Fellows in the News
Over 800 scholars from 62 countries have held Fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. We are always glad to hear news of our former Fellows and their current activities and would like to invite you to send us items for publication on this page. These can be emailed to iash@ed.ac.uk
Dr.
Margret Frenz, currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute,
will be giving the February Lecture of the ICHR (Indian Council of Historical
Research) in New Delhi, India, on 16 February 2011. The title of her lecture
is 'We are Citizens of the World'. South Asian Transnational Trajectories
in the 20th Century.
News from Kristof Vanhoutte (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2008): his book Sulla 'vera' filosofia. Un'Archeologia della Filosofia Cristiana was published by Lateran University Press, Città del Vaticano in 2009. He is currently Invited Professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome and this year was the winner of the Seventh Annual Prize Essay Competition in European Philosophy from Kant to the Present awarded by the University of Kentucky. Finally, both he and David Wall (also a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2008) had chapters published in Soccer and Philosophy.
Rob
Savage held a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at IASH in 2007.
We are delighted to learn that the book he was working on then has now
been published - A Loss of Innocence? Television and Irish Society
1960-1972, Manchester University Press/ Palgrave.
Ong Keng Sen, Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence at IASH in 2008-9 and Artistic Director, TheatreWorks Singapore, has been awarded the prestigious Fukuoka Asian Arts and Culture Prize 2010. The Fukuoka Prize was established to honour outstanding achievements by individuals or groups/organizations in preserving and creating the unique and diverse cultures of Asia. It aims to foster and increase awareness of the value of Asian cultures as well as to establish a framework within which Asians can learn from, and share with, each other. The citation concludes: "...Mr. Ong Keng Sen is one of the leaders of the international performing world, whose work has successfully broken down the simplistic dualism which traditionally separate the classical from the contemporary arts, and the East from the West. By thus transcending barriers between genres and nations, he has contributed greatly to a revaluation of the fundamental and universal power of art through his sharp awareness of contemporary issues. For this contribution, he is truly worthy of the Arts and Culture Prize of the Fukuoka Prize. " The full citation can be found at http://www.asianmonth.com/prize/english/21/index.html
June 2010: News of two new
publications by IASH Fellows: Letters of Louis MacNeice, edited
by Jonathan Allison (Faber and Faber); and Exclusion and Discrimination.
Concepts, Perspectives and Challenges, edited by Yagati Chinna Rao
and Sudhakara Karakoti (Kanishka Publishers, New Delhi).
Jonathan Allison is Associate Professor
of English at the University of Kentucky and was an IASH Fellow in 1996
and
2003-4.
Yagati Chinna Rao was CWIT Fellow at IASH in
2002 and is currently Associate Professor at the Programme for the Study
of Discrimination and Exclusion, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi.
Herman De Dijn (fellow 2002) has become emeritus professor at the Institute of Philosophy in Leuven since October 2008. During the Spring semester of 2008-2009 he was Erasmus Lecturer at Harvard University where he gave a course on the Ethics of Spinoza in the Philosophy Department and delivered two public lectures on “Spinoza and Hume on Religion as a Natural Phenomenon” and “Spinoza on Revealed Religion”. In the autumn of 2009 a new book of his will appear: “Spinoza: de doornen en de roos” (published by Pelckmans (Be) and Klement (Nl)).
Congratulations to Dr. Eric White on his appointment to a lectureship in American Literature at Oxford Brookes University from September 2009. Eric was the first holder of the Newby Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship at IASH from September 2008 - May 2009.
Dr. Sarah Cockram and Dr. Bronach Kane (both IASH Postdoctoral Fellows in 2008-9) are also to be congratulated on their success in obtaining Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships. Sarah will be working in History at the University of Edinburgh, and Bronach at Queen Mary, University of London.
The Institute congratulates Dr. Timothy Baker on the publication of his book "George Mackay Brown and the Philosophy of Community" (EUP, 2009) and his appointment to a lectureship at the University of Aberdeen.
Two IASH Fellows feature in the 2009 Edinburgh International Festival programme. Rona Munro - the Edinburgh Festival Creative Fellow 2008-9 - was commissioned to write a new play, "The Last Witch", which is being premiered at the Traverse Theatre on Sunday 23 August. Ong Keng Sen (TheatreWorks Singapore) has been Leverhulme Trust Artist-in-Residence at IASH in 2008-9 and brings his show "Diaspora" to the Edinburgh Playhouse on 15 and 16 August.
David
Harrower (Edinburgh Festival Creative Fellow, 2004-5) -
Congratulations to David Harrower whose play Blackbird was recently
awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play of 2006. Blackbird
was the result of a commission from the Edinburgh International Festival
and David wrote the play during his Fellowship at IASH. The play received
critical acclaim when it was premiered at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival
and since then has been performed at the Albery Theatre, London, on Broadway
and in 17 other countries, including Australia, Brazil, France, Italy,
Spain and Israel.
