State History

Congratulations to the New York State winners of the The National Endowment for the Humanities grants for Janurary, 2020. The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. Since its creation in 1965, the NEH has awarded more than $5.6 billion for humanities projects through more than 64,000 grants. For the month of January, 2020 the State of New York recived 23 grants totalling $3,800,570. Listed below are the winners. 

Binghamton
Elisa Camiscioli Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships] SUNY Research Foundation, Binghamton Project Title: Trafficking, Travel, and Illicit Migration in the Early Twentieth-Century French Atlantic World Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book on the history of trafficking between France and the Americas in the early 20th century.

Bronx
Scott Bruce Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships] Fordham University Project Title: The Lost Patriarchs Project: Recovering the Greek Fathers in the Medieval Latin Tradition Project Description: Research and writing leading to a reference work on the Latin transmission and reception of Greek patristic writers in medieval western Europe.

Yuko Miki Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships] Fordham University Project Title: Brazilian Atlantic: Archives and Stories of Illegal Slavery Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book on illegal slavery in the 19thcentury Atlantic World.

Brooklyn
John High Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships] Long Island University Project Title: A Translation and Commentary of the Voronezh Notebooks by Russian Poet Osip Mandelstam Project Description: Preparation of an English-language translation and critical edition of the Voronezh Notebooks by the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938).

Megan Behrent Outright: $60,000 [Awards for Faculty] CUNY Research Foundation, NYC College of Technology Project Title: Poetry & Politics: Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich and the Women’s Liberation Movement Project Description: Research and writing leading to a dual biography of modern American poets Audre Lorde (1934–1992) and Adrienne Rich (1929–2012).

Buffalo
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Match: $475,000 [Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants] Project Director: Janne Siren Project Title: Renovation of Albright-Knox Art Gallery Historic 1905 Building Project Description: Restoration of the copper roof and replacement of the existing rubber membrane within the roof and under the walkway of the loggia on the west façade of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, to preserve the historic 1905 building and protect the museum’s extensive collection of modern and contemporary art.

SUNY Research Foundation, Buffalo State College Outright: $350,000 [Preservation Education and Training] Project Director: Patrick Ravines Project Title: Fellowships for Graduate Students in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage Project Description: Partial fellowship stipends for 17 graduate students enrolled in the State University of New York College at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) program in art conservation. Students to receive funding would include nine students in the class of 2021 and eight in the class of 2022.

Cold Spring Harbor

Whaling Museum Society, Inc. Match: $46,348 [Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants] Project Director: Nomi Dayan Project Title: Preservation and Accessibility through Infrastructure Developments Project Description: Renovation of the museum’s gallery building, including repairs to the 80-year-old roof, door replacements, and bathroom upgrades that would improve public accessibility and environmental safety for people and collections.

Flushing

Kristina Richardson Outright: $60,000 [Awards for Faculty] CUNY Research Foundation, Queens College Project Title: ‘Gypsies’ and Race-Making in the Premodern Middle East Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book about Roma language and culture in the premodern Middle East.

Hempstead

Simon Doubleday Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships] Hofstra University Project Title: Christian Spain before the Crusades: Power and Pragmatism in EleventhCentury Iberia Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book on relations between 11thcentury Christian rulers of León and the Islamic states of al-Andalus.

Ithaca

Amy Reading Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships] Independent Scholar Project Title: A Literary Biography of Katharine S. White, Editor of The New Yorker Project Description: Completion of a biography of Katharine S. White (1892–1977), writer and editor for The New Yorker.

New York

Marcus Folch Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships] Columbia University Project Title: A Cultural History of Incarceration and the Prison in Greece and Rome Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book on the social and political history of prisons in the ancient Greco-Roman world.

Matvei Yankelevich Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships] Columbia University Project Title: A Translation and Commentary of the Voronezh Notebooks by Russian Poet Osip Mandelstam Project Description: Preparation of an English-language translation and critical edition of the Voronezh Notebooks by the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938).

New York Public Radio Match: $750,000 [Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants] Project Director: Andy Lanset Project Title: Preservation and Digitization of the New York Public Radio Archives Project Description: The preservation of a portion of the New York Public Radio’s historical sound recordings and the implementation of a Digital Asset Management system for the NYPR Archives.

New York University Outright: $100,000 [Digital Humanities Advancement Grants] Project Director: Alexander Jones Project Title: Shanati: Reconstructing the Daily Ancient Babylonian Chronology in Synchronization with the Proleptic Julian Calendar Project Description: A reconstruction of ancient chronology combining textual and astronomical data that will allow scholars to identify when past events took place with greater precision.

New-York Historical Society Match: $750,000 [Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants] Project Director: Jennifer Schantz Project Title: Securing New-York Historical’s Future: Historic Building Renovation Project Project Description: Securing the building envelope and replacing damaged windows at the landmark 1908 Beaux-Arts style New-York Historical Society building to ensure proper climate control and protection of the building’s integrity.

Seiji Shirane Outright: $60,000 [Fellowships for Advanced Research on Japan] CUNY Research Foundation, City College Project Title: Gateway Imperialism: Colonial Taiwan and Japanese Expansion into South China and Southeast Asia, 1895–1945 Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book on the role of Taiwan, Japan’s first overseas colony, in expanding Japan’s empire from 1895 to 1945.

Yaari Felber-Seligman Outright: $60,000 [Awards for Faculty] CUNY Research Foundation, City College Project Title: Inland Trade in Central East Africa, 1st–17th Centuries Project Description: Writing and revisions leading to a book about the Rufiji Ruvuma societies of Eastern Africa during the pre-seventeenth century.

Pocantico Hills

Historic Hudson Valley Outright: $100,000 [Digital Projects for the Public] Project Director: Elizabeth Bradley Project Title: Cuffee’s Trial: A Digital Graphic History Project Description: Prototyping of an interactive digital history on the New York Conspiracy trials (1741), in which both enslaved people and poor white New Yorkers stood accused of plotting to burn the city and murder its white inhabitants.

Rochester

Michela Andreatta Outright: $45,000 [Fellowships] University of Rochester Project Title: An Edition and Translation of Toffeh ‘Arukh (Hell Arrayed) by Moses Zacuto Project Description: Research and writing the first English translation-edition of the 17th-century Hebrew poem Tofteh ‘Arukh (Hell Arrayed) by rabbi-scholar Moses Zacuto (1620–1697).

Rochester Institute of Technology Outright: $350,000 [Research and Development] Project Director: David Messinger Project Title: Low-Cost End-to-End Spectral Imaging System for Historical Document Discovery Project Description: A Tier II project to develop a low-cost spectral imaging system and accompanying software to recover obscured and illegible text in historical materials.

St. John Fisher College Outright: $99,222 [Digital Projects for the Public] Project Director: Wendi Sierra Project Title: A Strong Fire: An Oneida Language and Culture App for Children and Families Project Description: Prototyping of an online interactive game using Oneida folklore to explore Oneida language, culture, and, philosophy.

Staten Island

Dalia Kandiyoti Outright: $15,000 [Awards for Faculty] CUNY Research Foundation, College of Staten Island Project Title: Spanish and Portuguese Citizenship Laws for Sephardi Descendants in the Americas Project Description: Writing an article about the intersection of history, heritage, and religion in the Sephardi dual citizenship laws passed by Spain and Portugal in 2015.