NEH Awards Summer Stipends to 115 U.S. Scholars

Eleven stipends for humanities research earn recognition as We the People projects

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that it has awarded a total of $575,000 in summer stipends to 115 U.S. scholars for their individual research in the humanities. Eleven of these projects have been named We the People projects, a special recognition by the NEH for model projects that advance the study, teaching, and understanding of American history and culture.

"NEH Summer Stipends provide opportunities for scholars to devote two uninterrupted months to their research and writing," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "Their intensive work should contribute to deepening our knowledge and understanding of our nation and our world."

Recipients usually produce scholarly articles, monographs on specialized subjects, books on broad topics, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly tools.

Among the NEH Summer Stipends awarded this year are the following:

The 11 We the People Summer Stipends include awards to Matthew Simpson, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, for "Religion and Liberty in Locke's 'Two Treatises'"; Sandra Graham, University of California, Davis, for "From Slave Songs to America's Music? The Popularization of Black Spirituals, 1870-1910"; and Ted Tunnell, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, for "Southern Newspaper Editors and Reconstruction, 1865-1869."

The Endowment makes about one award for every seven applications received for NEH Summer Stipends, which provide $5,000 to each recipient for two consecutive months of full-time research and writing in the humanities. Stipends support individuals pursuing research that contributes to scholarly knowledge or to the general public's understanding of the humanities. This year's Summer Stipend recipients represent 35 states. A state-by-state listing of the awards is available in the above box.

• Kathleen Curran, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., for "Craft and Culture on Display: The American Art Museum, 1870-1940";
• Steven Medema, University of Colorado, Denver, for "The Hesitant Hand: Market and State in the History of Modern Economic Thought";
• Melanie Hubbard, University of Tampa, Fla., for "Emily Dickinson's Poetic Practices in Nineteenth-Century Contexts";
• Stephen Blackwell, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for "The Interrelations of Science and Art in Vladimir Nabokov's Fiction and Philosophy"; and
• Robert Miner, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, for "Thomas Aquinas on the Passions."