Alas, Guggenheim
by Rean Rhyne

If you scroll toward the bottom of this page, you will see a list of the 200-odd North American winners of Guggenheim fellowships for the year 2000. Truly an impressive array of talent matched by well-intentioned, and (one wants to say) enlightened largesse. Among the well-known names on the list are many who have contributed valuable work in the arts, the humanities, and the sciences, and who, with the aid of their Guggenheim money, will soon contribute more.

But.

Let your eye run down the list and see if you notice what’s missing. I know, this is like the dog that didn’t bark in the Sherlock Holmes story. It’s always difficult to see something that’s not there. Anyway, take a look…

What struck me as I went down the list was this: It’s as if the last 20 years didn’t happen. What computer revolution? What Internet revolution? As far as content of the various projects is concerned, with only a couple of exceptions, this same list could have appeared in 1980. Worse yet, change a few dates and a few names, and (with a couple of exceptions), the list could have appeared in 1900.

The Guggenheim Foundation has never been known to support what used to be called cutting-edge stuff. But this is ridiculous. The word "internet" occurs once. Several of the winners come from computer science departments but, again, their topics are nothing to write home about.

I must repeat: Don’t get me wrong. I know and admire the work of several of these people, and I expect to become acquainted with, admire, and learn from the work they’ll do while supported by their new grants.

But if ever in history the cultural ground could be felt moving daily, sometimes hourly, beneath our very feet, that time is now. God knows, we need as many clever, talented people as we can find to spend their lives rooting about, trying to make sense of the past.

Where, though, is the support for the clever, talented people who are trying to not only make sense of the present but also create the future while they’re at it?

That’s no mere rhetorical question. I know where they are: On the Internet. By the hundreds. By the thousands. I have quite a few of their sites bookmarked, and I’m sure you have many in your "favorites" list that I haven’t stumbled across. You and I know they’re there. But do the Guggenheim folks know? Do they care?

Are we to believe that not a single, worthwhile cybernaut applied for a Guggenheim?

Well, thinking about it, that could be it. If I were considering applying, went to the Guggenheim site, read the info, and scanned the latest winners’ list, I might well decide this is not for me.

And maybe the obverse is also true. Maybe some cybernauts did apply, but the Guggenheim judges found no reason to support them.

Perhaps it's a case of mutal irrelevance. Cybernauts find Guggenheim grants irrelevant, and the Guggenheim Foundation finds cybernauts irrelevant.

Everyone's talking about the Old Economy vs. the New Economy. Maybe what the Guggenheim list does is shine a very bright, harsh light on another schism, that between the Old Culture and the New Culture.

Whatever that New Culture may turn out to be—and though we spend our days and night in it, it’s still hard to see what will come of it, we now at least have a kind of negative way to define it: If it’s on the Guggenheim list, it’s not New Culture. If it’s NOT on the Guggenheim list, it MAY be New Culture.

