New Members Join Humanities Endowment's National Council
Eight new members will join the National Council on the Humanities, the 26-member advisory council of the National Endowment for the Humanities, NEH Chairman Bruce Cole announced today. Nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the new members will begin their official duties at the Council's quarterly meeting in Washington Nov. 16-17. Two other members began their service on the National Council in July.
"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 submitted for awards from the Endowment's many grant programs and to advise the NEH chairman. National Council members serve staggered six-year terms.
The following eight council members begin terms that will expire on Jan. 26, 2012:
Josiah Bunting III (The Plains, Va.) is President of The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. In addition to numerous articles, he has authored six books of fiction and non-fiction, including The Lionheads; An Education for Our Time; and the forthcoming Singular Eminence: The Life of George C. Marshall. Mr. Bunting, a Rhodes Scholar, holds four honorary degrees and a Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters. He has served as Superintendent and Professor of the Humanities at the Virginia Military Institute, having previously served as President of Briarcliff College and Hampden-Sydney College. Mr. Bunting received a B.A. from the Virginia Military Institute, and a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Oxford.
Jane Marie (Jamie) Doggett (White Sulfur Springs, Mont.) is a County Commissioner in Meagher County, Montana. Educated to be a teacher, she has devoted herself to family ranching and to civic and political leadership that have benefited the public humanities in Montana and throughout the nation. Ms. Doggett has chaired both the Montana Committee for the Humanities and the National Board of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. She is a recipient of the Montana Governor's Humanities Award. Ms. Doggett earned a B.A. from Montana State University and teacher certification from Western Montana College.
Mary Habeck (Washington, D.C.) is an associate professor of strategic studies in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Ms. Habeck is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and previously served as an associate professor of history at Yale University. She has written or edited numerous books and articles, including Storm of Steel: The Development of Armor Doctrine in Germany and the Soviet Union, 1919-1939 and Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror. Ms Habeck received a B.A. from Ohio State University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.
Robert Martin (Corinth, Texas) is professor and Lillian Bradshaw Endowed Chair in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University in Denton. He has authored, co-authored, or edited seven books and numerous articles, including Maps of Texas and the Southwest, 1513 - 1900 and Scholarly Communication in an Electronic Environment: Issues for Research Libraries. Mr. Martin has served as Director and Librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin, Texas, and Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in Washington, DC. Mr. Martin received a B.A. from Rice University, an M.L.S. from North Texas State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Wilfred M. McClay (Chattanooga, Tenn.) is a professor of history and the SunTrust Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is author of The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America (1994), which received the Organization of American Historians' 1995 Merle Curti Award for best book in American intellectual history. His honors include the John Templeton Foundation award for distinguished teaching and scholarship. Mr. McClay has also taught at Georgetown University, Tulane University, and Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and a member of the Society of Scholars at the James Madison Program of Princeton University. Mr. McClay received a B.A. from St. John's College and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
Manfredi Piccolomini (New York, N.Y.) is a professor of comparative literature at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He has served as the Cultural Director of the Foundation for Italian Art and Culture, and is the author of numerous books and articles, including Changing Modes of Originality in Art and The Brutus Revival: Parricide and Tyrannicide During the Renaissance. Mr. Piccolomini received his Laurea from the University of Florence and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Kenneth R. Weinstein (Washington, D.C.) is Chief Executive Officer of Hudson Institute. A political theorist by training who has written on the history of early modern philosophy, he has taught at Claremont McKenna College and Georgetown University. Mr. Weinstein has written widely on international affairs for leading publications in the United States, Europe, and Asia including, most recently, "The Rise of Toleration in the West and Its Implications for the War on Terror" in The West at War. He has been decorated with a knighthood in Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication as a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Mr. Weinstein received a B.A. from the University of Chicago, a D.E.A. from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Jay Winik (Chevy Chase, Md.) is one of the nation's leading public historians. Mr. Winik's many writings include the award-winning New York Times best-seller April 1865: The Month that Saved America, which is now part of the distinguished "Modern Classic" series and was the basis for an Emmy-nominated History Channel special. He is a regular reviewer of history for the Wall Street Journal, a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review section, and has contributed to numerous anthologies. He currently serves on boards and advisory councils for the Civil War Preservation Trust, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, the James Madison Book Award, Ford's Theatre, and The Lincoln Forum. Mr. Winik received a B.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics.
Two other Council members began their service at the July meeting of the National Council on the Humanities:
Jean Bethke Elshtain (Chicago, Ill.) is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago-Divinity School. She has written numerous essays and authored and/or edited twenty books, including Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World, Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy and Augustine and the Limits of Politics. Ms. Elshtain is the recipient of nine honorary degrees, and received the 2002 Frank J. Goodnow Award, the American Political Science Association's highest award for distinguished service to the profession. Beginning in Fall 2006, she will serve a three-year appointment as the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Chair in the Foundations of American Freedom at Georgetown University. Ms. Elshtain received a B.A. and M.A. from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. from Brandeis University.
Allen C. Guelzo (Gettysburg, Pa.) is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College. He has written numerous books and essays including Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America, which both won the Lincoln Prize and the Abraham Lincoln Institute Prize, making him the first double Lincoln Laureate. His other awards include the American Library Association Choice Award, the Albert C. Outler Prize in Ecumenical Church History, and the Dean's Award for Distinguished Graduate Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. He was formerly Dean of Templeton Honors College and the Grace F. Kea Professor of American History at Eastern University. Mr. Guelzo received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.Div. from Philadelphia Theological Seminary.
Additional information about the NEH and the National Humanities Medal is available on the Internet at www.NEH.gov.