Bedross Der Matossian, associate professor of history, has earned the Society for Armenian Studies Outstanding Book award for his book "Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire" (Stanford University Press, 2014). Established in 2015, the award accepted nominations for works that advanced knowledge and scholarship on Armenian society, culture, and history from ancient times to the present. According to the selection committee, "Shattered Dreams" demonstrated substantive knowledge and overall high level of scholarship.
Chigozie Obioma, assistant professor of English, has sold the stage rights to his acclaimed 2015 novel "The Fishermen." New Perspectives, a theater company based in Nottingham, England, will premiere the production in 2018. The company is known in the United Kingdom for its innovative stage adaptations of novels, short stories, radio and film. Its previous adaptations include works by Don DeLillo, Saul Bellow, Ted Hughes and Daphne DuMaurier. "The Fishermen," which was a finalist for Great Britain's prestigious Man Booker Prize, tells the story of four young brothers in a small Nigerian town who defy their father’s wishes by sneaking to a nearby river to go fishing. They encounter a madman, whose prophecy of death consumes their family.
Christy Hyman, a doctoral student in history, has been named a 2017 National Humanities Without Walls Pre-Doctoral Fellow. She is developing a project, "The Oak of Jerusalem: Flight, Refuge and Reconnaissance in the Great Dismal Swamp Region," using spatial technologies to uncover enslaved canal laborers' intellectual network. As a fellow, Hyman will participate in a three-week-long workshop in Chicago. The workshops encourage humanities doctoral students to think of themselves as agents of the public humanities and showcase opportunities beyond the walls of the academy. For more information, click here.
