This year’s Humanities Research Group faculty fellow, Gregg French, will present research supported over the past year by his term as the HRG Faculty Fellow on Thursday, March 27, at 6 p.m. in the SOCA Armouries Performance Hall, 37 University Ave. East.

An assistant professor and the undergraduate advisor in the Department of History, where he teaches courses on U.S. history, American foreign relations, and race-based identity formation, Dr. French will discuss his current book project, America’s Hispanic Empire: Antecedents and Identity Formation in the U.S. Imperial Experience. The work critically examines how agents of the U.S. empire were influenced by their interactions with Spanish colonial officials and the country’s imperial legacy throughout the long 19th century, as well as how this understanding of the American past can inform the study of historical memory, myth-making, and identity formation.

French will also address his development of the HRG Student Fellowship Program and the importance of maintaining the humanities in turbulent times.

HRG director Kim Nelson says: “Gregg French’s work on identity and imperialism in the U.S. context could not be more relevant to present-day concerns, and his contributions over the past year as a leader to our cohort of six HRG student fellows have been nothing short of transformative. This promises to be an engaging evening of exciting research presented by a talented and highly acclaimed historian, teacher, and lecturer.”