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UW-Madison humanities scholars receive national fellowships

June 11, 2010

By Gwen Evans

Four scholars at UW–Madison working in the humanities have received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Awards totaling more than $15 million were made this year to some 380 U.S.-based and international scholars. ACLS has granted more than 9,200 fellowships and grants since 1957.

ACLS is a private, nonprofit federation of 70 national scholarly organizations. It represents American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences. The organization was founded in 1919 and awarding peer-reviewed fellowships is central to its work.

UW-Madison fellows and their projects are:

  • Michitake Aso, doctoral candidate, history of science, for the project “Forests Without Birds: Ecology and Health on the Rubber Plantations of French Colonial Vietnam, 1890-1954”
  • Maria Belodubrovskaya, doctoral candidate, film studies, for the project “Banned Films: Soviet Cinema under Stalin and the Failure of Power”
  • Meghan C. Doherty, recent Ph.D., art history, for the project “Carving Knowledge: Printed Images, Accuracy, and the Early Royal Society of London”
  • Lea Jacobs, professor, Department of Communication Arts, for the project: “Fascinating Rhythm: Performance and Direction in Hollywood after Sound”

The student awards will help graduate students complete a dissertation; others support a year of additional research for recent graduates. Jacobs’ fellowship, one of 57 given, will back a major scholarly work.