ANN ARBOR—Aiming to spotlight a new generation of researchers, the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan is among the first institutes of its kind in the nation to launch a prize program exclusively promoting work of emerging scholars.

“The academy is a heritage-driven organization where people over the age of 50 are given precedence and prestigious prizes are often given to enduring figures in the field,” said Daniel Herwitz, director of the Institute for the Humanities. “For us, the whole issue is the new ideas, fresh, compelling discourse and work being done by emerging scholars.”

The intended impact of the prize, said Herwitz, is to inject youthful energy into the scholarly discourse about the vital connection between the humanities and contemporary society. The youngest generation of scholars is those who have recently earned or are working on their doctorates, he said.

The Institute for the Humanities awarded three Emerging Scholars Prizes during the spring, the inaugural year of its funding. The top prize winner received $25,000, and two honorable mention recipients each received $1,000. The three recipients have ties to U-M as a faculty member, alumnus and former fellow at the Institute for the Humanities.

The prize will broaden for the upcoming year to the national level and take place through nomination.

“Until now, prizes for young humanities scholars?generally under 30 years old?were considered uncommon,” said U-M alum Cody Engle, who donated seed money to establish the Emerging Scholars Program. “This allows us to raise the recognition level of the institute and the scholars who are pushing research in the humanities.”

Engle’s contribution allows the program to continue for the next two years. The hope, he said, is for a donor or donors to step up to provide an endowment so the program can be funded in perpetuity.

Many humanities departments were created in the late 1980s and early 1990s in order to engage the identity politics and cultural tumult of the times. The push for diverse and multicultural programs has its roots in the social and theoretical upheavals of the 1960s. Those innovations were achieved by young scholars.

With many of the humanities and liberal arts professors educated during that time now facing retirement, there’s a need to recognize up-and-coming scholars in the field, said Herwitz.

“The humanities must be seen as a living, breathing discipline,” he said.

2008 Emerging Scholar Program recipients

? Boris Kment, U-M associate professor of philosophy, top recipient. Kment is investigating the concept of possibility and the cultural origins of its role in weighing probable outcomes of alternate realities.

? Erica Lehrer, assistant professor of history and sociology/anthropology, Concordia University, honorable mention. Lehrer is exploring the lost heritage of Jewish Poland during Nazi occupation. She is a former fellow at the Institute for the Humanities.

? Susana Draper, assistant professor of comparative literature, Princeton University, honorable mention. Draper tells the compelling story about the physical transformation of a former prison run by a fascist regime in Uruguay. Today, the one-time prison is a shopping mall. She received her doctorate from U-M in Romance Languages and Literatures.

Institute for the Humanities