Frances was a member of the Language Program Vitality working group. According to the CNYHC press release, “Over the last six years, the HF2: Language Program Vitality working group built a robust scholarly community the Corridor is proud to recognize. Their March 2026 Signature Event conference in Hamilton, N.Y., Innovative Approaches to Language Teaching, was a testament to that work, drawing nearly 150 participants across 23 sessions and 2 keynotes, with attendees joining from 8 of the Corridor's 11 institutions and well beyond.
“The group’s sustained focus on pedagogy and language education advances the humanities, specifically via languages and language education, across the region. We appreciate how HF2 members turned a shared interest in how AI threatens language learning into regional conference presentations focused on possible solutions to this timely and important question.”
Sundar was a member of the Screen Cultures working group that focused on deepening scholarly community in the region in the new field of videographic criticism, and brought the renowned video essayist Catherine Grant to campuses last October. At Hamilton, Grant hosted a screening and Q&A, and she ran workshops at Syracuse University and the University of Rochester.
The press release noted, “The group demonstrates real intellectual community and strong collaboration, bringing together film scholars, screenwriters, and visual studies critics and makers while drawing on unique strengths at each of their home institutions. Harnessing scholarly research as creative practice, their multimodal approach spans articles, conferences, and videographic criticism and is putting Central New York on the map for this emerging field, especially fitting given the region’s pivotal roots in film and visual culture.”
The CNY Humanities Corridor is a dynamic humanities research consortium seeding collaboration throughout the region and linking scholars from 11 universities and colleges in New York. Its network helps to build and sustain intellectual community and cultivates innovative collaborative research, teaching, and programming.
Posted October 13, 2026