David is currently working on the script for a film version of Blackbird
365: One Night to Learn A Lifetime, David's new play in association with the National Theatre of Scotland, was premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival on 22 August 2008.
Stuart MacRae (Edinburgh Festival Creative Fellow, 2005-6) - Stuart's opera The Assassin Tree, commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival and composed during his Fellowship at the Institute, received its première during the 2006 International Festival. The opera, with libretto by Simon Armitage, was performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre from 25-27 August 2006.
Stuart's new piece Gaudete was performed at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday, 10th August. The work is based on excerpts from Ted Hughes's book of the same name and was performed by soprano Susanna Andersson and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Edward Gardner.
Congratulations to Dr. Suzanne Owen (Postdoctoral Fellow of IASH, 2007-8) on her appointment to a lectureship in Religious Studies at Leeds Trinity from September 2008.
Professor Robert M Veatch, Professor of Medical Ethics and the former Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University (IASH Fellow in 1996), gave a Gifford Lecture at the University of Edinburgh on 8 May 2008. The lecture was entitled “Hippocratic, Religious, and Secular Medical Ethics: The Points of Conflict”.
Dr. Chinna Rao Yagati (CWIT Fellow, 2002) has recently been appointed Associate Professor in a newly established Programme for Studies in Discrimination and Exclusion at the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has two new publications this year: "Writing Dalit History and other Essays", New Delhi, 2007; and his first book in Telugu, "History of Dalit Movement in Andhra Pradesh" (Andhra Pradesh Lo Dalita Vudyama Charitra), Hyderabad Book Trust, April 2007.
Dr.
Seiichi Suzuki (Fellow 1994-5) is currently staying as a 2006/07
Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities
and Social Sciences (NIAS), Wassenaar. He is working on two projects,
one on Anglo-Saxon button brooches, the other on the meters of Eddic poetry.
The archaeological project is at its final stage; he is revising the text
and illustrations for producing a final version for publication (to be
published by Boydell Press). The metrical one is still in its infancy;
he says it will take several years before it finally materializes.
Herman
De Dijn (Fellow 2002) has been nominated for the Spinozaleertoel
(Spinozachair) at the University of Amsterdam during the second semester
of 2006-2007, together with Steven Nadler and Jonathan Israel. In the
autumn his new book will appear: Religie in de eenentwintigste eeuw.
Kleine handleiding voor voor- en tegenstanders, Pelckmans (Belg.)
and Klement (Netherl.).
Dr. Nikola Theodossiev (Mellon Fellow, 2002) has been selected as the American Institute of Archaeology Samuel H. Kress Lecturer in Ancient Art for the 2007/2008 academic year. This lectureship will be an exciting experience providing him with a welcome opportunity to present Bulgarian archaeology in the USA.
Douglas
Maxwell (Edinburgh Festival Creative Fellow, 2002/3) - Douglas'
new play "Melody" will be premièred at the Traverse
Theatre in Edinburgh in March 2006. This was one of the plays Douglas
was working on during his time as Creative Fellow at IASH. Further details
on the production and performances at: http://www.traverse.co.uk/traverse.html
Professor Pepka Boyadjieva (Mellon Fellow, 1999) of the Institute of Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, is currently President of the Bulgarian Sociological Association. She is also a Permanent Fellow of the newly founded Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia ( http://www.cas.bg) .
Dr. Piotr Juszkiewicz (Mellon Fellow, 2005) is currently working on two new projects: firstly, the influence of Victorian thought on avant-garde utopian visions of the future new worlds; and secondly, space as the main artistic medium in avant-garde conceptions of urban space, architecture and sculpture.
Dr.
Chinna Rao Yagati (CWIT Fellow, 2002) has joined the newly established
Dr. K.R. Narayanan Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies, Jamia Millia
Islamia, New Delhi.
Dr.
Nikola Theodossiev (Mellon Fellow, 2002) has been chosen as Editor
to do the Bulgarian archaeological sites on the international on-line
journal 'Fasti On Line'
Professor Martin Lawn (Fellow 2003-4), together with Professor Ian Deary (Psychology, University of Edinburgh), and an Emeritus Professor of Statistics from the LSE, in January 2006 will be starting a three year ESRC project entitled 'A Scottish School of Educational Research 1930-1950?'. They are working closely with the Archivist at the University, having built in archival support for the project.
