Ruth Nisse is National Humanities Center fellow in 2005-06

The National Humanities Center has announced the appointment of 39 fellows for the academic year 2005-06, including Ruth Nisse, associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Representing history, literature, philosophy and humanistic fields of study, the 39 fellows were chosen from a field of 535 applicants. The center will grant $1.3 million to enable the fellows to take leave from their normal academic duties and purse their research at the center in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The fellows will come from 33 colleges and universities in the United States, England and Germany to work individually on research projects and exchange ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences.

A scholar in Medieval and early modern literature, especially drama, Nisse will work on a project titled "Jacob's Shipwreck: Powers of Diaspora in the Postbiblical Literature of the Jewish and Christian Middle Ages." Her project is supported by the Lilly Endowment Fellowship.

The National Humanities Center is a privately incorporated independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. Since 1978, it has awarded fellowships to leading scholars in the humanities, whose work at the center has resulted in the publication of more than 900 books in all fields of humanistic study. The center also sponsors programs to strengthen the teaching of the humanities in secondary and higher education.

CONTACT: Ruth Nisse, Assoc. Professor, English, (402) 472-1804