Three Texas A&M University College of Arts and Sciences faculty are among six selected campuswide by the Division of Research to receive three-year, $15,000 grants as members of Texas A&M's newest class of Arts and Humanities Fellows.
Dr. Emily Brady, a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities; Dr. Jonathan Brunstedt, an assistant professor in the Department of History; and Dr. Shelley Wachsmann, a professor in the Department of Anthropology, represent half of the 2023 class, announced July 25 by the Division of Research.
The Arts and Humanities Fellowship Program has funded 65 Texas A&M faculty members since its launch in 2015.
“Our Arts and Humanities Fellowships encourage our faculty to generate knowledge in the humanities or to pursue excellence in the performing or fine arts,” said Dr. Jack G. Baldauf, vice president for research and a professor in the Department of Oceanography. “These fields are essential to shaping our understanding of our world and preparing the leaders of the future. We look forward to the scholarship and creative work these faculty members will produce.”
Each year, a new class of Arts and Humanities Fellows is chosen by a peer-review committee from project-based applications. Selections are based on merit and originality, professional qualifications, clarity, benefit to the public and the quality of the overall proposal.
Application to the program is open annually to Texas A&M faculty who are eligible to serve as principal investigators and who engage in scholarship in the humanities or creative work in the arts. At least one year must lapse between completion of a previous fellowship and application for a new one. Proposals in the social fields are eligible if they employ predominantly humanistic approaches.
“We are pleased by the high quality of applications this year and look forward to receiving proposals for the 2024 fellowships,” said Dr. Gerianne Alexander, associate vice president for research and director of the fellowship program as well as a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. “We encourage all eligible faculty to apply for these fellowships.”
Brady plans to use her grant funding to develop and defend a new theory for situating aesthetic meanings and values in response to environmental changes in the atmosphere and geosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere.
Brunstedt will produce a book that examines the U.S.-Vietnam and Soviet-Afghan wars and their possible role in hastening the USSR’s collapse and fueling the revival of an American exceptionalism.
Wachsmann will publish the final excavation report of 1994-96 INA/CMS Joint Expedition to Tantura Lagoon, Israel, where an expedition revealed seven shipwrecks.
Learn more about the Arts and Humanities Program and related application guidelines.
This story was originally published by Texas A&M Today.