Natalie Holt
Natalie Holt, a student in Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Composition and Applied Linguistics doctoral program, has been selected for a $10,000 faculty fellowship through the Appalachian College Association.
Holt, of Pippa Passes, Kentucky, is one of only three pre-doctoral students selected for the award, which supports graduate students from member institutions in work to complete doctoral research or pre-doctoral degree completion.
She will use her funding to create a digital corpus from the Appalachian Oral History Project, developed by a consortium of colleges and universities to preserve the history and language of Appalachia. A digital corpus is a curated, machine-readable collection of text, audio, images, or other data, designed for computational analysis in fields like linguistics, digital humanities, and computer forensics.
In addition to her studies at IUP, Holt is an assistant professor of English and theatre at Alice Lloyd College in Kentucky. She has participated in several highly selective national programs, including three National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminars and a writing workshop sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2015, Holt was selected by the Kentucky branch of the English-Speaking Union as their scholarship recipient for the month-long “Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance” program, held at The Globe Theatre in London, England.
Holt began her studies at IUP in 2025 and is delighted to be a part of an institution that supports students both in the classroom and in the larger world of academia. Holt states, “I would never have had the idea for this project or the courage to apply for such a fellowship without the support of this program, the amazing faculty, and my cohort.”
“This project offers a chance to understand a piece of American history that’s too often overlooked and misunderstood,” IUP Associate Professor of English Curtis Porter said. “I believe it can have a major impact not only on scholarly research but also on the way we think and talk about Appalachian culture in everyday life.” Holt recognized Porter as instrumental in supporting her through the application process.
IUP’s Composition and Applied Linguistics program is part of the Department of Language, Literature, and Writing. The program is offered on both a part-time and full-time basis and can be started during a student’s undergraduate studies at IUP.
IUP offers 100 academic majors, more than 60 graduate programs, and more than 40 graduate degrees. In addition, students can complete more than 70 minors—including a unique teamwork minor—and scores of specialized tracks and certificate programs, including certificates in athletic coaching, photography and digital imaging, popular music, geospatial intelligence, and public history.
IUP has a longstanding commitment to research on all levels and in all disciplines. In spring 2025, IUP earned an R2 Doctoral University–High Spending and Doctorate Production classification from the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in its 2025 Research Activity designations, one of only two public universities in Pennsylvania and one of only 97 public universities with this ranking nationwide. IUP first received the R2 ranking in 2022.
Only six universities in Pennsylvania hold the R2 status, and only 139 universities in the United States have the R2 status. More than 3,900 colleges and universities are included in the ranking system.
Since its founding in 1875, IUP has evolved from a teacher-training institution into a doctoral research university recognized for its commitment to student success and achievement. As IUP celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025 and through the Impact 150 comprehensive campaign, the university honors a legacy of educational excellence while looking to its next 150 years of student success, innovation, leadership in healthcare education, and public service.