The 1985-86 Congressional Fellowships have been awarded to Heather Huyck and David Farber. The AHA Selection Committee, consisting of Donald A. Ritchie, Senate Historical Office (chair); Ronald Hoffman, University of Maryland, College Park; Anna K. Nelson, George Washington University, Allison Blakeley, Howard University and J. Pat Harahan, Office of Air Force History, reviewed nineteen applications and met at the AHA headquarters, to interview the top contenders.
Dr. Huyck, who is chief of the division of resource management, National Capital Parks-Central, National Parks Service, received her PhD in 1981 from the University of Minnesota. The subject of her dissertation was “To Celebrate a Whole Priesthood: The History of Women’s Ordination in the Episcopal Church.” Among her many papers, presentations and publications she coauthored with Blair Hubbard and Dave Nathanson Collecting, Using and Preserving Oral History in the National Park Service.
David Farber received his doctorate from the University of Chicago, where he was an instructor in the department of history until his move to Washington. His dissertation is on “Chicago ’68: Politics in Confrontation.” His research and teaching interests are in American political history, post-World War II years. Dr. Farber has served as director of the corporate philanthropy project at the Donors Forum of Chicago and published an annotated bibliography on corporate philanthropy. He also served as a researcher on a project on the history of philanthropy and public policy from 1981 until 1984.
In the beginning of September, the fellows attended an intensive two week orientation program organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for AHA fellows and a number of other congressional fellowship programs. Thereafter the fellows will serve a full year on either a congressional committee or on the staff of a representative or senator.
The Congressional Fellowship Program has operated for six years funded by grants from the Mellon Foundation and later by the Rockefeller Foundation. On the conclusion of the 1985-86 fellowship year this excellent program will have to be discontinued unless new funding can be miraculously obtained from other sources.
The recipient of the eighth J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History is Evelyn Brooks. The selection was made by the AHA Committee on the Jameson Fellowship, consisting of John M. Cooper, Jr., University of Wisconsin-Madison (chair); Nancy Nichols Barker, University of Texas at Austin, and Ronald Bayor, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. Brooks, currently on the faculty of the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of Maryland, College Park, received her doctorate from the University of Rochester in 1984. Her dissertation topic was “The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1870-1920.” She plans to utilize the resources in various manuscript collections in the Library of Congress to revise her dissertation for publication by refining her analysis of the interaction and intersection of racial, class, and gender consciousness in the black community of that period.
This annual fellowship is awarded for one semester or as much of an academic year as the Jameson fellow desires to spend in residence at the Library of Congress. The deadline for the 1986- 87 competition is March 15, 1986. Further information for applying is available from the office of the Executive Director at AHA headquarters, 400 A St. SE, Washington, DC 20003.
