UWF Associate Professor Receives Stipend to Study at NEH Institute
Pensacola – Dr. Marie-Thérèse Champagne, an associate professor of history at the University of West Florida, received a $3,300 stipend to attend the National Endowment for the Humanities Institute for College and University Faculty this summer from June 19 to July 14.
The institute, which will be at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is called “Migration and Empire: The Roman Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad.”
“It’s a treasure trove of information that will broaden my teaching and eventually help me to develop a graduate course on imperial and medieval Rome by providing materials and ideas,” Champagne said.
According to the NEH website, the institute examines “migration as a driving force in Roman history and will utilize case studies from around the world. The movement of peoples and cultures from the second to the seventh centuries in the Mediterranean region produced effects still seen today. The institute will focus on new research into the role of migrations, along with new approaches to studying them and new types of evidence, such as DNA and archaeological finds.”
Besides gaining knowledge from the NEH course, Champagne will also be given time to do her own research in libraries at North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while at the institute.
In addition to being awarded the NEH stipend to attend the summer institute, Champagne recently received another honor. She was named the recipient of the 2017 College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty Excellence Award.
The Faculty Excellence Award affords the time and funding to enhance learning for students.
Champagne plans to use the faculty award to bring a series of speakers to UWF, beginning in the Fall 2017 semester. She will call the colloquium, “Rome, The Eternal City: From its Origins to the Modern Age.”
Champagne will also use the faculty award to expand the annual research symposium she organizes that is called “Daily Life in Ancient Rome.” Planned for Spring 2018, the expansion will include a new feature, involving disciplines outside the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities in the event as well as several disciplines within the college, and expanding it to multiple days.
Attending the NEH summer institute will complement the activities Champagne intends to do as a result of winning the faculty excellence award.
“Everything is focused on different aspects of Rome,” she said.