Student Spotlight: Madison Larimore
- published: 2018/07/23
- search keywords:
- FUSE
- English major
- Profiles
Department of English – This past spring, senior English major Madison Larimore was awarded the highly competitive John J. McKenna Undergraduate Scholarship in Creative Nonfiction for the essay “Unromanticized.” She also received FUSE grant funding for her creative nonfiction project, "HumanKind: A Perspective Collection," allowing her to focus on the project full time. HumanKind is now live at humankind.blog.
HumanKind showcases everyday students, representing their unique worldviews and telling their life stories in a fresh, compelling way through first-person profiles. The goals of the project are to expand empathy and show that every student, no matter their race, ethnicity, cultural norms, experience, age, language or dialect, socioeconomic status, family dynamics, educational or career aspirations, background, religious or political affiliations, sexual orientation, gender, physical appearance or attire, and physical or mental abilities or health, has an important story worth sharing. Each person is both relatable and remarkable, and by reading other people’s perspectives, we can find similarities and contact points across differences, as well as learn to appreciate and respect different ways of seeing the world.
To accomplish these goals, Larimore conducts an in-depth, 120-question interview every week with a different UNO student to record what it’s like to be them. From there, the interviewee’s answers are edited and organized into a story arc that most accurately and organically represents who they are and what they believe at the time of the interview. Each perspective is approved by the interviewee before being released on the HumanKind website and social media handles.
So far, Larimore has conducted 13 interviews with UNO students, many of them her peers in the Department of English. This is only the beginning. Larimore plans to continue this project for as long as she can, collecting and preserving the perspectives of anyone who would like to do an interview. The more perspectives collected, the better understanding we have of ourselves and of each other. Together, we can expand empathy, one interview at a time.
“This project has been nine years in the making, and I am so thankful to the UNO English Department faculty and staff for their support and belief in HumanKind, enabling me to finally make my dream a reality. I would like to give a special thank you to Professor Jody Keisner, HumanKind’s FUSE grant mentor. And finally, a thank you to the UNO community—I’m so excited to expand and grow this project with you and the rest of humankind,” Madison said.
To read the perspectives, visit the website: humankind.blog. For weekly updates each time a new perspective is released, subscribe by email. For daily updates and access to exclusive content, such as interviewee videos, pictures, and quotes, follow HumanKind on Facebook and Instagram @HumanKindBlog. If you read something that particularly resonates with you, sharing goes a long way to help HumanKind and the students featured get the readership they deserve. And finally, to sign up for an interview yourself or to recommend someone you know, email contacthumankind@gmail.com with “Interview Request” in the subject line.