CAHSS Professor Named NHC Fellow, First from N.C. A&T

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (April 20, 2020) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University African American Studies professor Marcus Anthony Allen was granted a prestigious fellowship with the National Humanities Center (NHC) to continue studying 19th century Baltimore.

“Professor Allen is the first member of our university’s faculty selected for a fellowship at the National Humanities Center, and the honor speaks highly of his research,” said Frances Ward-Johnson, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. “We are excited for him as he is very deserving of this prestigious award.”

Allen is one of 33 fellows selected from 673 applicants from around the world representing humanistic scholarship including Asian studies, film and media studies and philosophy as well as theater, dance and performance studies.Each fellow will work on an individual research project and have the opportunity to share ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences at the NHC. Allen’s research project focuses on understanding black capitalism in 19th century Baltimore.

“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. This fellowship provides time, space and funding for me to work on completing a monograph that is currently in progress,” Allen said. “(The fellowship) also allows me to immerse myself into an atmosphere full of scholars and researchers who are focused on completing their own projects.”

These newly appointed fellows will constitute the 43rd class of resident scholars to be admitted since the NHC opened in 1978. The center will award $1.34 million in fellowship grants to enable scholars to take leave from their normal academic duties and pursue research at the center in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

“We look forward to welcoming these Fellows to the Center in September,” said Robert D. Newman, president and director of the NHC. “They were selected from a truly exceptional group of applicants, and it is exciting to support the work they are doing that promises to advance our understanding of a wide array of important topics.”

Allen’s fellowship is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s HBCU Fellowship initiative. Through its residential fellowship program, the Center provides scholars with the resources necessary to generate new knowledge and to further understanding of all forms of cultural expression, social interaction, and human thought.