UIS assistant professor of English awarded AAUW fellowship

AAUW Awards American Fellowship has awarded a 2010–11 American Fellowship to University of Illinois Springfield Assistant Professor of English Donna Bussell. She was the Summer/Short-Term Research Publication Grant candidate in English.

Bussell was surprised and delighted to receive the AAUW grant, which places her among the 2010–11 American Fellows. This award will further her study of Barking Abbey, a women’s religious community in medieval England. This work includes articles and a book of essays (which she is co-editing with Jennifer N. Brown, Marymount Manhattan College) that will be the first volume devoted to the poetry and literary life of this important Benedictine nunnery. Bussell earned her doctorate in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

The oldest and largest of AAUW’s fellowship and grant programs, the American Fellowships program dates from 1888, when Vassar graduate Ida Street, a pioneer in the field of early American Indian history, received $350 to pursue a graduate degree in education at the University of Michigan. The fellowships are given to women scholars completing doctoral dissertations, conducting postdoctoral research, or finishing research for publication.

Over the years, AAUW has become one of the largest sources of funding for graduate education for women. Since 1888, AAUW has provided more than $80 million to 11,000 fellows and grantees.

To view a directory of fellowship and grant recipients, visit www.aauw.org/education/fga/fellows_directory/index.cfm.