News Release
2009 recipients named for the Emory Research Collaboration in the Humanities
Office of the Provost

In Fall 2007 Provost Earl Lewis issued a call for proposals for a new program designed to support collaborative research in the humanities.  Now in its second year, the Emory Research Collaboration in the Humanities fosters interdisciplinary research in the humanities and multi-disciplinary collaborations between the humanities and the social and hard sciences.  The grant program builds on Emory’s existing strengths in the humanities while building new conversations across a spectrum of disciplines.  The program goal is to support interdisciplinarity and to strengthen intellectual community. 

Following a peer review of applications by a committee consisting of distinguished chairholders in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, two applications were selected for funding beginning Summer 2009.  The breadth and creativity of the selected applications testify to the enduring value and the innovative potential of collaborative research at Emory.

Origins: Researching the Identity of Africans Pulled into the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1819-1845
Investigators:
David Eltis, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of History
Edna Bay, Associate Professor, Institute of Liberal Arts / African Studies
Martin Halbert, Director of Digital Innovations, Emory University

New Orleans after Katrina
Investigators:
Leslie Harris, Associate Professor, History and African American Studies
Michael Moon, Professor, Institute of the Liberal Arts
Connie Moon Sehat, Director of Digital Scholarship Initiatives, Emory University

The Collaborative Grants Program takes shape amidst a broader recognition that the humanities as a field of inquiry are growing and expanding.  Funding opportunities for humanistic endeavors are becoming more competitive at the same time that scholars in these fields are taking on increasingly demanding and multi-faceted roles and research projects.  The Emory Research Collaboration in the Humanities supports Emory scholars as they continue to shape the humanities fields and as they explore human nature, history, culture, and the values that guide us.