Six University faculty members have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships for the 2007-08 academic year, up from two last year and down from seven in 2005, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced Thursday. The prestigious prizes fund professors' research in a broad range of fields.
The Princeton Fellows are history professor Daniel Rodgers, economics professor Jose Scheinkman, English professor Nigel Smith, composer and music professor Dmitri Tymoczko, Russian literature professor Michael Wachtel and painting lecturer Tommy White.
Guggenheim Fellows receive funding to spend between six and 12 months pursuing projects they propose to the foundation. In 2003, the most recent year for which figures were available, the average fellowship grant was about $35,747. This year, 189 total fellows, including artists, scholars and scientists, were selected from a pool of almost 2,800 applicants. A total of $7.6 million in funds will be distributed among them.
"Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment," the Guggenheim Foundation press release said. "What distinguishes the Guggenheim Fellowship program from all others is the wide range in interest, age, geography, and institution of those it selects."
Princeton creative writing professor Joyce Carol Oates and English professor Charles Ryskamp — both previous Guggenheim fellows — sit on the foundation's board of trustees, which makes the final fellowship appointments.
The Princeton fellows, who will use their grants to pursue a wide variety of projects during the next year, all said they were pleased to be chosen for the prize.
Rodgers will use the fellowship to work on a book about transformations in social thought in 1980s America. The book will examine how American ideas about concepts including markets, race, history and power evolved over the course of the decade.
"The 1980s is an extraordinarily important period in American intellectual history, and I think it has not been carefully comprehended so far," Rodgers said. He added that he plans to examine "the idea [that] human beings are themselves most when they choose individually, as opposed to being themselves most when they are part of families or communities."
Scheinkman plans to use his fellowship while on sabbatical next year to conduct research at Columbia and NYU on "informality" in the economy, or market dealings conducted outside the tax system.
"Estimates indicate that firms and individuals that avoid taxes produce 25 to 35 percent of output in Latin America," Scheinkman said in an email. "Nonetheless, the available economic literature on the determinants of informality is rather limited."
Scheinkman intends to study whether informal firms are less efficient — either because of their small size or lack of access to credit or legal protection — and how governments could better persuade firms to operate within the tax system, especially in less developed countries.
Smith will use the Guggenheim grant to visit libraries in Paris, Madrid, Rome and Amsterdam next year, researching a book on how early modern European states' political systems affected the kinds of literature they produced.
"[It] might seem glamorous traveling to several European capitals within one year," Smith said in an email. "But I expect from previous experience this will not mean much exciting company, or enjoying exquisite cuisine, but a humble contemplative existence with long hours of reading and writing."
Tymoczko's Guggenheim grant will go toward a book about his work on the relationship between geometry and musical chords. He also plans to compose two pieces of music, one for the piano and the other for a string quartet.
"I'm extremely happy!" Tymoczko said in an email, describing his reaction to receiving the fellowship. "It feels like a real vote of confidence in the work that I've been doing. Also, there are five composers in the music department, and the other four have all received Guggenheims. So I'm glad to no longer be the last guy on the block without one."
White will spend his fellowship money painting in his New York studio next year but said he does not yet have a specific project in mind. "I've never been the sort of artist that knows what comes next," White said in an email. "One piece brings up questions that lead to the next piece and so on and so on."
Wachtel will use the grant to pursue a project on the lyric poetry of Alexander Pushkin. He is working on a commentary of Pushkin's work that will help students understand the writer's "extraordinary symmetries yet seemingly 'conversational' style."
"Pushkin's poetry," he added, "simply falls flat when rendered into foreign languages."
Brown and Harvard faculty members also earned fellowships, with each school collecting five in total. Yale and Columbia each had three.
Read More
Joseph ’25 next Young Alumni Trustee in 21 percent turnout election
Vitus LarrieuGil Joseph ’25 won the Young Alumni Trustee election, which saw 21 percent turnout. Joseph, Stephen Padlo ’25 and Ben Wachspress ’25 competed in the final round of elections after advancing from a notably large primary in April.
Gil Joseph ’25 won the Young Alumni Trustee election, which saw 21 percent turnout. Joseph, Stephen Padlo ’25 and Ben Wachspress ’25 competed in the final round of elections after advancing from a notably large primary in April.
‘A brilliant young contemporary writer and a beautiful human being’: Remembering Lauren Blackburn ’26
Victoria Davies and Caitlyn TabladaBlackburn was found deceased by authorities on April 25, several days after he was reported missing. He was 23 years old at the time of his death and is remembered by friends and mentors as a brilliant writer, voracious learner, and loving friend. A family obituary said he passed away after a “courageous battle with bipolar disorder.”
Blackburn was found deceased by authorities on April 25, several days after he was reported missing. He was 23 years old at the time of his death and is remembered by friends and mentors as a brilliant writer, voracious learner, and loving friend. A family obituary said he passed away after a “courageous battle with bipolar disorder.”
GSG approves audit, delays budget approval after ‘insufferable’ meeting
Nikki HanThe final Graduate Student Government (GSG) meeting for the semester lasted more than an hour and a half when discussions over the proposed budget for the next year and a proposed Student Life Fee of $100 turned controversial.
The final Graduate Student Government (GSG) meeting for the semester lasted more than an hour and a half when discussions over the proposed budget for the next year and a proposed Student Life Fee of $100 turned controversial.