Adelman, Lunbeck named 2001 Guggenheim fellows

University history professors Jeremy Adelman and Elizabeth Lunbeck recently were awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in the organization's 2001 competition.

Guggenheim Fellows are chosen because of their distinguished achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishments. Decisions are based on recommendations from hundreds of expert advisers and are approved by the foundation's board of trustees.

Adelman, who currently teaches HIS 304: Modern Latin America since 1810 and is director of the University's Program in Latin American Studies, is working on a book about the political economy of revolution in South America between 1750 and 1824. His work traces the fall of the Spanish and Portuguese empires and the origins of the nation-state.

"The book is about Europe's two oldest empires, how they collapsed, and the social, political and economic consequences for the new countries that emerged," Adelman said.

Another issue Adelman addresses — what he calls the "sub-plot" of his book — is that "we're still living with the consequences of that conflict. Latin America is still wrestling with the concept of national identity," he explained.

Adelman was awarded $35,000 from the Guggenheim Foundation. He expects that it will take him about two more years to complete his book.

Lunbeck was also named a Guggenheim Fellow and received the award for the book she is currently writing about psychoanalytic practice in the United States before 1920. Lunbeck said she will examine the decades after Freud's visit to Clark University in 1909. The work is based on a number of psychoanalytic journals from the period and on case notes documenting psychoanalytic treatment.

"I will be focusing on psychoanalytic technique and the issues of gender relations," she said.

Adelman and Lunbeck are among 30 Guggenheim fellows in the tri-state area. The 2001 Fellowship winners include 183 artists, scholars and scientists selected from over 2,700 applicants for awards totaling $6,588,000.