April 19, 2007
Two UW profs named Guggenheim Fellows
Two UW professors are among 189 artists, scholars, and scientists chosen as Fellows by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Michael McCann, Gordon Hirabayashi professor for the advancement of citizenship; and Ann Gale, associate professor of art, were selected from among 2,800 applicants for the prestigious fellowships.
McCann, a former chair of political science, is the founding director of both the interdisciplinary Comparative Law and Society Studies Center, and the undergraduate Law, Societies and Justice program. Two books he’s authored or co-authored have won six major book awards from professional academic associations.
Among his present research projects is a study of the cultural backlash against rights claims of disadvantaged groups in the U.S, and especially its impact on public interest litigation related to issues of personal injury and health. McCann teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses on law and society topics, for which he received a University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award in 1988. His Guggenheim project is entitled “Public Interest Litigation and the Politics of Responsibility.”
Gale, who has been at the University since 1995, received her bachelor of fine arts from Rhode Island College and her master of fine arts from Yale University. She has had solo exhibitions at galleries in San Francisco, Milwaukee, Chicago and Tacoma. She was interviewed on a PBS program, Egg: The Arts Show, and her work has been featured in publications such as Harpers magazine.
Gale’s previous awards include a Washington Arts Council/Artist Trust, Individual Artist Fellowship (2006), a Royalty Research Grant, UW (2004), an Artist Trust Grant (2000), an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (1997) and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1996). She plans to use the fellowship for a year’s focus on her painting and drawing.
The Guggenheim Foundation offers fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. This year’s grants total $7,600,000.
