Faculty honored with fellowships

Two IU faculty members have recently been recognized for excellence in their respective fields. \nDevin DeWeese, associate professor of Central Eurasian Studies and director of the Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, and Kevin Young, the Ruth M. Lilly Professor of Poetry, have received prestigious Guggenheim fellowships for 2003.\nAccording to the official Guggenheim Web site, recipients of the fellowships "have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts."\nThe prizes are worth $36,000 each. The criteria for Guggenheim fellowships centers on distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. \nFor DeWeese and Young, the fellowships provide opportunities to further their research careers. \nDeWeese said the fellowship will provide more time for his research interests of Islamic Central Asia, Soviet Central Asia and Islamization. \n"(The fellowship) allows me to take a year off from teaching and lets me devote an entire year to research," DeWeese said. \nDeWeese has authored several publications, including Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde in 1994, which was the first major study of conversion to Islam in Inner Asia.\nYoung said he intends to use the fellowship as another stepping stone for his poetry career.\n"I plan on (using the fellowship) to complete another book of poems I've been working on," he said. \nYoung has already published two such books. In 1995, he released his first book, Most Way Home, and it was selected for inclusion in the National Poetry Series. His second book of poems, To Repel Ghosts, came out in 2001 and was a finalist for the James McLaughlin Prize from the Academy of American Poets.\nIn addition, Young's poetry and essays have appeared in the New Yorker and The New York Times Book Review and on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.\nYoung said receiving the award shows him he is headed in the right direction.\nDeWeese said the award provides a sense of validation for his research work.\n"It is a wonderful endorsement of my work," DeWeese said.\nThe Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was established in 1925 by U.S. Sen. Simon Guggenheim as a memorial to his son who died April 26, 1922, according to the Guggenheim Web site.\nSince 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has issued more than $220 million in fellowships to over 15,200 individuals. At least 100 of those winners have been IU faculty members. \nDeWeese and Young are part of a class of fellowship winners which includes 184 artists, scholars and scientists selected from over 3,200 applicants.