UW-Madison humanities scholars receive national fellowships

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.