The U.S. Senate has confirmed nine people nominated by President George W. Bush to the National Council on the Humanities. The scholars and leaders will serve a six-year term on the advisory board of 26-member advisory board for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The board meets quarterly to review grants and advise the NEH chair.

The nine new council members are: Herman Belz, a professor of U.S. and Constitutional history at the University of Maryland at College Park, who has been a consultant for the AHA’s Constitutional History in the Schools Project and to the Carter Museum and Library. Belz is the author of numerous monographs, articles, chapters in books, and essays. Belz received the AHA’s Albert J. Beveridge Award among other prestigious prizes and grants.

Craig Haffner works in the entertainment industry and helped found Greystone Television, an Emmy Award winning production company. He served as co-chair of the National Trust for Historic Gettysburg and as a member on the board of the LAPD Historical Society.

James Davison Hunter is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, where he also chairs the department and serves as the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Hunter’s many books, essays, and articles deal with the meaning and moral order of American life. He has received several awards, including the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Gustavus Myers Award for the Study of Human Rights.

Tamar Jacoby is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and co-founder of the New Americans Project. She has worked as a writer and editor for Newsweek magazine and the New York Times. Jacoby appears in numerous publications and writes about immigration, citizenship, ethnicity, and race. In 1998, she received an NEH fellowship for her book, Someone Else's House America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration.

Harvey Klehr is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History at Emory University. His awards include the Emory University Scholar-Teacher of the Year, and the Thomas Jefferson Award. He has written eight books three of which were nominated for Pulitzer Prizes. Klehr has also led the NEH summer seminars.

Thomas Lindsay is the executive vice president and provost of Seton Hall University. He has served as a professor, provost, vice president of academic affairs, dean of the graduate school, and director of the Institute of Philosophical Studies at the University of Dallas. Lindsay has written numerous articles that examine the relationship between democracy and education.

Iris Cornelia Love is an archeologist, professor, and editor. Love is published in many journals and serves as the editor-at-large for Architectural Digest and Parade Magazine.

Thomas Mallon is an author and former professor of English at Vassar College. He wrote six novels, several non-fiction books, and two volumes of essays. Mallon has received Rockefeller and Guggenheim fellowships. In 1998, he served as chair of the fiction judges for the National Book Awards. Ricardo J. Quinones is a professor emeritus of comparative literature at Claremont McKenna College. He has served as president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, chair of the MLA's executive committee on comparative literature, and member of the California Council for the Humanities. Quinones has written six books, published many articles and reviews, and has given numerous lectures.

— BC