1:24 p.m., April 27, 2009----Joshua Calhoun, a third-year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Delaware, has won a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Studies (ACLS).

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Created to assist Ph.D. students in the humanities and related social sciences in their last year of dissertation writing, the fellowship was awarded to 65 students for a one-year term. Calhoun said there were around 900 submissions this year.

Calhoun said he found out about receiving the award when March Madness was going on. “The whole thing felt to me like one of those crazy games where an unlikely team pulls out an unlikely victory,” he said.

“You hope your work matters,” he said. “What is wonderful about the award is that it suggests a broader interest in my topic outside of my immediate discipline.”

Applicants for the fellowship had to show how their research was contributing to the field of humanities by including an application, a proposal, a bibliography, and a dissertation chapter.

Calhoun jokes that his work deals with three things everyone should love: Shakespeare, nature and books.

Specifically, Calhoun said he is studying the way people communicate poetic ideas through textual media during the Renaissance. According to Calhoun, the natural resources used to make texts inflect the experiences of writing and reading in Renaissance England.

During these times, Calhoun points out that Renaissance readers and writers used many natural resources while writing, including quill pens, ink made from plant ingredients, leather book bindings and handmade paper filled with flecks of visible organic matter.

Matt Kinservik, professor and director of graduate studies in the English department, said he was happy to learn about Calhoun winning the award because his field of work is unique.

“Josh won this fellowship because of the originality and intellectual daring of his dissertation,” Kinservik said. “Many people are interested in writing about the history of the book, but Josh's focus on the actual material composition of early modern books (and on the awareness of historical readers of those materials) is ground-breaking.”

Calhoun said he considers the fellowship award to be a collaborative achievement, as he received feedback and support while completing his application from friends and faculty at several universities and institutions, as well as family members.

“I have no doubt that the pre-circulation, rigorous feedback and subsequent revisions really made a difference,” he said. “I had so many voices. I am very grateful to a broad range of people.”

Kinservik pointed out the impact that a UD student winning such a prestigious award has for the University.

“We are particularly proud of Josh's fellowship because it represents not just a boon to him, but it enhances the reputation of the University of Delaware, too,” he said. “This is a highly competitive national award, and the ACLS lists the winners on its Web site with a description of the dissertation and the institutional affiliation prominently displayed. It's going to be nice to see UD listed on that page next year, and a lot of eyes will see it.”

Article by Jon Bleiweis