizes the HA program and grant as a whole
    • Offers strategic guidance to program staff on all aspects of the program
    • Pivots lessons learned from the HA into other programs at the GC
  • Adashima Oyo (she/her), Program Co-Director
    • Executive Director of Futures Initiative
    • Liaison between the HA and Futures Initiative
    • Oversees CPL program and work of Senior Research Associate
  • Luis Henao Uribe (he/him), Humanities Director
    • Based in the Teaching and Learning Center
    • Primary point of contact for graduate fellows
    • Designs and runs GC-based professional development opportunities for fellows, including weekly seminar
    • Designs and supports GC-based public programming for HA
    • Oversees relationships with campus partners
  • Christina Katopodis, Senior Research Associate
    • Based in the Futures Initiative
    • Undertakes collaborative scholastic activities with fellows, mentors, and other HA staff.
    • Mentors fellows’ research related to higher education, the HA program, and qualitative research methods.
  • Miranda Fedock (she/her), Program Coordinator
    • Conducts program’s administrative tasks, such as scheduling, budgeting, and processing financial paperwork
    • Coordinates internal communication among HA personnel and between the HA, other GC offices, and campus partners
    • Stewards documentation of program activities
  • Lauren Melendez (she/her), CUNY Peer Leaders Director and Administrative Specialist, The Futures Initiative
    • Provide administrative, budgetary and academic support to the Futures Initiative.
    • Direct and oversee 30+ undergraduate students from across 13+ CUNY campuses in a leadership and mentoring program.
    • Facilitate and develop activities, blog prompts, skill shares, and track resources that CPL students work on throughout the year.
    • Manage budget and process stipend awards that are distributed to the CPL students enrolled in the program.
    • CPL program liaison between the Futures Initiative and the Humanities Alliance.
  • Jacqueline Cahill (she/her), CUNY Peer Leaders Program Coordinator
    • Help manage budgetary and other financial aspects of CPL program
    • Coordinate internal communication between CPL, other areas of HA, and FI

Graduate Fellows

Zoe Alexander

Francine Almash

Jayson Castillo

Mehrnaz Moghaddam

Patryk Tomaszewski

Key Partner Offices

  • Futures Initiative (FI): The HA was founded out of a collaboration between FI and the Teaching and Learning Center The FI oversaw the CUNY Peer Leaders, supported the work of the Senior Research Associate, and participated in strategic oversight and partnership with the HA. FI’s executive director, Adashima Oyo, also served as co-director at HA.
  • Teaching and Learning Center (TLC): The TLC supports GC students’ development as educators in CUNY and beyond. The HA and the TLC had close ties throughout the life of HA. The HA & the TLC were both created in 2016, and have expanded and flourished in partnership with one another. The TLC’s director, Luke Waltzer, also served as co-director of the HA, and Humanities Director Luis Henao Uribe was based in the Teaching and Learning Center from 2018 to 2025. In addition to sharing staff, the HA and the TLC often drew from each other’s resources and work collaboratively on projects and programs aiming to support the pedagogical development of GC students.
  • Provost’s Office: Our first Principal Investigator, David Olan, was formerly the Associate Provost and Dean for Academic Affairs. He was also the PI for the PublicsLab, a past project also funded by the Mellon Foundation. Our second Principal Investigator, Monica Varsanyi, served as Associate Provost and Dean for Academic Affairs after David Olan retired.

Visit the Graduate Center’s website.