Fellowships in the Humanities
Humanities contains the largest number of Fields of Study for the Guggenheim Fellowship. Fellows in this category are historians of all kinds; linguists, translators, and classicists; philosophers and theologians; and scholars of topics ranging from architecture to theatre.
Some, like David McCullough (1986 Fellow in US History) and Imani Perry (2021 Fellow in Intellectual and Cultural History), have written award-winning books. Some, like Emily Wilson (2020 Fellow in Translation) have translated essential work. Others still have asked probing questions about humanity's belief systems, helped us understand the cultural significance of different creative forms, or turned a critic's eye toward literature and art. And many have deeply explored another culture's history, or examined what we can learn from our own.
We are so proud to support the essential work of these scholars in the Humanities.
- Slavic Studies
- Near Eastern Studies
- Medieval & Early Modern Studies
- Music Research
- Classics
- Philosophy
- Religion
- Translation
- U.S. History
- Asian Studies
- Architecture, Planning, & Design
- Theatre Arts & Performance Studies
- African Studies
- American Literature
- Intellectual & Cultural History
- Dance Studies
- English Literature
- European & Latin American History
- Film, Video, & New Media Studies
- Literary Criticism
- History of Science, Technology, & Economics
- Linguistics
- Fine Arts Research
- European & Latin American Literature
Fellows & Works
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Open modal David McCullough, 1986 Fellow in U.S. History
David McCullough, 1986 Fellow in U.S. History
"Helping America understand its past"
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Navigate to "A More Valuable Exponent of Human Understanding"
"A More Valuable Exponent of Human Understanding"
Three Fellows from the Guggenheim Foundation’s First Class
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Open modal Richard Crawford's "America's Musical Life"
Richard Crawford's "America's Musical Life"
The 1977 Fellow's magnum opus
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Open modal Margaret Rossiter (1981 Fellow)
Margaret Rossiter (1981 Fellow)
Coiner of "the Matilda effect"
David McCullough, 1986 Fellow in U.S. History
Writer and historian David McCullough became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1986. He used his Fellowship year to do extensive research in Missouri and in France for what would become his first Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Truman,” about the 33rd president of the United States, which stayed on the New York Times’ Bestseller list for 43 weeks. In addition to his written work, McCullough lent his voice to movies and documentaries, including 1990 Fellow Ken Burns’ series “The Civil War.” Upon his death, Robert Caro—a Guggenheim Foundation Trustee—said, “A great historian is gone today. There is only one solace: His books will endure, helping America understand its past.”
Imani
Perry
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Field of Study
Intellectual & Cultural History
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Years Awarded
2021
Photo Credit: Sameer Khan
Stories
Emily
Wilson
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Field of Study
Translation
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Years Awarded
2020
Stories
Richard Crawford's "America's Musical Life"
As a graduate student in the 1960s, Richard Crawford, a Guggenheim Fellow in Music Research, made the decision to focus his lines of inquiry on American music. At the time, as Crawford’s New York Times obituary noted, “The study of American music was a marginal subfield…; most scholars considered music history to be about the European classics.” But Crawford forged ahead and ultimately broke ground as one of the first scholars to focus on the musical history of the United States. With his 1977 Guggenheim Fellowship, Crawford pursued multiple projects, including three different books on early American psalmody and sacred music. He also began to lay the groundwork for what many consider his magnum opus, “America’s Musical Life: A History.” Published in 2001, the book traces American musical tradition from Native American songs to African-American spirituals to the work of composers like Philip Glass. Crawford is credited with turning the tide of musical scholarship. He switched the focus “from Music with a capital M to music-making,” and in doing so, celebrated the process of creation as much as the final product.
Margaret Rossiter (1981 Fellow)
Margaret Rossiter earned a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981 to write her award-winning book, "Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-1972," her second in three-volume series considering women's contributions to scientific advancement and the barriers they encountered along the way. Through her writing and her decades spent as a professor of the History of Science (most recently at Cornell University), she has been instrumental in elevating the important work of women in the sciences—often in spite of societal efforts to prevent their success. Rossiter coined the phrase the "Matilda effect," which describes the phenomenon in which the work of women scientists is attributed only to their male colleagues, systematically erasing their contributions from history. (P.S. The person on the cover of her book is Nobel Prize-winning cytogenticist Barbara McClintock, a 1933 Fellow.)