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Magellan's Log 13

Magellan's Log front page

North American Winners of Guggenheim Fellowships for the Year 2000

Robert H. Abzug, Professor of History and American Studies, University of Texas at Austin: Rollo May and the transformation of American culture.
Richard D. Alba, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, State University of New York at Albany: Second generations in immigrant societies.
April Alliston, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Princeton University: Character, plausibility, and gender in French and English historical narratives, 1650-1850.
Hilton Als, Writer, New York City; Staff Writer, The New Yorker: Creative writing.
Douglas Anderson, Professor of English, University of Georgia: William Bradford and the Anglo-European republic of letters.
James Arthur, University Professor, University of Toronto: Representations of classical groups.
David Auburn, Playwright, Brooklyn, New York: Play writing.
David Baker, Poet, Granville, Ohio; Professor of English and Thomas B. Fordham Professor of Creative Writing, Denison University; Poetry Editor, The Kenyon Review: Poetry.
Joan Banach, Artist, New York City: Painting.
Abhijit V. Banerjee, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: The new economics of poverty.
Jill Banfield, Professor of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison: Microbe-mineral interactions of environmental importance.
Ernesto Bazan, Photographer, Brooklyn, New York: Photography.
Howard C. Berg, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and of Physics, Harvard University: The motile behavior of bacteria.
Jane A. Bernstein, Austin Fletcher Professor of Music, Tufts University: Music and print culture in Renaissance Rome.
William Betz, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver: The optical detection of synaptic function.
Rabi Bhattacharya, Professor of Mathematics, Indiana University: Studies in Markov processes.
Tom Bills, Artist, Brooklyn, New York; Associate Professor of Art, Brandeis University: Sculpture.
Lisa M. Bitel, Associate Professor of History and Women’s Studies and Director of Women’s Studies, University of Kansas:
Landscape, gender, and Christianization in Gaul and Ireland.
Stuart Blackburn, Senior Lecturer in Tamil and South Indian Studies and Chairman, Centre of South Asian Studies,
University of London: The role of folklore in colonial south India.
Isidro Blasco, Artist, New York City: Sculpture and installation art.
Anne Bogart, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, Columbia University; Artistic Director, The Saratoga International Theatre
Institute (SITI), New York City: Essays on the theatre.
Lloyd Bonfield, Professor of Law, Tulane University: Litigants, lawyers, and the law in English probate courts, 1660-1700.
Nina Bovasso, Artist, New York City: Painting and drawing.
John M. Bowers, Professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas: The antagonistic tradition of Chaucer and Langland.
Michael E. Bratman, Howard H. and Jessie T. Watkins University Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University: Self-determination and planning agency.
Martin Brody, Composer, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Catherine Mills Davis Professor of Music, Wellesley College: Music composition.
Ronald K. Brown, Choreographer, Brooklyn, New York; Artistic Director, Evidence, New York City: Choreography.
William Craft Brumfield, Professor of Slavic Studies, Tulane University: The architecture of the Russian North.
Michael Camille, Mary J. Block Professor of Art History, University of Chicago: Sculpture, signs, and street life in medieval France.
Vicki Caron, Thomas and Diann Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Cornell University: Catholic-Jewish relations in France since 1871.
Shih-Hui Chen, Composer, Malden, Massachusetts: Music composition.
Patricia Wenjie Cheng, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles: A psychological theory of causal discovery.
Alice L. Conklin, Associate Professor of History, University of Rochester: Ethnographic liberalism in France, 1920-1945.
Diana Cooper, Artist, Brooklyn, New York; Adjunct Professor of Art, New York University: Painting and installation art.
Kevin R. Cox, Professor of Geography, The Ohio State University: The Americal politics of local economic development.
Christopher J. Cramer, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Chemical Physics, and Scientific Computation, University of
Minnesota: The structure and reactivity of chemical and biological systems.
Hai-Lung Dai, Professor of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania: Chemical-reaction control.
Kathryn Davis, Writer, East Calais, Vermont; Professor of English, Skidmore College: Fiction.
Veronica Day, Photographer, Brooklyn, New York: Photography.
Peter Dear, Professsor of History and of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University: Making sense in science.
Donald J. DePaolo, Class of 1951 Professor of Geochemistry, University of California, Berkeley: The geochemical effects of magma generation and transport.
Robert Desjarlais, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Sarah Lawrence College: Sensory biographies among Nepal’s Yolmo Buddhists.
Jessica Diamond, Artist, Brooklyn, New York: Painting.
Arthur Dong, Film Maker, Los Angeles; Producer and Director, DeepFocus Productions: Film making.
Tom Drury, Writer, Litchfield, Connecticut: Fiction.
Thomas Dublin, Professor of History, State University of New York at Binghamton: Economic decline in the Pennsylvania anthracite region, 1920-1990.
