Humanities Institute at Stony Brook Leadership

 

Michael Rubenstein Director

Michael Rubenstein is Professor in English Department specializing in post-1945 Anglophone literature and culture; Irish Modernism; James Joyce; Film; and the Environmental Humanities. His most recent book is Pipeline Noir: Seeing Oil through Chinatown (University of Minnesota Press, 2025). His other books include Modernism and Its Environments (London Bloomsbury, 2020), co-authored with Justin Neuman and  Public Works: Infrastructure, Irish Modernism, and the Postcolonial (Notre Dame: 2010), which received the Modernist Studies Association Prize for Best Book of 2010 and the American Conference for Irish Studies Robert Rhodes Prize for a Book on Literature. He is co-editor, with Sophia Beal and Bruce Robbins, of a special issue of Modern Fiction Studies on "Infrastructuralism" (2015). His current project, Life Support: Fictions of Energy and Environment, examines the figure of the pipeline (aqueducts, transmission lines, and oil pipelines) in a selection of postwar Anglophone film and fiction. He teaches classes in “British Cinema,” “The New Hollywood,” “Irish Modernism,” “Empire and Global English,” and “Energy Humanities.”

Erika Supria Honisch Associate Director

Erika Supria Honisch (PhD, University of Chicago) is Associate Professor of Critical Music Studies in the Music Department and Affiliate Faculty in the History Department. Specializing in co-existence and conflict in the early modern world, she uses music and sound to provide new answers to longstanding historical and historiographical questions. Her articles appear in Journal of Musicology,  Common Knowledge, Music & Letters,  and Austrian History Yearbook, among others, and she sits on the editorial boards of the Yale Journal of Music and Religion and the Journal of the American Musicological Society. A champion of inclusivity in the academy, her work is informed by her South Asian and German roots. In 2022, she received the Stony Brook CAS Godfrey Award for Excellence in Teaching.  

 Adrienne Unger Program Coordinator

Adrienne Unger received her BA in English/Creative Writing and Literature from Long Island University-Southampton Campus, and her MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. Previously, she was the Administrative Coordinator at the Creative Writing and Literature program at Stony Brook Southampton. Her work for other organizations includes stints at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Foundation of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, the Kennedy-Krieger Institute and the Baltimore Museum of Art. She was a Washington, DC staff reporter for Crain Communications Inc.’s Business Insurance Magazine and was a freelance writer for various publications including Jubilee, Black Engineers and NSBE Magazine. Adrienne’s poetry, essays and reviews have been published in several literary journals including The Southampton Review, Chautauqua, Mystery Tribune, Harvard Review Online,  FLARE: The Flagler Review, Oberon,  Alehouse, Linden Avenue Journal, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Passager,  The Scene and Heard and Door Is A Jar Literary Magazine.

Hannah Waterman Graduate Assistant

Hannah Waterman is a Ph.D candidate in Critical Music Studies at Stony Brook University. Her dissertation, “Imaginary Sound Worlds in Early Modern Scientific Thought,” examines how sonic imagination shaped scientific inquiry in the seventeenth century, tracing intersections between music, natural philosophy, and emerging theories of perception. Her research draws on archival sources, the history of science, and historical sound studies to illuminate the role of auditory speculation in early modern epistemologies. Outside of her academic work, she is an active performer on the Baroque cello. 

Jesus-Jimenez-Valdes IDEA Grad

Jesus Jimenez Valdes is a Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University, specializing in eighteenth-century Spanish-American travel writing. In his dissertation, he is examining the tensions between scientific observation and imperial politics in Enlightenment scientific expeditions. He has presented his research at conferences including LASA, NeMLa, and IILI. His research has been supported by competitive fellowships including the IDEA Grad fellowship, which enabled his collaboration with the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook, the Guiliano Fellowship for international archival research, and LACS research grants. He co-edited a special issue on printed news in the Hispanic Monarchy (2021) and organized a three-part lecture series featuring leading scholars Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra and Mariselle Meléndez in 2023.

Henna Jeong HISB Intern Fall 2025

Henna Jeong is a sophomore majoring in Sociology and Economics. She is fascinated by how people, cultures, and institutions continuously shape one another, and how communication and creative expression illuminate those relationships. She says her experience with the Humanities Institute has expanded her perspective on how humanistic inquiry fosters deeper understanding across disciplines. Engaging in dialogue with scholars, artists, and fellow interns has strengthened her ability to think critically and reflect on the ways shared narratives shape our collective understanding of the human experience.

Maura Luby HISB Intern Fall 2025

Maura Luby is in the last semester of her undergraduate studies and is majoring in English with a minor in Creative Writing. She’s says she has been grateful to work with the Humanities Institute now for two semesters, while specializing in content creation and editing on the HISB Instagram page. Outside of her work in the Institute, Maura works as a project student assistant with Stony Brook’s Enrollment Management, a registration coordinator for SBU’s ACE program, and is a tutor at the Department of Writing and Rhetoric’s Writing Center. She is currently working on her first full novel draft and is looking forward to beginning her MBA studies next semester where she can bring the digital marketing and content strategy skills she’s learned here at the Institute into her future endeavors.

Rohma Masood HISB Intern Fall 2025

Rohma Masood is a sophomore at Stony Brook University majoring in Globalization and International Affairs with minors in Political Science and Religious Studies. She’s says she is deeply passionate about global justice, humanitarian work, and exploring how international relations shape people’s lives. Her long-term goal is to become a diplomat or immigration lawyer, where she can help address global issues such as the refugee crisis and advocate for displaced communities. Through her internship with the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook, she has enjoyed being part of a team that promotes dialogue, cultural understanding, and social awareness. Working with the Institute has allowed her to connect my academic interests to real-world issues and contribute to events that inspire empathy and reflection. She hopes to continue using her education and experiences to amplify marginalized voices and make a positive impact across borders.

Christina Wang HISB Intern Fall 2025

Christina Wang is currently a second-year student at Stony Brook University double majoring in economics and political science with a concentration in American law, government, and public policy. She is interested in law, public policy, and finance. Her current goal is to work in the NYC government as a policy analyst, helping to shape policy that influences others’ lives for the better. She says her time with the Humanities Institute has broadened my appreciation for the humanities as a whole. She has enjoyed learning about the different disciplines within the humanities umbrella and connecting my academic learning with real-world events through my interviews with scholars, and is grateful for the opportunity to join a community where she can contribute to conversations and events surrounding the themes of cultural awareness, social responsibility, empathy, and reflection.  

Caden Deshommes College of Arts and Sciences Ctrl+Alt+Create Intern 2025-2026

Caden Deshommes is a fourth-year undergraduate double majoring in Creative Writing and English with a minor in filmmaking. Both looking toward her post-graduate goals and reflecting on her academic path here at Stony Brook, has solidified her belief in the enduring impact of reading. Working as a College of Arts and Sciences CTRL + ALT + CREATE intern alongside the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook on her “The Books That Made Us” project has allowed her to further investigate the convergence of literature, narrative writing and creative expression. Through this event and beyond, she hopes to show others this intersection.