Two Fulbright College Faculty and Five Students Receive Fellowships From Blair Center

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Blair Center faculty fellowship recipients Juan José Bustamante and Lisa Hinrichsen.

Diane D. Blair, namesake of the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society, was a tireless champion of interdisciplinary research and critical thinking, and the center that bears her name continuously strives to study the American South from a variety of angles, attempting to reveal the undercurrents of politics, history and culture that have shaped the region over time. 

With this mission in mind, the center recently selected two faculty members and five students from the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences to receive fellowships to encourage research related to the American South, politics, history and literature.

The faculty fellowship recipients are Juan José Bustamante and Lisa Hinrichsen.

Bustamante is an assistant professor jointly appointed through the college's Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice and its Latin American & Latino Studies program. He plans to use the fellowship to work on his research titled 'Building Community: Latina/o Narratives from the American South on Race, Citizenship and Labor Challenges'. He will study the cumulative social effects on emerging Latina/o and immigrant communities produced by the actions of larger social institutions that have been adopted to address the demographic shift of the American South.

Hinrichsen is an associate professor in the college's Department of English. She plans to use the fellowship to complete Hidden Pleasures: Intimacy in Southern Spaces. Her book will examine how expressions of gender, intimacy and sexual identity unfold in ways specific to the U.S South and how these fluid understandings can prompt us to rethink mainstream geographies, histories and identities.

The graduate fellowship recipients are Nathaniel Conley, Karly Eaton, Michael Shane Powers, Madeline Forrest Ramsey and Jordan Savage.

Conley is in the fifth year of his Ph.D. and is also a lecturer in the Department of History. Conley received his B.A. in history and his M.A. in history from Arkansas State University. His research focuses on early American history, and specifically addresses the role slavery played in the development of the borderland between northern and southern states from 1780-1850.

Eaton is in the second year of her M.A. in English. Eaton graduated magna cum laude with honors from the University of South Carolina. Her thesis focuses on contemporary literature for children and young adults with regards to the representation of the U.S. South and how it defines and attempts to normalize Southern childhoods.

Powers is in the fifth year of his Ph.D. Powers received his B.A. in history from the University of Florida and his M.A. in history from Clemson University. He is currently working on his dissertation, entitled "'The Commercial Union of the Three Americas:' Major Edward A. Burke and Transnational New South Visionaries, 1870-1928." The Blair Fellowship will foster access to archives in the U.S. and Latin America, allowing him to continue his work from both American and Hispanic perspectives.

Ramsey is in the fourth year of her Ph.D. Ramsey received her B.A. in history and religious studies from Randolph-Macon College and her M.A. in history from Clemson University. Her research focuses on the 19th century U.S. South, specifically the Civil War. Her dissertation is entitled "The Cruel Consequences of War: Life in Fauquier County, Virginia 1861-1865." She will use the fellowship to conduct research at the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia.

Savage is in the first year of her Ph.D. work. Savage received her B.A. in English from the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and her M.A. in English from the University of Mississippi, where she also worked in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric. She is interested in the ways Southern heritage, race and queerness overlap, intersect and haunt 20th century Southern literature.

For more information, please visit the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society.