NEH'S Advisory Board Adds Nine New Members
The U.S. Senate recently confirmed nine nominees submitted by President Bush to serve on the National Council on the Humanities, the 26-member advisory board of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
"This talented group of scholars and leaders in our nation's cultural community brings to the National Council many years of personal and professional commitment to excellence in the humanities," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "Their collective wisdom will help guide the Humanities Endowment in the years ahead."
The National Council on the Humanities meets four times a year to review applications for the awarding of grants and to advise the NEH chairman. New members were sworn in during the Council's meeting in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 27-28. National Council members serve staggered six-year terms.
The following new council members were confirmed by the Senate in late January:
Jewel Spears Brooker (St. Petersburg, Fla.) is professor of literature at Eckerd College and has held research or teaching appointments at Yale, Columbia, Harvard, and Cambridge Universities. She is the author or editor of seven books on modern literature, including Mastery and Escape: T.S. Eliot and the Dialectic of Modernism. Brooker has received major grants or fellowships from NEH, the Knight Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trust, and has served as president of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association. She received her bachelor's degree from Stetson University, her master's from the University of Florida, and her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida.
Celeste Colgan (Denver, Colo.) is a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), a free-market think tank based in Dallas, Texas, where she develops position papers and gives talks on domestic public policies, especially education, healthcare, and retirement. Before joining NCPA, Colgan was vice president for administration at Halliburton Company. In the mid-1990s she served as director of the State of Wyoming Department of Commerce, and from 1986-93 she was deputy chairman of NEH. Colgan received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wyoming and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Maryland.
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (Atlanta, Ga.) is the Eléonore Raoul Professor of the Humanities and professor of history at Emory University, where she was the founding director of the Institute for Women's Studies. Editor of The Journal of The Historical Society, she publishes on history and literature, public policy, education, religion, culture, and contemporary women's, cultural, and ethical issues. She serves on boards for several organizations, including the American Academy for Liberal Education, The Historical Society, the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and the Society of Scholars of the James Madison Program at Princeton University. She also serves on several advisory and editorial boards. Educated at Bryn Mawr College (B.A.), the Institut d'études Politiques, and Harvard University (M.A. and Ph.D.), she has received numerous fellowships and is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Society of American Historians.
David M. Hertz (Bloomington, Ind.) is professor of comparative literature at Indiana University in Bloomington. His books include The Tuning of the Word, Angels of Reality, and Frank Lloyd Wright in Word and Form. He has written on modern poetry, music, drama, and architectural history. Also a composer and pianist, he is the co-founder of the Center for Comparative Arts at Indiana University. Hertz has received grants from the Mellon and Graham foundations, and he is listed in Who's Who Among College Teachers (2002 edition). He earned B.A. (comparative literature), B.S. (music), and M.A. (comparative literature) degrees at Indiana University. His Ph.D. in comparative literature is from New York University.
Stephen A. McKnight (Gainesville, Fla.) is a professor of European intellectual and cultural history at the University of Florida. He is author/editor of five books. He has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, NEH, Earhart Foundation, Wilbur Foundation, and Volkswagen Foundation. McKnight's previous government service includes appointment to the United States Information Agency as director of the Office of Academic Programs, which administers the Fulbright and other federal academic exchange programs. McKnight holds a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master's degree from Crozer Seminary, and a doctorate from Emory University.
Sidney A. McPhee (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) currently serves as the tenth president of Middle Tennessee State University. Prior to this appointment, McPhee was the executive vice chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, senior vice provost at the University of Memphis, and associate provost for academic programs at the University of Louisville. McPhee's scholarly publications and presentations are extensive. He has visited and lectured in countries including China, Malaysia, Japan, Israel, Belgium, Canada, and the Bahamas. McPhee currently serves on the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, the Governor's Commission on Workforce Development, and the Tennessee Commission on the Holocaust, and he is the chair of the Tennessee Legislative Retreat Task Force on Higher Education. McPhee earned his B.A. degree from Prairie View A&M University, his master's degree from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, and his doctorate from Oklahoma State University.
Lawrence Okamura (Columbia, Mo.) is associate professor of history and adjunct associate professor of classical studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Besides ancient history, he teaches courses in the Humanities Sequence of the Honors College. He has written on Roman numismatics and on archaeology within and beyond the imperial frontiers. He received training in Roman archaeology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg on a Fulbright Scholarship, and he has done fieldwork on sites in Yugoslavia, Austria, and Jordan. He has a B.A. from Pomona College, an M.A. in humanities from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan.
Marguerite H. Sullivan (Washington, D.C.) is vice president of the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit organization that advances democracy around the world. She has served on the Washington, D.C., Humanities Council and is former director of communications policy at NEH. Sullivan is the author of A Responsible Press Office: An Insider's View, published by the U.S. State Department and written for communicators in emerging democracies. She is a former assistant to the Vice President and chief of staff to Marilyn Quayle and a member of the cabinet and head of the federal liaison office of former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman. A former newspaper and news service reporter, columnist, and magazine editor, Sullivan was president of the Washington Press Club, since merged with the National Press Club. She holds a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in journalism, both from Stanford University.
Stephan A. Thernstrom (Lexington, Mass.) is the Winthrop Professor of History at Harvard University, where he teaches American social history, and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He held appointments as assistant professor at Harvard, associate professor at Brandeis University, and professor at UCLA before returning to Harvard as a professor in 1973. In 1978-79 he was the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University and Professorial Fellow at Trinity College. He has received fellowships from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, Social Science Research Council, and John M. Olin Foundation, and several research grants, including one from NEH. Thernstrom's books have been awarded the Bancroft Prize in American History, the Harvard University Press Faculty Prize, the Waldo G. Leland Prize of the American Historical Association, and the R.R. Hawkins Award of the Association of American Publishers. He graduated with highest honors from Northwestern University in 1956, and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1962.
Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Council on the Humanities is available on the Internet at www.NEH.gov.