Humanities researchers earn fellowships

Four scholars in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison were named recipients of the 2006-2007 American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellowships.

The ACLS is a private, non-profit federation that supports studies in humanities and social sciences. Each year, the ACLS awards fellowships and grants to researchers working in humanities fields. This year, the organization awarded more than $8.3 million to 232 U.S.-based scholars.

Among this year’s recipients is John Harper, a graduate student of history at UW–Madison. Harper’s research, "Revolution and Conquest: Politics, Violence, and Social Change in the Ohio Valley, 1768-1795," earned him the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Early Career Fellowship for the final year of his dissertation. Harper spent the past four years studying how the Ohio Valley became part of the United States. While much of his research was conducted at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, it also took him throughout the Midwest to dig up the political and social history of that era.

Other winners include:

• Jue Guo, a graduate student of East Asian language and literature, received a Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS grant for scholars focused on East Asian archaeology and early history.
• Lisa H. Cooper, an assistant professor of English, won an ACLS fellowship for her study of craft labor found in literature from the Middle Ages.
• Julia K. Murray, an art history professor, was named an ACLS International and Area Studies fellow. Murray researches various art forms of Confucius created at the now-destroyed ancient shrine of Kongzhai and their importance to Confucianism and other religions.