[200] Three MTSU History Professors Secure Grants To Aid Research

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 20, 2009
CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919, or lrollins@mtsu.edu

THREE MTSU HISTORY PROFESSORS SECURE GRANTS TO AID RESEARCH

(MURFREESBORO)—With funding from two federal agencies in hand, three MTSU historians have embarked on research for two national parks and a treasured Tennessee landmark.
Dr. Jim Williams, director of the Albert Gore Research Center, will conduct oral history interviews for Congaree National Park with a grant from the National Park Service.
The Web site for Congaree National Park, located near Hopkins, S.C., touts the property as “the largest remnant of old-growth floodplain forest remaining on the continent.” Congress designated it a national natural landmark in 1974 and re-designated it a national park in 2003.
Williams said he would like to interview about 30 people, including those who were involved either with the creation of the park or its transition from a monument to a park. He also added that he hopes the study will help establish the Gore Center as a regional center for the preservation of oral history.
Dr. Ellen Garrison, associate professor of history, also has a National Park Service grant for a project that will help the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in east Tennessee.
Garrison will direct her efforts toward improving the condition of the park’s archival materials. Other project goals include reduction of the archival materials cataloging backlog and, as appropriate, creating finding aids for the materials.
Dr. Jan Leone, professor of history, will examine the growing body of humanities scholarship on the early 19th century for her project, “The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson and America 1801-1861.”
With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Landmarks of American History program, Leone will design workshops for high school teachers that will combine classroom and field studies, including archaeology.
Primary source evidence for this project will include a variety of documents from the 1801-1861 time period, the objects in The Hermitage’s collections, books owned by the Jackson family, archaeological remains left behind by enslaved black families, the architecture and the cultural landscape.
The grants secured by Williams and Garrison are yearlong stipends that began in September 2009. Leone’s funding runs from Oct. 1, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2010, with workshops to be held in summer 2010.

—more—

GRANTS
Add 1

ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request interviews with the researchers about their respective history-related projects, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919 or lrollins@mtsu.edu.


—30—





With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.