KU News Release

Hall Center names Simons Public Humanities Fellows for 2008-09

LAWRENCE — Composer and musician David Balakrishnan and author and journalist Ann Hagedorn will be the Simons Public Humanities Fellows for 2008-09 at the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas.

Balakrishnan will be in residence at the Hall Center from Aug. 18 to Sept. 13, Jan. 12–22 and April 13–26. Hagedorn will be in residence in February and March.

Balakrishnan, founder of the Turtle Island String Quartet, will work in conjunction with the Creative Campus Project, “Tree of Life – Origins and Evolution,” which brings resident and touring artists together in the creation of a new artistic work. Balakrishnan graduated from the University of California-Los Angeles with a bachelor’s in music composition and violin and earned a master’s degree in music composition from Antioch University West. He is a world-class violinist and has earned two Grammy nominations.

Hagedorn is the author of several books and has been a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and an investigative reporter for the New York Daily News. She holds a bachelor’s in history from Denison University, a master’s in information science from the University of Michigan and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. Hagedorn is the author of “Wild Ride: The Rise and Fall of Calumet Farm, Inc.,” and “Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919.” During her residency, Hagedorn plans to work on her fifth book and lead a narrative nonfiction writing workshop.

The fellowships are made possible by a gift from the Simons family of Lawrence, together with matching funds from a National Endowment for the Humanities’ Challenge Grant. The Simons family has been in the newspaper business in Lawrence since 1891. The Simons are proud supporters of KU and longtime exponents of the view that education is a lifelong experience.

The mission of the Simons fellowship is to bring a citizen of experience, accomplishment and promise from such fields as journalism, business, health care, law, politics, the arts or nonprofit work to the Hall Center for the Humanities to participate in the intellectual life of the university for one semester of the academic year.

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