Eight Texas A&M Faculty Named Arts & Humanities Fellows

Texas A&M University presented 2019 Arts & Humanities Fellowships to eight faculty members during an awards luncheon today at the University Club in Rudder Tower. Each fellowship includes a three-year grant of $15,000 to support a scholarly or creative project.

Since its launch in 2015, the Arts & Humanities Fellowship Program has sponsored projects by 31 faculty members, including the eight newest fellows.

Texas A&M Vice President for Research Mark A. Barteau said, “While science and technology often grab the headlines, it’s important that we recognize the importance of the arts and humanities in our civilization’s history and its future. We look forward to the results of these outstanding projects from our 2019 Arts & Humanities Fellows and the scholarship and creative work these faculty members will produce.

Each spring, a peer-review process chooses a new group of Arts & Humanities fellows from a group of project-based applications. Selections are based on merit and originality, professional qualifications, clarity, benefit to the public and the quality of the overall presentation. All Texas A&M faculty who engage in scholarship in the humanities or in creative work in the arts are eligible to apply for the fellowships.

At today’s luncheon, Arts & Humanities Fellowships for 2019 were presented to the following faculty members:

• Heidi Campbell, professor in the Department of Communication, College of Liberal Arts, who will produce a book and video illustrating how memes communicate, the common messages of bias they spread about religion and how they can engage in ways that encourage open dialogue about religious and cultural diversity.
• Amy E. Earhart, associate professor in the Department of English and affiliated faculty of African Studies, College of Liberal Arts, who will produce sections of a monograph and accompanying digital project that reveal how seemingly naturalized technological infrastructures impact meaning in African-American authored literary texts.
• Kevin T. Glowacki, associate professor, Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, who will apply his experience as an archaeologist and architectural historian to investigate the concept of religious landscape in ancient Greece through an examination of sanctuaries and cult locations on the slopes of the Acropolis of Athens for a book he will produce.
• Melanie Hawthorne, professor, Department of International Studies, College of Liberal Arts, who will generate the first book in English devoted entirely to the life and work of the Anglo-American writer Pauline Tarn, better known to literary history as Renée Vivien, offering a timely re-appraisal of her work for a contemporary audience.
• Felipe Hinojosa, associate professor, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts, who plans to complete research and writing for a book about Latina/o activists protesting urban renewal in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, and their church occupation strategy—an area of research that remains sorely understudied in U.S. history.
• Hoi-eun Kim, associate professor in the Department of History, College of Liberal Arts, who will examine the lives and activities of Japanese physicians in colonial Korea from 1910–45, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, with plans to produce one journal article, draft four chapters and secure a book contract.
• Chaitanya Lakkimsetti, assistant professor, Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts, who will produce a monograph about the intersections of religion, sexuality and gender in contemporary India, with a focus on how male, female and transgender sexualities are co-constituted through devotional practice.
• Brian Larsen, associate professor, School of Law, who will fund his ongoing research into the study of rhetoric and argumentation, especially in legal and professional communication, and will recruit collaborators for the Classical Rhetoric and Contemporary Law study group, which he founded to restore intersections between these fields.