Prof. Faull Wins NEH Grant, Named BUEC/NHCI Scholar in Residence

The Bucknell University Environmental Center/Nature and Human Communities Initiative is very happy to relay the news here that our colleague Prof. Katherine Faull has won an $100,000 NEH grant for her ground-breaking work on the Moravian diaries of Chief Shikellamy's Shamokin community, officially confirmed this week. She also has been named BUEC's first distinguished scholar in residence.

Her work, the basis for the 2008-09 Bucknell University focus year "Cultures at the Confluence: The Susquehanna Valley and Environmental Humanities," focuses on early 18th-century writings that reveal fascinating details and insights into early life at the confluence of the Susquehanna River (about 10 miles south of Bucknell) in a cross-cultural American Indian and Euroamerican community.

"The project opens up new ways of thinking about not only about the history of Chief Shikellamy and his community of old Shamokin, but also about the region and its importance in a formational era of American history," Faull said in response to the announcement.

Her work has also contributed to a study this summer of the prospects for designating the Susquehanna River as a national historic connector trail of the National Park Service's John Smith Chesapeake Trail, an effort sponsored by the Conservation Fund. It also already in its first stages has garnered enthusiastic responses from community members and groups, while helping to raise the profile of the Environmental Center's developing Nature and Human Communities Initiative.

Her very competitive award from the Collaborative Research program of NEH was further distinguished by being named part of the "We the People" project of NEH by the endowment's acting chairman Carole Watson. In announcing the award, Watson said that the project is expected to contribute significantly to the goals of the "We the People" initiative, in terms of encouraging and strengthening the teaching, study and understanding of U.S. history and culture through exploring crucial events and themes in our nation's history and culture in ways that advance knowledge of the principles that define America.

Other scholars who will be involved in collaborative roles with the grant project include James Merrell, Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of History at Vassar College, Rachel Wheeler, Associate Professor of Religion, IUPUI,  Amy Schutt, Assistant Professor of Native American and Colonial History at SUNY Cortland, and David Minderhout, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Bloomsburg University.

"I am especially happy about this designation as it is a recognition of the importance of this area's forgotten history in the story of America," Faull responded to Watson's highlighting of her work as part of the invitation-only "We the People" program.

National recognition for the "Cultures at the Confluence" research also provides a key basis for efforts this year to develop support for larger-scale cross-disciplinary, cross-media approaches to highlighting and articulating cultural narratives of the Susquehanna Valley in relation to physical environment. These efforts by BUEC/NHCI involve partnerships with various Bucknell faculty, the Susquehanna Colloquium for Nature and Human Communities, a regional environmental and community studies group, the Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies, the science group from which the Colloquium was formed, the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership, BUEC's Susquehanna River and Campus Greening Initiatives, and the Friends of Shikellamy Park, as well as other watershed organizations and institutions.

Also, as first BUEC/NHCI distinguished scholar in residence, for 2009-10, Faull inaugurates a program by which selected faculty on leave doing significant research related to environmental humanities and community studies (or other areas related to BUEC programs) are granted space and office support during their research leave.