Dr. Laura Long, assistant professor of English, has been awarded a Pforzheimer Fellowship from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. The fellowship supports research for a book Long is working on titled, Lady of Comets: The Lives of Caroline Herschel, a biography of the first female professional astronomer. The Ransom Center owns original documents by Herschel, who lived from 1750-1848 and has a fascinating life story that has not been fully told, Long said.
Long was one of 48 research fellows chosen for 2007-08, representing 15 states and nine countries. The fellowships support research projects requiring substantial use of the Center’s collections of manuscripts, rare books, film, photography, art and performing arts materials. Long’s fellowship supports a one-month residency.
Stipends for the fellowships are funded by individual donors and organizations, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Hobby Family Foundation, the Dorot Foundation, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, South Central Modern Language Association and The University of Texas Office of Graduate Studies. A list of recipients can be found on line at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/about/fellowships/recipients/2007/
Long also received a competitive fellowship from the National Humanities Center to be a participant in its Summer Institute in Literary Studies. The National Humanities Center sponsors two advanced Literary Studies seminars per summer. Long will participate in "Readings in the King James Bible," led by James Wood, professor at Harvard and renowned literary critic. Only 14 participants or fewer are chosen for this seminar, which will look at the Bible and "examine these great stories and teachings as episodes in early narrative and as theological fables." The seminar will also study language and translation issues related to the King James Version, and use three satellite texts (by Rousseau, Virginia Woolf, and Saul Bellow) to examine biblical influences on modern literature.
"I hope to use this seminar as a model for designing a course for Lynchburg College, which will explore biblical echoes in modern, secular literature," Long said.
For more information on the National Humanities Center, check: http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/siliterarystudies/index.htm.