WLP Affiliated Faculty Member Receives National Fellowship
Michael Schrimper, MFA ’16, an affiliated faculty member in Emerson College’s First-Year Writing Program, has been selected from a national applicant pool to attend one of 24 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) institutes as one of its Summer Scholars.
Each summer, the NEH supports enrichment opportunities at colleges, universities, and cultural institutions, so faculty can collaborate and study with experts in the humanities. Schrimper will attend an institute called “Transcendentalism and Reform in the Age of Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller,” being held in Concord, Massachusetts.
“It’s a tremendous honor to receive this fellowship, particularly when funding for the humanities is imperiled,” Schrimper said. “I look forward to meeting the other scholars, hopefully advancing research in the field, and eventually sharing knowledge gained through the experience with my students.”
Schrimper said he heard about the opportunity through his mentor, Writing, Literature and Publishing Professor Megan Marshall, who will be on faculty for the two-week program. Marshall, who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her biography Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, will give a seminar on “Writing the Lives of the Female Transcendentalists.”
The 25 teachers selected to participate in the program each receive a stipend of $2,100 to cover their travel, study, and living expenses.
Approximately 537 NEH Summer Scholars who participate in these programs of study will teach more than 93,975 American college, university, and high school students the following year.
Schrimper said the humanities are more important now than ever.
“In a world which can be painfully alienating, it is important to consider that word, ‘humanities,’ what it means to be human, what we owe to one another and this planet, and to try our damnedest to make a difference,” he said.
Categories
