People

Joseph Plaster

Director, Tabb Center & Curator in Public Humanities
Plaster cultivates an exchange of knowledge between Johns Hopkins University and the greater Baltimore community through participatory action research, oral history, performance, and community-engaged undergraduate courses.

Heidi Herr

Librarian for English, Philosophy, and Special Collections Student Engagement
Herr develops programs that engage students in conducting research with primary sources, including the Freshman Fellows program. She teaches courses on topics including the ephemera of the women’s suffrage movement and the development of the cookbook.

Jo Giardini

Postdoctoral fellow, Society of Fellows in the Humanities
Giardini is pursuing research on the closure of Johns Hopkins’ Gender Identity Clinic in the late 1970s. They teach for the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and work on library collections development, especially related to queer and trans literary history.

Spencer Hupp

Postdoctoral fellow, Society of Fellows in the Humanities
Hupp acts as an assistant liaison between the Writing Seminars and Sheridan Libraries. He is working with Heidi Herr to tailor a collection of manuscripts, literary artifacts, and reference items to the needs of Writing Seminars undergraduates and MFA candidates.

The Peabody Ballroom Experience Working Group

The Peabody Ballroom Experience Working Group is composed of Icons and Legends in Baltimore’s ballroom community. The group organizes the annual Peabody ball and related programming, including films, dance trainings, youth internships, and oral history initiatives:

  • Legendary Rhonda Carr
  • Legendary Marco Gray/Marco West
  • Icon Sebastian Escada
  • Icon Hall of Famer Enrique St. Laurent

Tabb Center Advisory Committee

  • madison moore, Assistant Professor of Critical Studies in the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California
  • George Ciscle, founder of the Contemporary Museum; founder and director of the MFA in Curatorial Practice at the Maryland Institute College of Art
  • Nicole King, Associate Professor, Department of American Studies; Director, Orser Center for the Study of Place, Community, and Culture, UMBC
  • François Furstenberg, Professor, Department of History, Johns Hopkins University

Public Humanities Research Assistants

  • Alex Peeples, 2022/23 academic year
  • Marios Falaris, 2022/23 academic year
  • Sophia Lola, Summer 2022
  • Marvis Gutierrez, Spring 2022

Organizational Partners

The Tabb Center is built on partnerships with people, institutions, and initiatives across Johns Hopkins University and Baltimore. Partners have included: