Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowships
The Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowships, established by bequest of George W. Platzman (1920-2008), Professor Emeritus in Geophysical Sciences at the University, are named in memory of George’s brother Robert Platzman (1918-1973), who was Professor of Chemistry and Physics and worked at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in the 1940s.
The program provides up to $3,000 for visiting researchers working on projects that require on-site consultation of University of Chicago Library collections, primarily archives, manuscripts or printed materials in the Special Collections Research Center. The funds can be used for travel, living and research expenses. Support for beginning scholars is a priority of the program, as are projects that cannot be conducted without onsite access to the original materials and where University of Chicago collections are central to the research. Special consideration will be given to applications in the fields of late 19th or early 20th-century physics or physical chemistry, or 19th-century classical opera.
Recipients of the Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowships for 2013 and their projects are listed below. For information on earlier awards, please see the listing of previous recipients of Platzman Memorial Fellowships.
Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship Recipients for 2013
Shuhita Bhattacharjee, doctoral candidate in English at the University of Iowa, to consult the University of Chicago Library’s Southern Asian collections of British colonial documents, for a study of “The Politics of Conversion Narratives: Religion, Secularism, and Gender in Victorian Colonial Writing, 1850-1914.”
Nancy Walbridge Collins, research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Columbia University, to consult the Robert M. Hutchins papers, for a study titled “Wartime Gravity: The Scientific Principles of Robert M. Hutchins.”
Kevin Donnelly, assistant professor of history at Alvernia University, to consult the Earle Eubank, Luther Bernard, Ernest W. Burgess, and other collections, for a study titled “The New Intellectual Hierarchy: Mongrelist Sociology in America, 1918-1937.”
Melinda Gough, associate professor in English and cultural studies at McMaster University, to consult the Rare Books collection, for a project to compile an “Edition of Swetnam the Woman-Hater Arraigned by Women (1620).”
Jamie Kreiner, assistant professor of history at the University of Georgia, to consult the Sir Nicholas Bacon Collection of English Court and Manorial Documents, for a study titled “The Premodern Pig.”
Christopher La Casse, doctoral candidate in English and American literature at the University of Delaware, to consult the records of Poetry: A Magainze of Verse and the Harriet Monroe papers, for a study of “Modernism in the Magazines, Modernism in the Great War: Poetry, The Little Review, and Reveille.”
Joseph Martin, doctoral candidate in the history of science, technology, and medicine at the University of Minnesota, to consult the records of the University of Chicago President’s Office, Physical Sciences Division, and other archival collections, for a project titled “Solid Foundations: Structuring American Solid State Physics, 1939-1993.”
David Olson, doctoral candidate in history at Boston University, to consult the papers of William Benton, Richard McKeon, Louis Gottschalk, and Louis Wirth, for a study titled “Binding the Minds of Men: America, UNESCO, and the Expansion of International Society.” David Olson has been designated the Hans Lenneberg Fellow.
Hunter Price, doctoral candidate in history at Ohio State University, to consult the Church History Documents Collection, for a project titled “Circuit Riders: The Forging of Middle-Class Community and Evangelical Political Culture in the Early American West, 1780-1830.”
Melissa Renn, senior curatorial research associate at the Harvard University Museums, to consult the R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company Archive, for a study titled “Life in Color: Life Magazine and the Color Reproduction of Works of Art.” Melissa Renn has been designated the Robert Rosenthal Fellow.
Andrea Scionti, doctoral candidate in history at Emory University, to consult the records of the International Association for Cultural Freedom/Congress for Cultural Freedom, for a study titled “America’s Reluctant Allies: The Congress for Cultural Freedom in France and Italy, 1950-1979.”
David A. Varel, doctoral candidate in history at the University of Colorado, to consult the Allison Davis papers, for a project titled “Race, Class, and Socialization: Allison Davis and American Social Thought, 1920-1950.”
Wil Verhoeven, professor of American culture and cultural theory at the University of Groningen, to consult the Reuben T. Durrett Collection on Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, for a study titled “Enemies of the State: Sedition and Resistance in the Trans-Appalachian West, 1776-1806.”
Saul Noam Zaritt, doctoral candidate in Jewish literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary, to consult the papers of Saul Bellow, for a study titled “The Jew in the World: Jewish American Writing and the Problem of World Literature.”