Robert S. DuPlessis, Isaac H. Clothier Professor of History and International Relations, Swarthmore College: A history of consumption in the early modern Atlantic world.
Lauren B. Edelman, Professor of Law and Sociology, University of California, Berkeley: The formation of civil-rights law in the workplace.
Anthony Feinstein, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto: Trauma-related mental health issues in post-apartheid Namibia.
Alexei V. Filippenko, Professor of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley: The expansion of the universe.
Marc R. Forster, Associate Professor of History, Connecticut College: The emergence of German Catholic identity.
Howard Gardner, John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University: The origins and development of good work.
Jonathon Glassman, Associate Professor of History, Northwestern University: Racial thought in colonial Zanzibar.
Jill Godmilow, Video Artist, South Bend, Indiana; Professor of Film, Television and Theatre, University of Notre Dame: Video.
Susan Goldin-Meadow, Professor of Psychology, University of Chicago: Gesture and the mind.
Rigoberto González, Poet, New York City; Literacy Teacher, Coalition for Hispanic Family Services, Brooklyn: Poetry.
Francisco Gonzalez-Crussi, Professor of Pathology, Northwestern University Medical School; Head of Laboratories,
Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago: Essays on human generation.
Paul D. Grannis, Distinguished Professor of Physics, State University of New York at Stony Brook: Studies of broken symmetry in nature.
Milford Graves, Composer, Jamaica, New York; Member of the Core Faculty in Music, Bennington College: Music composition.
Richard L. Greaves, Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of History, Florida State University: John Bunyan in historical perspective.
Vanalyne Green, Video Artist, Chicago; Associate Professor of Video Art, School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Video.
Linda Gregerson, Poet, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Associate Professor of English, University of Michigan: Poetry.
Craig R. Groves, Director, Conservation Planning, The Nature Conservancy, Boise, Idaho: The conservation of biological diversity.
Robert J. Hamers, Evan P. Helfaer Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison: Studies in molecular electronics.
Brooks Haxton, Poet, Syracuse, New York; Director of Creative Writing, Syracuse University: Poetry.
Wick Haxton, Professor of Physics and Director, Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle: Studies in neutrino-induced nucleosynthesis.
Thomas Head, Professor of History, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York: Saints, relics, and patronage in Western Christendom, 200-1215.
Gerry Hemingway, Composer and Percussionist, Plainsboro, New Jersey: Music composition.
Amy Hempel, Writer, Bridgehampton, New York; Member of the Core Faculty in Writing, Bennington College: Fiction.
Alicia Henry, Artist, Nashville, Tennessee; Assistant Professor of Art, Fisk University: Painting and drawing.
Nancy A. Hewitt, Professor of History, Rutgers University: American women’s activism, 1840-1965.
Tony Hoagland, Poet, Las Cruces, New Mexico; Assistant Professor of English, New Mexico State University: Poetry.
Jennifer L. Hochschild, William Stewart Tod Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University: The prospects for democratic pluralism in the United States.
Lillian Hoddeson, Associate Professor of History and Senior Research Physicist, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign;
Historian, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois: The life and science of John Bardeen.
Manuela Hoelterhoff, Writer, New York City: Germaine Lubin and Bayreuth in 1939.
Michael B. Holden, Artist, Santa Rosa, California: Painting.
Peter Jeffery, Professor of Music, Princeton University: The earliest manuscript of the Roman chant tradition.
Sajeev John, Professor of Physics, University of Toronto: Photonic-band gap materials.
Claudia L. Johnson, Professor of English, Princeton University: Jane Austen’s status as a legend.
Amelia Jones, Professor of Art History, University of California, Riverside: New York Dada, 1915-1922.
Lawrence Joseph, Professor of Law, St. John’s University: Essays on Catholicism.
Deborah Anne Kapchan, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director, Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology, University of Texas at Austin: Self and nation in Moroccan oral poetry.
Larry Karush, Composer, Los Angeles: Music composition.
Dovid Katz, Writer, County Conway, Wales; Professor of Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture, and Director, Center for Stateless Cultures, Vilnius University, Lithuania: Fiction in Yiddish.
Steve Keister, Artist, New York City; Instructor in Art, School of Visual Arts; Instructor in Art, Maryland Institute College of Art; Instructor in Art, Hofstra University: Sculpture.
Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Explanation in developmental biology.
Joel Kingsolver, Professor of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle: The topography of adaptive landscapes.
George Knox, Professor Emeritus of Art History, University of British Columbia: Tiepolo’s New Testament drawings.
Dorothy Ko, Associate Professor of History and Women’s Studies, Rutgers University: The history and culture of footbinding.
Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Harris K. Weston Associate Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University: The idea of the self in 18^th-century art.
