Release date: April 26, 2002
Contact: Nancy Seideman, Director, Media Relations,
at 404-727-0640 or nseidem@emory.edu

Two Professors Named Guggenheim Fellows

Two Emory University professors have received Guggenheim Fellowships for 2002, which are awarded on the basis of distinguished achievement and exceptional promise of future accomplishment from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Kristin Mann, associate professor of history, and Lawrence Barsalou, professor of psychology, were among the 184 scholars, artists and scientists selected from more than 2,800 applicants for awards totaling $6,750,000.

Barsalou, a cognitive psychologist, will use his fellowship to take the next year off to write a book covering his 30 years of research on the human conceptual system—a central topic in psychology, cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience. The book will offer a new view of the conceptual system, along with empirical evidence supporting it, he says.

"It is a tremendous honor to receive this fellowship, which also is a recognition of the work I am doing," Barsalou says.

Mann is a specialist in colonial African history, including research on marriage and the family, gender, slavery and emancipation. She plans to use her fellowship to finish her book, "The Birth of an African City: Trade, State and Emancipation in 19th-century Lagos." Mann also is an adjunct faculty member in Emory’s anthropology department and Institute of African Studies.

Fellowships are based on recommendations from hundreds of expert advisors and are approved by the foundation’s board of trustees, which includes seven members who are themselves past fellows of the foundation. Many of these individuals hold appointments in colleges and universities, with 86 institutions being represented by one or more fellows. The full list of this year’s fellows, go to www.gf.org.

Mann is a resident of Decatur, Ga. (30030), and Barsalou is a resident of Atlanta (30329).

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