94-06-16 Sprint-Centel Ph.D. Fellowship Awarded

SPRINT-CENTEL PH.D. FELLOWSHIP AWARDED

     CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 16 -- Elisabeth Crocker, a doctoral
candidate in the University of Virginia's English department, has
been awarded the 1994 Sprint-Centel Dissertation Fellowship for
study at U.Va.'s Institute for Advanced Technology in the
Humanities.
     The fellowship, to begin July 1, includes a $12,000 stipend
sponsored by the Charlottesville regional office of the Sprint-
Centel telephone company, a tuition waiver from the Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences, technical assistance from the staff of the
institute, use of the institute's equipment and office space in
Alderman Library.
     "Sprint-Centel, already deeply involved in supporting public
education, is pleased to participate in this new partnership with
the University," said A.T. Anderson, the company's community
relations manager.
     An aim of the new fellowship is to support the highest quality
research in the arts and humanities and to prepare future teachers
for an advanced-technology environment.
     Crocker's project, titled "Identity in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction:  Technologies of Assimilation in the American City,
1880-1940," will focus on popular culture and its impact on
individual and collective American identity formation.  She is
creating a hypermedia archive, accessible through computer
networks, of popular culture of the era, including newspaper
comics, animated cartoons and film chips, with detailed annotation
and analysis.
     An article by Crocker about the newspaper comic strip "Krazy
Kat" recently appeared in the journal Postmodern Culture and was
excerpted in the New York Times.
     The institute, established in 1992 and based in Alderman
Library, supports innovative research, scholarship and creative
activities in the arts and humanities for scholars at U.Va. and
elsewhere with a wide range of sophisticated information
technology.
     For additional information about Crocker's project, the
Sprint-Centel fellowship, or the Institute for Advanced Technology
in the Humanities contact the institute's director John Unsworth at
(804) 924-4527 or through e-mail at iath@virginia.edu.
                               ###
                                                    June 15, 1994

Karen A. Castle
University News Office
kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu
(804) 924-7116


[Submitted by: Karen A. Castle  (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu)
               Thu, 16 Jun 94 09:55:42 EDT]