UVA, Fulbright Alumnus Earns Mellon Research Fellowship Focused on Nursing History

Alumnus Ren Capucao, a nurse, nurse historian, and a Fulbright Scholar alumnus, has been named the School of Nursing's first ever Mellon Race, Place, and Equity Post-doctoral Research Associate in the History of Nursing and Healthcare.

It's the latest applause for Capucao, whose doctoral dissertation study, "Pressed into Starched Whites: Nursing Identity in Filipino American History," has earned him grants and accolades from the Virginia Humanities, the Philippine Nurses Association of America, the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, and the Barbara Bates Center for the Studying of the History of Nursing.

[VIDEO] "A Culture to Care"

Capucao will be mentored by Bjoring Center director and professor Dominique Tobbell, and, as a Mellon post-doctoral research associate, is part of a UVA-led initiative developed in 2020, thanks to five-year, $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation that prepares new and emerging faculty scholars for tenure-track roles at UVA and elsewhere who are invested in and deeply knowledgeable about issues specific to race, place, and equity.

The fellowship will enable Capucao to expand his dissertation research into a book while also building his research skills in digital humanities to document and analyze the history of race, place, and equity in nursing, with a particular emphasis on the history of Filipino nurses in the U.S. and abroad. He’ll also help develop teaching modules that use content from the new “Race in Healthcare: Historical essentials for UVA nurses” web site and work to help faculty members at the nursing school integrate its lessons into both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses.

Capucao earned an MSN at UVA in 2019, then became a PhD student, and, after that, earned a Fulbright fellowship that enabled him to spend a year in the Philippines where he continued his research. An American Association for the History of Nursing H31 grantee, a Nurses Educational Fund M. Louise Fitzpatrick Scholarship awardee, and a Brodie Scholar, Ren has, over the last several years, presented his work at nearly a dozen regional and international conferences, served as editor of Nursing Clio, and worked as editor-in-chief for the Philippine Nurses Association of Virginia, of which he is a member. His 2019 exhibit, “A Culture to Care,” was funded by the Virginia Humanities, the Philippine Nurses Association of America, and the Philippine Nurses Association of Virginia, and is a lens into work that is informed by both his personal and professional journeys.

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