Plains Humanities Alliance director receives Fulbright award

Timothy Mahoney, director of the Plains Humanities Alliance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has been awarded a Fulbright Program Senior Lectureship in American Studies at Adam Mickiewics University in Poland for the academic year 2005-2006.

Since 1946, the Fulbright Scholar Program has been the U.S. Department of State's flagship academic exchange program, serving as a vehicle for promoting mutual international understanding. Participants are selected for their scholarship and their leadership potential. Mahoney, a professor of history at UNL, will teach courses in American urban and social history at Mickiewics University. Wendy Katz, associate professor of art and art history at UNL, will serve as interim director of the Plains Humanities Alliance until Mahoney returns in August 2006.

Katz earned her bachelor's degree at Occidental College in Los Angeles (1988), her master's degree at the University of Michigan (1989), and her doctorate in American art history at the University of California (1997). She specializes in 19th-century American art, including an interest in how regional differences shape what is seen as national culture, a subject explored in her 2002 book from Ohio State University Press, "Regionalism & Reform: Art and Class Formation in Antebellum Cincinnati."

"I am looking forward to contributing to the Plains Humanities Alliance, especially its commitment to fostering scholarship that reaches across disciplines and outside the university to understand how regional identity is formed," Katz said.

Headquartered at UNL, the Plains Humanities Alliance is one of nine regional humanities centers nationwide. It represents Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Oklahoma. In 2001, UNL was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to establish the center, which is dedicated to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of the Great Plains. By encouraging collaboration among humanities educators, scholars, professionals and the public, the center supports innovative explorations of the region's history, literatures and peoples. For more information about the Alliance and its programs, please consult its Web site (A HREF=http://libr.unl.edu:2000/plains>http://libr.unl.edu:2000/plains).

CONTACT:Wendy Katz, Asst. Professor, Art & Art History, (402) 472-5545