Edinburgh
International Festival 2005
Congratulations to David Harrower whose play
Blackbird received its world première at the Festival on
Monday 15th August. The play is directed by Peter Stein and runs until
24th August. David was the Edinburgh Festival Creative Fellow at the Institute
in 2004-2005 and was commissioned by the Festival to write this play.
Information about the play and the other related events can be found at
http://www.eif.co.uk/E18_Blackbird.php.
Stuart MacRae (our 2005-2006 Festival Fellow) is also featuring at this year's Festival. He is doing one of the "Royal Bank at the Hub" events on Sunday 28 August - Creating Opera with Stuart MacRae. He will workshop sections of the opera which he has been commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival to write and which will be premièred in 2006. http://www.eif.co.uk/E104_Creating_Opera_with_Stuart_MacRae.php
Heidi Campbell (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2003-4) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University from August 2005. Her book Exploring Religious Community Online: We are one in the network (New York: Peter Lang Publishers, 2005) has just been published. The book is a synthesis of 7 years of research on how and why people use the Internet to build and maintain spiritual communities online, and how involvement in these groups transforms their understanding of community and what it means "to be the church" in a digital age.
Herman De Dijn (Fellow, 2002), has recently published a new book: Modernité et tradition. Essais sur l'entre-deux, Leuven/Paris, Peeters/Vrin, X-278 p., 2004. Together with Jonathan Israel he was invited to give a lecture on Spinoza before Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and an invited audience in her yearly Palace Symposium in the Dam Palace in Amsterdam (November 5, 2004).
Mark Goldie (Fellow, 1986) is currently leading a project, featured in the national press, to publish Roger Morrice's Entring Book, a late 17th century diary to match Samuel Pepys's. It will appear with Boydell in 6 volumes in 2006. A pan-British news diary, the Entring Book is rich in information on Scottish politics at the time of the 'Glorious' Revolution.
Stella Hughes (Fellow, 1993) works for UNESCO where she started a new programme - Community Multimedia Centres (http://www.unesco.org/webworld/cmc) - combining community radio and community access to Information and Communication Technologies in some of the poorest countries of the developing world. The programme began with one prototype in Sri Lanka in 2001 and today has established some 50 centres in 15 developing countries, with scale-up projects in Mali, Mozambique and Senegal establishing at least 20 new sites in each country.
Emory Kemp (Fellow, 2000) was elected to the Order of Vandalia at West Virginia University - the University's highest honour for distinguished service. In 2004 he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a rare honour for a society with 137,000 members. Although retired, he continues to be busy with writing and also as a chartered civil engineer continues to serve as a consultant.
László
Kontler (Mellon Fellow, 1999)
Having returned from the IASH to Budapest in 1999, László Kontler assumed
the Chair of History at Central European University, and will be stepping
down this summer. After hosting the annual conference of the Eighteenth-Century
Scottish Studies Society at CEU in June and chairing the Enlightenment
session at the Sydney Congress of Historical Sciences in July, he will
take up a Marie Curie Fellowship at the European University Institute
in Florence, and hopes to finish his book on the Gernam reception of William
Robertson and Edmund Burke.
Susanne Kord, formerly of Georgetown University and Fellow in 1999 and 2000, assumed the Chair of German at the University College London in 2004. The book she researched at IASH, entitled "Milkmaids on Parnassus: Women Peasant Poets in Eighteenth-Century England, Scotland and Germany," was published in 2003. It received the Honourable Mention for the Scaglione Prize of the Modern Language Association of America, one of America's most prestigious academic book awards, in December 2004.
John Polkinghorne (Fellow, 1993) published Science and the Trinity, SPCK and Yale UP in 2004.
Trevor Royle (Fellow, 1998) is currently completing a study of Scotland and the First World War, to be published next year. His next project concerns the historiography of the Scottish regiments in advance of the creation of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2008.
Robert Veatch, Professor of Medical Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, and Fellow in 1996, has published "Disrupted Dialogue: Medical Ethics and the Collapse of Physician/Humanist Communication (1770-1980)". New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. The book traces the influence of Edinburgh on the development of medical ethics in the English speaking world. It claims that the close communication between physicians and humanists in late eighteenth century Edinburgh made possible the development of modern medical ethics, but that the disruption of that dialogue was responsible for the isolation of the ethical system of physicians for the nineteenth and most of the twentieth centuries. He argues that the resumption of the conversation beginning in the 1970s has led to a renaissance in medical ethics. The research for this book was initiated during Veatch’s stay at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in 1996.
Louis
Waller, AO, FASSA (Australian National Fellow, 1990), Emeritus
Professor in the Faculty of Law, Monash University, retired from his Chair
at the end of 2000 but continues to write, and to do some teaching in
the Law School and in the Department of Forensic Medicine. The University
conferred an LLD honoris causa on him in April 2005.