KU Lenexa senior in classics, English wins Mellon Fellowship

LAWRENCE -- R. James Abraham, Lenexa senior at the University of Kansas, has won an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies worth approximately $30,000 or more.

Majoring in classical languages and in English at KU, Abraham has won one of 95 Mellon Fellowships awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in Princeton, N.J. The fellowships are designed to help exceptionally promising students prepare for careers of teaching and scholarly work in the humanities. Abraham is the son of the Rev. Abraham Omman and Mary Abraham, Lenexa, and is a graduate of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School.

The fellowship provides about a $17,500 stipend in addition to paying full tuition and fees for one year of graduate study at any U.S. or Canadian university. Abraham will pursue a doctorate in classical studies, specializing in Roman poetry, with plans to teach at the university level. He is considering graduate programs at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Pennsylvania. He is the 23rd KU student to receive a Mellon Fellowship since the program was established in 1982.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said: "James deserves our highest praise for his excellent work as a student of ancient Latin and Greek as well as modern literature. He represents the best of today's students who will be teaching the humanities for the next generation.

"I am happy to say James is in good company. This past week, I have had the pleasure of congratulating seven KU students, including James, on winning highly competitive and highly prized national scholarships. Kansans can be proud of these students. They represent KU's brightest and best."

In addition to the Mellon Fellowship, KU students won four Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships and two Morris K. Udall Scholarships.

Abraham plans to become a scholar in an evolving field that studies the interaction between colonies and empires. "Some people think that classics is a dead, static field, but I find that the concerns of our contemporary society are constantly revitalizing the field," Abraham said.

"My primary research interest centers on how Roman poetry, particularly Latin epic and Latin love poetry, critiques the Roman Empire. I approach this by looking at how violence, both military and sexual violence, is represented, whether it is venerated or chastised."

Abraham, who came to the United States at age 3 with his parents from his native India, began studying Indian literature at KU to learn more of his own cultural heritage. Giselle Anatol, KU assistant professor of English, mentored his study of modern Indian literature. Later, in a course on ancient Roman literature, Abraham recognized that questions he had asked about the British Empire's colonial rule in India also could be asked about the Roman Empire.

"My interests are actually quite broad and reflect my training both in English and classics," Abraham said. "I'm interested in questions of how the Roman Empire subjugated their colonies and how that's dealt with in the literature. I'm also interested in how classics were used in the education systems of the British colonies and how 'postcolonial' writers deal with their classical education."

At KU, Abraham works as an editorial assistant for the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, an annual journal that publishes research from antiquity to the present. Anthony Corbeill, KU classics professor, edits the journal and advises Abraham's honors thesis. Abraham also has worked as an assistant in the Applied English Center and for the KU music library.

Abraham holds both Summerfield and Nelson scholarships at KU and is in the University Scholar and Dean's Scholar programs.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, N.J., administers the Mellon Fellowship. More than 1,800 fellows have been named since the competition began in 1982. Mellon fellows are serving as teachers and scholars at some of the nation's top colleges and universities.