Colleges With the Highest Numbers of National Humanities Center Fellows

The National Humanities Center has awarded 1,566 fellowships since 1978-79 to academics and independent scholars studying research topics in the humanities. The greatest number of fellowships over those years went to scholars at two research institutions near the center, in North Carolina. The organization offers financial support, private studies, and library materials for fellows, generally for an academic year. Two foreign universities were among the 55 institutions that had at least seven fellows named since 1978-79. The institutions that produced the most fellows awarded up to an estimated 22 percent of their bachelor’s and master’s degrees and research doctorates in the humanities in 2016-17. See a listing of the 37 fellows named for 2019-20 and their projects in Transitions.

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Rank	Institution	Awards since 1978-79	Most-recent fellows	Most-recent award year	Estimated number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees and research doctorates awarded in the humanities, 2016-17	Humanities’ share of all bachelor’s and master’s degrees and research doctorates awarded
1.	Duke U.	113	Mohsen Kadivar, religion	2019-20	285	5.4%
2.	U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	106	Pamela Lothspeich, Asian studies; Chérie Ndaliko, African studies; Angela Stuesse, ethnic studies	2019-20	1,210	16.6%
3.	Columbia U.	37	Giuseppe Gerbino, music history and musicology	2019-20	912	8.7%
4.	North Carolina State U.	29	Katherine Mellen Charron, history; Marsha Gordon, film and media studies	2019-20	576	6.5%
5.	U. of California at Berkeley	28	Marianne Constable, rhetoric	2019-20	1,307	11.5%
5.	U. of Chicago	28	Maud Ellmann, English language and literature	2017-18	507	11.0%
7.	Harvard U.	27	Richard K. Wolf, ethnomusicology	2018-19	586	8.3%
7.	Northwestern U.	27	Harris Feinsod, comparative literature	2019-20	421	5.9%
9.	Princeton U.	26	Tera Hunter, history; Sara Poor, medieval studies	2017-18	440	19.4%
10.	U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor	24	Christian de Pee, history; Martha S. Jones, history	2013-14	1,037	8.4%
11.	Indiana U. at Bloomington	23	Edith Sarra, East Asian languages and literatures; Jakobi Williams, African American and African diaspora studies and history	2016-17	702	6.6%
11.	Yale U.	23	Tamara Sears, art history	2016-17	656	16.7%
13.	Cornell U.	19	Sandra E. Greene, history	2014-15	399	5.8%
13.	U. of Texas at Austin	19	Gretchen Murphy, English language and literature	2018-19	1,285	9.2%
15.	U. of Maryland at College Park	16	Michele Lamprakos, history of art and architecture	2019-20	899	8.4%
16.	U. of Virginia	15	Michael James Puri, musicology	2013-14	605	9.8%
17.	Brown U.	14	Cynthia J. Brokaw, history	2012-13	363	15.1%
17.	Emory U.	14	Sharon Strocchia, history	2015-16	307	8.3%
17.	New York U.	14	Martha Rust, English language and literature	2019-20	854	5.7%
17.	U. of Notre Dame	14	Thérèse Cory, philosophy	2017-18	229	6.6%
17.	U. of Pennsylvania	14	Nancy J. Hirschmann, philosophy	2017-18	645	8.8%
22.	Stony Brook U.	13	April Masten, history	2015-16	336	5.0%
22.	U. of North Carolina at Greensboro	13	Jill C. Bender, history	2019-20	408	10.0%
24.	College of William & Mary	12	Simon Middleton, history	2019-20	262	11.3%
24.	Johns Hopkins U.	12	Hollis Robbins, African-American studies	2017-18	406	5.3%
24.	Washington U. in St. Louis	12	Elizabeth Sara Schechter, philosophy	2014-15	239	6.0%
27.	Ohio State U.	11	Andreá Williams, English language and literature	2017-18	1,316	9.1%
27.	U. of Iowa	11	Claire Sponsler, English	2013-14	770	11.8%
29.	U. of California at Los Angeles	10	Brenda Stevenson, history	2015-16	1,777	14.1%
