Six Scholars Join the National Council on the Humanities

New members will serve six-year terms on NEH advisory council

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced today that six new members have joined the National Council on the Humanities, the Endowment’s 26-member advisory council. The new members, who were nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate earlier this year, began their official duties today at the Council’s quarterly meeting in Washington.

“I am pleased to welcome these distinguished scholars to the National Council,” said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. “The experience and wisdom they bring from their respective fields will be of great value to the Endowment as they serve on the Council.”

The National Council on the Humanities meets four times a year to review grant applications and to advise the NEH chairman. National Council members serve staggered six-year terms. Departing the Council are Jewel Spears Brooker, Dario Fernandez-Morera, Larry Okamura, and Stephan Thernstrom.

The following six new council members begin terms that will expire on January 26, 2014:

Jamsheed K. Choksy (Greenwood, Ind.) is a professor of central Eurasian studies, history, and India studies as well as an adjunct professor of religious studies and an affiliated faculty member of ancient studies, medieval studies, and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is a frequent presenter at international conferences and has written three books: Evil, Good, and Gender; Conflict and Cooperation; and Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism. He has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and has been awarded grants from the American Academy of Religion and the Social Science Research Council. He has served as a consultant for UNESCO and the U.S. Department of Education. Mr. Choksy received an A.B. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Dawn Ho Delbanco (New York, N.Y.) is an adjunct professor of East Asian art at Columbia University and, since 1991, has taught Western and Asian art in the Columbia University Core Curriculum. She is the author of Art from Ritual: Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessels from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, and has published on various aspects of Chinese art, including painting, woodblock prints, ceramics, and ritual bronzes. She has lectured at many institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Asia Society, and the Yale Art Gallery. She has consulted for a documentary film on the National Palace Museum in Taipei and has curated an exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum. Ms. Delbanco received an A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Gary D. Glenn (DeKalb, Ill.) is a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of political science at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of 30 articles and book chapters and has delivered over 50 papers at professional conferences as well as given numerous lectures in the United States and abroad. He has written on American political thought, the history of political philosophy, and religion in both the Constitution and in modern political philosophy. Among his many awards, he has received the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and a Presidential Teaching Professorship from Northern Illinois University, as well as the Outstanding Teaching in Political Science Award from The American Political Science Association and Pi Sigma Alpha. Mr. Glenn received a B.A. from Loras College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

David Michael Hertz (Bloomington, Ind.) is a professor of comparative literature and an adjunct professor of American studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is the author of three books, including Angels of Reality: Emersonian Unfoldings in Frank Lloyd Wright, Wallace Stevens, and Charles Ives and Frank Lloyd Wright in Word and Form. Mr. Hertz is a recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at New York University and a Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts grant recipient. A composer and pianist, he teaches annual undergraduate colloquia on music and culture in the Hutton Honors College at Indiana University. In addition to co-founding the Center for Comparative Arts at Indiana University, he has co-organized several international conferences on the sense of time in world poetry. Mr. Hertz received a B.A., B.S., and M.A. from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from New York University.

Marvin B. Scott (Indianapolis, Ind.) is a professor of sociology at Butler University. He has co-authored four books, including Schools on Trial: An Inside Account of the Boston Desegregation Case and Five Essential Dimensions of Curriculum Design. He also authored and co-authored eight articles, including “The Effect of Teacher Perception of Personality Factors on the Cognitive and Affective Learning of Black Students.” In addition to holding teaching positions at Boston University, Quincy College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mr. Scott has served as President of Saint Paul’s College and as Special Assistant to the Chancellor of the Board of Regents of Higher Education in Massachusetts. He is a recipient of a W.E.B. Dubois Fellowship and an American Council on Education Fellowship. Mr. Scott received a B.A. from Johnson C. Smith University and an M.Ed. and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Carol M. Swain (Nashville, Tenn.) is a professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University Law School. She has written five books, including Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress, which won the Woodrow Wilson prize in 1994, and the Pulitzer Prize nominated The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration, and has most recently published Debating Immigration. Widely recognized for her expertise in race, immigration, black leadership, and evangelical politics, Ms. Swain provides commentary to major networks and programs such as CNN, ABC News, NPR, BBC Radio, and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Ms. Swain received a B.A. from Roanoke College, an M.A. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.L.S. from Yale Law School.