An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Siobhan Magee (Sabbatical Fellow, 2024).
Biography, mourning, and kinship in UK and US higher education philanthropy
Spend time in a UK or US university and you are sure to be surrounded by names and biographies linked to donors or their loved ones. What is donated ranges in scale from institutions themselves and substantial real estate such as named libraries, to comparatively modest scholarships, fellowships, and prizes- sometimes named after deceased faculty or students.
My project looks at the historical contingencies through which people began to make private donations to higher education - and how practices regarding naming became established, have changed over time, and vary between the UK and the US. Additionally, the project explores if and how recipients of named prizes and scholarships feel these awards have influenced their own trajectories - and how much they know about those who established the awards, or those after whom they are named.
The work-in-progress talk situates the topic in relation to debates about how to fund higher education, about philanthropy and wealth, and about the politics of naming and commemoration. It describes plans for ethnographic fieldwork in Fife and Pennsylvania.
Please join in-person, or click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/83015772676
Passcode: b1QpaAD7