It is with great pleasure that IPRH announces that Professor Samantha Frost (Political Science/GWS) will be the first Mellon Faculty Fellow in Bio-Humanities. Professor Frost’s fellowship term will begin in the Fall of 2015 and extend through 2018. A nationally recognized leader in the field of Bio-Humanities, Professor Frost was recently a recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowship, which enabled her to undertake training in the biological sciences. Drawing on that training, she produced her most recent book manuscript, Biocultural Creatures: Towards A New Theory of the Human (forthcoming 2016, Duke University Press). As the Mellon Faculty Fellow in Bio-Humanities, Professor Frost will serve as the primary supervisor for the research group. She will serve as a mentor for the post-doctoral fellows, pre-doctoral fellows, and undergraduate interns, and as the leader for the research group’s initiatives, which will include a curriculum development for an undergraduate certificate program in Bio-Humanities.

It is also my pleasure to announce that Professor Alex Shakar (Creative Writing, English) will hold the 2015 IPRH-Ragdale Residential Creative Fellowship. An accomplished author, Professor Shakar’s most recently published novel, Luminarium, won the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in fiction; it was also named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times, a Notable Book by The Washington Post, and a best book of the year by numerous sources including Publishers Weekly. His first novel, The Savage Girl, has been translated into six languages. Professor Shakar will spend nearly one month this summer in residence at Ragdale, an artists’ and writers’ retreat located in Lake Forest, Illinois, pursuing work on an in-progress novel.

The IPRH offers congratulations to Professor Frost and Professor Shakar!