Past Postdoctorate Fellows

In September 2007, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities appointed Peter Civetta and Stephen Halsey to two-year postdoctoral fellowships. Professors Civetta and Halsey were affiliated both with the Institute and a department. Each year, they taught three small-to medium-scale Humanities courses (one per quarter). They also participated in the intellectual life of the Institute and conducted their own research.

In September 2010, the Kaplan Institute welcomed Elizabeth Todd-Breland, recipient of a Andrew W. Mellon/ACLS Early Career Fellowship Program Recent Doctoral Recipients Fellowship, for the 2010-11 academic year.

 

Peter Civetta

(Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, 2007-2009, Religion)

Project Summary

Dr. Peter Civetta did a research project during his post-doctoral fellowship with the Kaplan Institute for the Humanities entitled "Vote By Faith: The Impact of Religious Belief on the 2008 Presidential Election Cycle." In the New York Times Magazine, Gary Rosen wrote an article called "Narrowing the Religion Gap," where he explores religion within the 2008 presidential race. In discussing the chasm between the religious and non-religious in this country, he states: "What we owe one another are concrete explanations, grounded in terms we might hope to share" (18 February 2007; Pg. 11). This project sought after just such a goal - is it possible to find concrete explanations as to the role and impact of religious/faith/spiritual belief in American politics, and to present those findings in terms meaningful to people in all camps? Dr. Civetta opened the conversation up beyond its current narrow limitations to ask people of multiple faiths (and people without religious affiliation) about how religion actually works in our society at present. The project centered on long term discussion groups, engaging average Americans in questions concerning their beliefs and their perceptions of the various candidates and campaign events. The groups held as wide a demographic mix as possible: Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists, secular humanists, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. Three main aspects of this topic were explored: 1) How do the candidates and campaigns use religion and religious language, and is it appropriate? 2) How does the media cover the religious aspects of the campaigns, and do they treat different religious traditions differently? 3) What role does a person's personal faith life play in determining who they support in an election, and how deep does that connection run?

Courses Taught

The Power of the Pulpit: Preaching as Cultural Discourse (Fall 2007)
Religious/Spiritual Drama: Embodied Expressions of Belief (Winter 2008)
Religiosity and performance (Graduate seminar for the Performance Studies Department) (Spring 2008)
The Performance of Politics: The 2008 Election (Fall 2008)

 

Stephen Halsey

(Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, 2007-2009, Asian Studies)

Project Summary

Stephen Halsey worked on a book project that examined the ways that European imperialism reshaped the assumptions and practice of Chinese statecraft in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Using sources in classical and modern Chinese and Japanese, his work traced efforts to enhance the state’s fiscal, administrative, and military capabilities in regions of strategic significance such as the lower Yangzi valley. His research findings indicate the need for a wholly new interpretation of late imperial political history that reflects the fundamental success of state-building in China after 1850. Through a comparison with early modern Britain and Mughal India, he also sought to develop a broad critique of Euro-centric models of state formation.

Courses Taught

Colonialism in the Making of the Modern World, 1500-1950
The Rise and Fall of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911
The Age of Imperialism in East Asia, 1840-1945
The Cold War in East Asia, 1945-1989
Early Modern Empires in Asia: Qing, Mughals, Ottomans

Elizabeth Todd-Breland

(Andrew W. Mellon/ACLS Early Career Fellowship Program Recent Doctoral Recipients Fellowship, 2010-11)

Elizabeth Todd-Breland (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2010) used her fellowship to work on a book manuscript from her research project, "A Political Education: Race, Politics, and Education in Post-Civil Rights Chicago."