Delali Kumavie, assistant professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been named the inaugural Autonomous Systems Policy Institute (ASPI) Fellow in the Arts and Humanities. The fellowship is primarily focused on providing the space and opportunity for faculty members in the humanities whose research intersects with the study of technology to develop their work, a potential syllabus and curate a conversation that focuses on their fields of study.

Kumavie studies the intersection of blackness, aviation and global transit by examining literary and cultural texts by Black writers and artists. She will further explore these intersections during her time as a faculty fellow by designing a course on myth and technology. This course will consider the ways in which technology draws on and is enfolded by conceptual codes that were developed in literary and cultural texts. Reading together critical theoretical conceptualizations of myth such as those by Roland Barthes, Northrop Frye, Hortense Spillers and Wole Soyinke with various ancient and contemporary mythologies, fiction and poetry the class will examine how a conceptual code of technology is accrued from literary texts.

In addition, Kumavie will curate a conversation on the topic of race and technology with invited speakers on blackness and technology. She will undertake preliminary work on two key collaborative projects, including one with Melissa Yuen at SU Art Museum to develop a future exhibition on race, myth and technology.