Jewish studies professor Susannah Heschel and creative writing professor Cleopatra Mathis were named 2013 Guggenheim Fellows, an honor which will allow both to more deeply pursue writing and research opportunities within their fields.
Heschel and Mathis were two of the 175 fellowship recipients out of almost 3,000 applicants. The award funds scholarship, scientific or arts projects that typically run six months to a year. The average award was $43,200 in 2008.
"Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment," said Richard Hatter, Guggenheim Foundation director of development and public relations.
Heschel was one of four fellowship recipients in the intellectual and cultural history category, while Mathis was one of 10 winners in the poetry section. The multi-stage application process involved review of finalists' past publications and future research proposals.
"It is very exciting for me because it is very competitive and very prestigious." Heschel said. "It feels wonderful that my fellow scholars think so highly of my work."
Heschel will use the grant to finish her book on modern Jewish fascination with Islam. The book studies Jewish scholars who started the field of Islamic studies.
While Heschel has already traveled to Germany, Turkey and the United Kingdom as part of her research, the grant will allow her to travel to India, Pakistan, England and Germany to complete additional research.
"I would like to finish the book as soon as possible, but whenever I go to an archive to do extra research, I discover more material," she said. "It is constantly multiplying and getting bigger and bigger, which is wonderful but prolonging it."
While traditional Guggenheim Fellows take a year off from teaching to focus on research, Heschel said that Dartmouth will allow her to extend the fellowship research period to two years in order to continue teaching part-time during the process.
Mathis will use the fellowship funds to study her family history in Ayvalik, Turkey and Mytilene, Greece. Her family emigrated from Turkey to Greece during the Armenian genocide.
Mathis plans to research her family's migration to Louisiana, where she grew up.
"It is a very prestigious award that I am extremely flattered and happy to have," she said. "It is a real honor to be chosen out of that many people for a fellowship. It represents real confidence in my work that makes me of course very happy."
Mathis came to Dartmouth in 1982 and was hired to begin a new creative writing program, based on her focus in poetry.
Heschel has been a professor in the Jewish studies department since 1998.
She researches Jewish history, spanning from the late 19th to early 20th century, and primarily focuses on Jewish-Christian relations, biblical scholarship and Christian responses to Jewish thought.
The Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has granted $306 million in fellowships to more than 17,500 recipients since 1925.
The foundation receives support from trustees, previous fellows and charitable foundations.