Chang-rae Lee, Writer, Ridgewood, New Jersey; Professor of English, Hunter College, City University of New York: Fiction.
Laura L. Letinsky, Photographer, Chicago; Assistant Professor of Photography, University of Chicago: Photography.
Jill Levine, Artist, New York City; Instructor in Studio Art, Sarah J. Hale High School, Brooklyn: Painting and sculpture.
Bernth Lindfors, Professor of English and African Literatures, University of Texas at Austin: Ira Aldridge’s theatrical career in
Europe.
John T. Lis, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University: Protein templating in the propagation of gene activity.
Jennie Livingston, Film Maker, Brooklyn, New York; Writer, Director, and Producer, Off White (OW!) Productions,
Brooklyn: Film making.
Susanne Lohmann, Professor of Political Science and of Policy Studies and Director, Center for Comparative Political
Economy, University of California, Los Angeles: Administrative rationality in the research university.
Lev Loseff, Professor of Russian, Dartmouth College: An annotated bilingual edition of Joseph Brodsky’s poetry.
Scott P. Mainwaring, Eugene Conley Professor of Government and Director, Kellogg Institute for International Studies,
University of Notre Dame: The durability of Latin America’s post-1978 elected governments.
Thomas Mallon, Writer, Westport, Connecticut: Fiction.
Sara Shelton Mann, Choreographer, San Francisco: Choreography.
Jaime Manrique, Writer, New York City; Member of the Part-time Faculty, Eugene Lang College, New School University: A memoir.
Emer Martin, Writer, Summit, New Jersey; Contributing Editor, Black Book Magazine, New York City: Fiction.
James Matheson, Composer, Tampa, Florida; Lecturer in Music, Ithaca College, New York: Music composition.
Katharine Eisaman Maus, Professor of English, University of Virginia: A history of English literature, 1603-1660.
Colleen McDannell, Professor of History and Sterling M. McMurrin Professor of Religious Studies, University of Utah:
Religious America in government photography, 1935-1943.
Andrew Rimvydas Miksys, Photographer, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Seattle, Washington; Instructor in Photography, Louisiana State University: Photography.
Donka Minkova, Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles: Verse form and linguistic reconstruction in English.
Rick Moody, Writer, Fishers Island, New York; Member of the Core Faculty in Writing, Bennington College: A family memoir.
Philip D. Morgan, Professor of History and Editor, William & Mary Quarterly, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, College of William & Mary: White and black in 18^th-century Jamaica.
Bill Morrison, Film Maker, New York City: Film making.
Stephen Mueller, Artist, New York City: Painting.
Madhusree Mukerjee, Writer, Jackson Heights, New York; Editor, Scientific American, New York City: The Andaman Islanders.
Lawrence Nees, Professor of Art History, University of Delaware: Frankish illuminated manuscripts.
Antonya Nelson, Writer, Las Cruces, New Mexico; Associate Professor of English, New Mexico State University: Fiction.
Barbara Newman, Professor of English and Religion, Northwestern University: Vision, poetry, and belief in the Middle Ages.
Andrea Wilson Nightingale, Associate Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Stanford University: The conception of wisdom in 4^th-century Athens.
Stephen Orgel, Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University: The history of the relation between Shakespearean texts and productions.
H. Allen Orr, Associate Professor of Biology, University of Rochester: The genetic origin of species.
Robert A. Orsi, Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University at Bloomington: American Catholics’ recollections of their childhoods in the Church.
Ed Osborn, Artist, Oakland, California: Sound installation.
Eric Pankey, Poet, Fairfax, Virginia; Professor of English, George Mason University: Poetry.
Joseph Parisi, Editor, Poetry, Chicago; Executive Director, Modern Poetry Association: A documentary history of Poetry magazine.
Suzan-Lori Parks, Playwright, Brooklyn, New York: Play writing.
Ed Paschke, Artist, Chicago; Professor of Art, Northwestern University: Painting.
Mary Sponberg Pedley, Teacher, Ann Arbor Public Schools; Adjunct Assistant Curator of Maps, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan: Printed maps and popular taste in 18^th-century France and England.
Louis A. Pérez, Jr., J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Suicide and exemplary death in Cuba.
Donna J. Peuquet, Professor of Geography, Pennsylvania State University: A cognitive approach to representing geographic knowledge.
Mark Phillips, Professor of History, University of British Columbia: A short history of distance.
Suzan Pitt, Film Animator, Los Angeles; Member of the Faculty in Experimental Animation, California Institute of the Arts: Film animation.
Vicente L. Rafael, Associate Professor of Communication, University of California, San Diego: Language and the origins of nationalism in the Philippines.
Jahan Ramazani, Professor of English, University of Virginia: Postcolonial poetry in English.
Thomas W. Reps, Professor of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison: A new compressed representation of Boolean functions.
David Riker, Film Maker, New York City: Film making.
John Storm Roberts, Independent Scholar, Tivoli, New York: Latin dance in the United States.
Roxana Robinson, Writer, New York City: Fiction.
