Historians to join national humanities center fellows

Two UW historians, one specializing in the history of allergy, the other in the American Civil Rights Movement, have received fellowships from the National Center for the Humanities in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Gregg A. Mitman, professor of the history of science, medical history, and science and technology studies, will use his 10-month fellowship at the center to work on “Breathing Space: An Ecological History of Allergy in America.”

Earlier this year, Mitman won a Guggenheim Award for the same project.

“The book offers a panoramic view of how human actions and attitudes toward natural and built environments have been shaped by allergic illnesses,” he says. “It also shows how society, by ignoring the role of the environment in searching for simple solutions, not only has failed to solve the mystery of disease, but has contributed to its incidence.” The book will be published by Yale University Press in 2006.

Timothy B. Tyson, associate professor of Afro-American studies, will work on two books, “Deep River: African-American Freedom Movements in the 20th Century South” (University of North Carolina Press), which follows five generations as members negotiate the labyrinths of the racial caste system in the South; and “Fallen Angels Fly” (Crown Publishers), which Tyson describes as a family memoir and personal history dealing with race, love, murder, sex, arson, Jesus, arson, mob violence, Southern and international politics, and the presidential election of 1948.

Tyson was born in Raleigh, N.C.

“Research Triangle is 10 miles from my mama’s dinner table. While I’m there, I also will attempt, through unstinting empirical research, to identify the best chopped pork barbecue sandwich in eastern North Carolina,” he says.

Mitman and Tyson are among 40 fellows chosen from 526 applicants. Their grants, which cover half their salaries, allow them to take leave from their duties at UW–Madison for 10 months during the 2004-05 academic year.