MACON – Mercer University junior Cam Wade was recently selected for the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute at the New York Public Library.
The prestigious, highly competitive program was created by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to encourage minority students and others with an interest in African-American, African and African Diasporan Studies to pursue Ph.D.s in the humanities. Because of COVID-19, this year’s institute, from June 2-July 2, will be held entirely online.
The program will provide Wade with a venue to explore issues broadly within the field of Black/Africana Studies and to work with leading names in the field. He plans to use the opportunity to research the intersections among race, queerness, digital culture and video games.
“This is a highly prestigious award, and Cam truly deserves it for his dedication to learning as much as possible about the history and present of Black Studies as a field and mode of inquiry,” said Dr. Cameron Kunzelman, coordinator of fellowships and scholarships at Mercer. “This award also demonstrates that the range and depth of what we teach in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is providing our students with useful frameworks so that they are able to engage with difficult, and necessary, political and ethical questions.”
Wade, from Savannah, is an English and women’s and gender studies double-major with a minor in religion. Upon earning his bachelor’s degree from Mercer, he plans to pursue a graduate degree in media studies.
“I am very excited for the opportunity to participate in this fellowship over the summer,” said Wade. “Black Studies and critical game studies are two disciplines that mean a lot to me. I am absolutely ecstatic at the opportunity to place them into conversation with one another and be able to foster these deep, meaningful conversations with fellow Black scholars interested in similar types of academic pursuits as I am.”
Wade is a two-time national champion debater, having won the James ‘Al’ Johnson Top Speaker Award in 2021 and the Dan Henning Award Top Novice Speaker Award in 2020 while representing Mercer at the National Parliamentary Debate Association championship. He has also won the prestigious Mile High Swing debate tournament.
He serves on Mercer’s Interfraternity Council as director of diversity and inclusion and is a senator-at-large for Student Government Association and new member educator for Sigma Nu fraternity.
About the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Mercer University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences serves as the academic cornerstone of one of America’s oldest and most distinctive institutions of higher learning. The oldest and largest of Mercer’s 12 schools and colleges, it is a diverse and vibrant community, enrolling more than 1,900 students, dedicated to learning and service through the practice of intellectual curiosity, respectful dialogue and responsible citizenry. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers majors in more than 30 areas of study, including more than a dozen pre-professional academic tracks, with classes taught by an outstanding faculty of scholars. In 2015, Mercer was awarded a chapter of The Phi Beta Kappa Society, the nation’s most prestigious academic honor society that recognizes exceptional achievement in the arts and sciences. For more information, visit liberalarts.mercer.edu.
