Fellowships

Through the support of the Collections Fellowship I was able to spend several days in Paris working at the Institut de France in the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (AIBL). There, I studied the unpublished materials of Charles Clermont-Ganneau that are in the Cabinet du Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum (CIS). Access to this collection was granted by the kind permission of Christian Robin, the AIBL’s director. In Paris, I worked with Maria Gorea, the director of the Cabinet du CIS, where I benefited from her knowledge of Clermont-Ganneau and her ability to decipher his difficult handwriting. Dr. Gorea and her student Noémie Carpentier also were of great assistance with French technical terms that I came across in Clermont-Ganneau’s writings.

   
 
 The research is part of my larger project on the Hebrew funerary inscriptions from Silwan, which include the Royal Steward Inscription. That inscription together with a shorter inscription were first documented by Clermont-Ganneau in Silwan in 1870. He eventually purchased them for the British Museum, where they reside today. This summer in London I was able to study Clermont-Ganneau’s correspondence with the British Museum in the museum’s archives. My work in Paris, supported by the ASOR Collections Fellowship, continued my investigation into the acquisition of the artifacts. Clermont-Ganneau’s papers in the Cabinet du CIS shed important light on two aspects involving the Hebrew epigraphic sources. First his papers describe the French diplomat / archaeologist’s efforts to buy the inscriptions from the Arab homeowner in Silwan, including details on how the inscriptions were extracted. Much of this information was left out of his 1899 published account of his discovery. Second, his notes, drawings, squeezes and casts (plaster and papier-mâché) reveal the extent of his work to translate the inscriptions, as well as his plans –ultimately unfilled– plans to publish them.
    

Access to Clermont-Ganneau’s papers was critical for my project, which seeks to publish the first comprehensive edition of the funerary inscriptions from Silwan. My collections study in Paris will allow me to write a chapter on the history of research that provides insight into the events that led to the acquisition of a famous Hebrew artifact from Jerusalem that is today prominently displayed in the British Museum.

Interested in applying for a 2023 Study of Collections Fellowship? The deadline is February 28.

Learn more about applying here.

By Rachael Grahame ’17 and Jessica Weiss ’05

Two University of Maryland professors are among 28 distinguished scholars and writers today named 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellows, an honor that comes with a $200,000 award.

The Carnegie Corporation, a philanthropic organization, provides each fellow with the funding to produce major works or studies over the next two years that contribute to the social sciences or humanities. Sociologist Rashawn Ray and historian Sarah Cameron are the second and third UMD faculty members to receive the honor since its 2015 launch, following history Professor Richard Bell last year.

“I am elated and deeply honored,” said Ray, who is also executive director of the Lab for Applied Social Science Research at UMD. “But accordingly, I realize that this is just an additional step to keep doing the work.”

Much of Ray’s recent scholarship—from working with Google to develop virtual reality trainings for police officers to studying the impact of Black Lives Matter protests via a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation—concerns police reform; his research earned him an award earlier this year from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

With his Carnegie fellowship, he plans to develop a national database that grades states’ progress on introducing and passing police reform legislation in line with the yet-to-be-passed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

His database will live on the website of the Brookings Institution, where he is a fellow and which nominated him for the Carnegie fellowship; it will be accompanied by a policy report, book and op-eds.

Cameron’s Carnegie stipend will support historical research on one of the 20th century’s gravest environmental catastrophes: the shrinking of the Aral Sea. Bisected by the border between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan in the south and once one of the world’s largest inland bodies of water, the sea began to decline dramatically in the late 1960s when Soviet officials directed large volumes of water toward cotton production, devastating communities in the region. Today, water levels in some parts of the sea are partially restored.

Chemists, hydrologists, geographers and others have developed a body of scientific literature on the Aral Sea, but she plans to publish the first complete book-length account of the causes and effects of the disaster based upon archival materials and oral history interviews.

Cameron also recently received fellowships for the same project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and Princeton University's Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, as well as a grant from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. Her first book, “The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan,” won four book awards and two honorable mentions.

“I am thrilled and very grateful for the support of the Carnegie Corporation,” Cameron said. “This gives me the time and resources to do justice to a significant, understudied history that offers important lessons both for policymakers and the broader public.”

The College of Arts and Humanities announces the Fall 2021 Faculty Funds Competition Call for Proposals. All PTK and TTK faculty are eligible for these awards. Deadline for applications is 5 pm Friday, October 15, 2021. Examples of past funded proposals can be found in the ARHU Proposal Library. 

• ARHU Advancement Grants: Up to $5,000 will be awarded to TTK and PTK faculty for projects that advance faculty’s professional advancement in their field and at UMD. Work proposed can be ongoing efforts, a new idea, or the completion of a project. Successful applications must demonstrate 1) how the project meets the faculty member’s professional advancement at UMD, and 2) how the work contributes to the faculty member’s field of study. Funds are intended to support research expenses such as hiring assistants, studio or rehearsal costs, materials, participant incentives, and archives. Funds awarded will not support course releases or classroom-only projects--pedagogical projects must show a link to the faculty member’s scholarly advancement to be considered. Priority will be given to projects that advance promotion goals and/or tenure goals and to applicants who have not won a grant previously.
• Special Purpose Advancement Grant in Equity and Justice: In addition to the regular Advancement Grants, the Dean will award a special purpose fund as part of the ARHU campaign to address racism, equity and justice. Up to $5,000 will be awarded to projects that demonstrate all of the Advancement Grant criteria listed above, plus directly contribute to equity and/or social justice in one’s field.
• Subvention Funds: Funds can cover costs required by a publisher that are assigned to faculty, such as reproduction of images and permissions. Up to $2,000 may be requested. TTK and PTK are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to faculty preparing a product for academic promotion or tenure review. In addition to application documents listed below, applications must include 1) a letter from the unit head confirming a match of the amount requested, and 2) a copy of the publisher contract. Subvention won't cover marketing and promotion related costs.

Required application documents for ALL submissions:

1. Project Description (three pages maximum, single-spaced with one-inch margins, at least 11-point font): Summarize the proposed project’s objectives, approach or method, and activities, as well as expected outcomes. Address significance to the field and include a clear argument for how the work fits into promotion/tenure timeline and purpose. For special purpose funding, make clear the contribution to anti-racism, equity, or social justice.

2. Timeline (one page maximum): List project elements and note when each task will be accomplished during the funding period. Also include timeline for promotion/tenure as it relates to this project.

3. Budget and Justification (two pages maximum): Provide an itemized budget and justify planned expenditures. All project elements and associated costs should be anticipated. Budget categories will vary depending on the project. Include any other sources of funding and whether those funds are committed or pending.

Submission Process:
Combine all application documents into a single PDF file and submit electronically to the ARHU Application Portal (http://apply.arhu.umd.edu) by 5 pm on October 15, 2021.

Post Award Expectations:
A final report will be required one year after award date, summarizing use of funds and achievements. All awarded funds must be spent within a year of award notification; funds not spent within a year will be refunded to the college. Successful applicants will receive specific guidance on further reporting requirements in their award letter.

Awardees must acknowledge ARHU in any reports, presentations, and materials produced by the funding. Funded projects will be featured on the Maryland Center for Humanities Research website, humanities.umd.edu.