Related article KU's Hall Center wins second NEH challenge grant Related topics Hall Center for the Humanities National Endowment for the Humanities Subscribe now to receive KU News by email

Contact: Kathy Porsch, Hall Center for the Humanities, (785) 864-7834.

KU faculty top U.S. humanities endowment grant list

LAWRENCE -- The National Endowment for the Humanities recently awarded research fellowships to five University of Kansas faculty members, the most for any university this year and the most ever in a year for KU.

The fellowships allow faculty to focus their time and resources on research projects.

"This achievement reflects the excellence of KU's humanities faculty and the value of their research," said Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway. "We are pleased that the NEH continues to encourage the study of issues important to the humanities."

Carl Strikwerda, associate dean of the humanities for KU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said the fellowships are a product of the university's investment in a grant development office at its Hall Center for the Humanities.

"Not many universities nationwide have put those resources into helping the humanities get research funding," he said. "This is one sign of success. We're up there with the very best."

Among the other top schools with several faculty members receiving fellowships this year are the University of California-Berkeley and Boston University (four each); and Harvard University, Smith College, the University of Missouri at Columbia and the University of South Carolina at Columbia (three each).

Strikwerda said the awards provide "a tremendous boost" for the recipients' careers.

KU faculty receiving research fellowships are F. Allan Hanson, professor of anthropology and of humanities and Western civilization; Amy E. McNair, associate professor of art history; Beverly B. Mack, associate professor of African and African American studies; Peter C. Mancall, professor of history; and Katherine V. Unruh, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese.

The fellowships provide $35,000 for the full academic year. Semester fellowships provide $24,000. Unruh received a semester fellowship, while the others have yearlong fellowships.

This year the NEH awarded nearly $19 million in grants to individual scholars and dozens of colleges, museums, public libraries, research centers and other nonprofit institutions.

In addition, KU's Hall Center for the Humanities, through the Center for Research, received a $500,000 challenge grant, the highest amount awarded through the program.

The KU fellowship recipients and their NEH fellowship projects:

 • Hanson, "The Impact of Information Technology on Legal Knowledge." Hanson has been a member of the KU faculty since 1966. He earned a bachelor's degree in French and European history from Princeton University, and a master's degree and doctorate in anthropology from the University of Chicago.

Automation is changing the storage, retrieval and utilization of knowledge. Hanson will use an anthropological perspective to investigate the effect of automated information technology on the organization and use of knowledge in the legal system.

 • McNair, "The Buddhist Sculpture Grottoes at Longmen: Patronage, Politics and Self-Representation in Medieval China." McNair has been a KU faculty member since 1992. She earned a bachelor's degree in art history from the University of Oregon, a master's degree in art history from the University of Washington and a doctorate in art history from the University of Chicago.

The limestone cliffs at Longmen, in central China, are carved with thousands of cave-chapels containing sculpted Buddhist figures. The site offers a case study of how people used patronage of Buddhist art to represent their political motives and religious beliefs in the public arena. Through translations of the inscriptions and a reconstruction of patrons' lives and motivations, McNair seeks to re-enter these people into the record of social history.

 •Mack, "Contemporary Muslim Women's Scholarly Works: Kano, Nigeria." Mack joined the KU faculty in 1993. She earned a bachelor's degree in English and anthropology from the University of Connecticut, and a master's degree in African literature and a doctorate in African languages and literature, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The scholarly materials produced by contemporary Hausa Muslim women in Kano, Nigeria, reflect Islamic educational training in the region. The materials point to a tradition of female Muslim scholars and educators in the sub-Saharan region. Mack's book will include the first comparative analysis of works by a 19th century Muslim female scholar.

 • Mancall, "Hakluyt's Promise and the Origins of English America in an Age of Discovery." Mancall has been a member of the KU faculty since 1989. He earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's and doctorate in history from Harvard University.

In 1491, Bartholomew Columbus sought King Henry VII's financial support for his brother Christopher's plan to find a shortcut to the East by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. Henry, like other monarchs in Europe, refused to offer assistance. Three generations later, Richard Hakluyt the younger sought to persuade Queen Elizabeth I that the colonization of North America was in the best interests of the English nation. Unlike Henry, Elizabeth saw the benefits of expanding the realm westward across the sea. Through research for his fourth book, Mancall will describe how and why the colonization of North America became necessary to the English by focusing on four individuals whose writings influenced the era.

 • Unruh, "Intervening Acts: Women Writers and Cultural Modernity in Latin America, 1920s-1930s." Unruh joined the KU faculty in 1988. She earned a bachelor's degree in history and a master's in education, both from Antioch College, and a doctorate in Spanish American literature from the University of Texas-Austin.

During the 1920s and 1930s, female writers in Latin American enacted their public roles as modern artists in a cultural arena that still regarded their presence as uncommon. They crafted inventive artistic projects as a way to transform that world. Unruh's book will be the first comprehensive study of Latin American female writers of this period.