29.	U. of Florida	10	Luise S. White, history	2016-17	395	3.0%
29.	U. of Kansas	10	Ann Wierda Rowland, English language and literature	2019-20	598	9.9%
32.	Hebrew U. of Jerusalem	9	Esther Cohen, history	2003-4	—	—
32.	Pennsylvania State U. at University Park	9	Shuang Shen, East Asian languages and literature; Christina Snyder, history	2019-20	687	5.2%
32.	Rutgers U. at New Brunswick	9	Lynn Festa, English; Jane Ashton Sharp, art history; Holly M. Smith, philosophy	2013-14	1,041	8.7%
32.	U. at Buffalo	9	Elizabeth Otto, art history	2017-18	716	9.6%
32.	U. of Cambridge	9	Stefan Collini, English	2012-13	—	—
32.	U. of Rochester	9	Deborah J. Lyons, classics	1997-98	231	6.9%
38.	Boston U.	8	Russell A. Powell, philosophy	2013-14	691	7.4%
38.	Davidson College	8	Meghan E. Griffith, philosophy	2007-8	100	22.0%
38.	Purdue U. at West Lafayette	8	Patricia Kenig Curd, philosophy	2009-10	681	6.8%
38.	Rice U.	8	Martin J. Wiener, history	2011-12	141	6.8%
38.	U. of Arizona	8	Connie Sue Rosati, philosophy	2006-7	948	10.3%
38.	U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities	8	Bernard M. Levinson, Judaic studies	2010-11	786	6.6%
38.	U. of Southern California	8	Kate Flint, history of art	2015-16	1,005	7.2%
38.	U. of Wisconsin at Madison	8	Victor Goldgel-Carballo, Latin American studies	2019-20	1,009	10.1%
46.	Arizona State U.	7	Agnes Kefeli, history	2019-20	962	7.5%
46.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	7	Caroline A. Jones, art history	2017-18	37	1.0%
46.	Michigan State U.	7	Daina R. Berry, history	2008-9	996	8.2%
46.	Stanford U.	7	Joshua Landy, French	2011-12	438	9.1%
46.	U. of California at Davis	7	Catherine Marie Chin, religion	2007-8	1,004	10.6%
46.	U. of California at Irvine	7	Alka Patel, history of art and architecture	2018-19	543	6.0%
46.	U. of California at San Diego	7	Jann C. Pasler, musicology	2006-7	593	6.4%
46.	U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	7	Ted Underwood, English language and literature	2018-19	839	6.8%
46.	U. of Massachusetts at Amherst	7	Sonja Drimmer, history of art and architecture; Melissa Mueller, classics	2019-20	700	9.0%
46.	U. of Richmond	7	Peter G. Lurie, English	2009-10	62	6.4%

Note: For fellowship rankings, separate campuses of university systems were counted separately. The institutions with which the fellows were affiliated at the time their fellowships were awarded were counted as their institutions. Estimates for the number of bachelor’s, master’s, and research-doctorate degrees awarded in the humanities in 2016-17 were determined by matching as closely as possible the degree-completion data reported in the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System with the categories used by Humanities Indicators, a project of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, to define the scope of the humanities. Generally those degrees include American studies and area studies; archaeology; communication and media studies; English language and literature; ethnic, gender, and cultural studies; foreign languages and literatures; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; religion; and some arts and interdisciplinary studies. General degrees in humanities/humanistic studies were also counted as humanities degrees in this analysis. Only first majors were counted. Questions or comments on the Chronicle List should be sent to Ruth Hammond.

Source: Chronicle analysis of fellowship data from the National Humanities Center and degree-completion data from the U.S. Department of Education

Colleges With the Highest Numbers of National Humanities Center Fellows, 1978-79 to 2019-20

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