Larry Rohrschneider, Member, Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Affiliate Professor
of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle: Molecular mechanisms for regulating the growth of blood cells.
Daniel S. Rokhsar, Professor of Physics and Head, Computational and Theoretical Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley: Studies in computational and theoretical biology.
James Rolfe, Composer, Toronto: Music composition.
Dennis Romano, Professor of History, Syracuse University: Doge Francesco Foscari and the crisis of Venetian republicanism.
Marian Roth, Photographer, Provincetown, Massachusetts: Photography.
Ingrid D. Rowland, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Chicago: A life of Giordano Bruno.
Roswell Rudd, Composer and Jazz Trombonist, Kerhonkson, New York: Music composition.
John Russell, Writer, New York City; Art Critic, The New York Times: A memoir.
Richard Ryan, Artist, Millers Falls, Massachusetts; Adjunct Senior Critic in Art, Brandeis University: Painting.
Jacqueline Saccoccio, Artist, New York City: Painting.
Mark Salzman, Writer, Glendale, California: Nonfiction.
Tamar Schlick, Professor of Mathematics, Chemistry, and Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
and Associate Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York University: Modeling studies of protein-DNA complexes.
Glen Seator, Artist, Brooklyn, New York: Sculpture and installation art.
James J. Sheehan, Dickason Professor in the Humanities and Professor of History, Stanford University: A history of sovereignty in 20^th-century Europe.
S. Murray Sherman, Leading Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior, State University of New York at Stony Brook: The thalamic relay of visual signals to the cortex.
Jocelyn Penny Small, Professor of Art History and the Library, Rutgers University: Narrative in classical art.
Bruce Smith, Poet, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Associate Professor of English, University of Alabama: Poetry.
Rebecca Solnit, Writer, San Francisco: Photography and the invention of the present.
John Stembridge, Professor of Mathematics, University of Michigan: Combinatorial aspects of root systems and Weyl characters.
Judy Stevens, Artist, New York City: Sculpture.
Frank H. Stewart, Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: The customary law of the Sinai Bedouin.
Robert Blair St. George, Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania: Spoken language and oral poetics in early New England.
Kristine Stiles, Associate Professor of Art and Art History, Duke University: Documentary photography of the nuclear age.
Gwen Strahle, Artist, Dayville, Connecticut; Member of the Adjunct Faculty in Art, Rhode Island School of Design: Painting.
Z. S. Strother, Assistant Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University: The relationship of art to power in central Africa.
Richard J. A. Talbert, William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Cartography and world-view in ancient Rome.
Julie Taylor, Professor of Anthropology, Rice University: Argentine tango and the aesthetic of violence.
Maria Todorova, Professor of History, University of Florida: Nationalism and hero worship in the Balkans.
Stephen Tourlentes, Photographer, Somerville, Massachusetts; Visiting Associate Professor of Photography,
Massachusetts College of Art: Photography.
Robert Trivers, Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University: Genetic conflict within the individual.
Amanda Vaill, Writer, New York City: A biography of Jerome Robbins.
David J. Vayo, Composer, Bloomington, Illinois; Associate Professor of Composition and Theory and Coordinator, New Music Activities, Illinois Wesleyan University: Music composition.
Elizabeth Vierling, Professor of Biochemistry and of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona: Gene-mapping for agricultural productivity at high temperatures.
Darla Villani, Choreographer, Brooklyn, New York: Choreography.
Mike Wallace, Professor of History, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York: A history of New York City since 1898.
Wen I. Wang, Thayer Lindsley Professor of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University: Semiconductor heterostructures for information technologies.
Brenda Way, Choreographer, Oakland, California; Artistic Director, ODC/San Francisco: Choreography.
Joan Weiner, Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee: Frege’s lessons for our understanding of language.
Rainer Weiss, Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Gravitational waves of astrophysical origin.
Jennifer Widom, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Stanford University: New query and search techniques for the Internet.
Jennette Williams, Photographer, New York City; Instructor in Photography, School of Visual Arts: Photography.
Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe, Professor of Fine Arts, University of British Columbia: Modernist architectural theory and practice in the British Empire and Commonwealth.
Shira Wolosky, Professor of English and American Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Meaning without metaphysics in Hebraic tradition.
Stephen S.-T. Yau, Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science and Director, Control and Information Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago: Studies in complex and combinatorial geometry.
Marilyn B. Young, Professor of History, New York University: The postwar war in Korea.
Xumu Zhang, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University: Man-made catalysts for manufacturing.