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01/22/08 - English professor honored with NEH Fellowship for book on Virginia founders
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C. Jan Swearingen received |
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded C. Jan Swearingen, professor of English, with a research fellowship for the 2008-2009 school year. Swearingen plans to use the year-long award to complete her project recounting the influence of the Scottish Enlightenment on American founders.
Swearingen’s project, a book manuscript, titled “From Church to State: The Transformation of Liberty in Virginia, 1740-1776,” examines how Thomas Jefferson crafted the language of the Declaration of Independence, using Scottish Enlightenment religious terms and doctrines alongside secular Enlightenment political theory. The earlier part of the study recounts the influence of Presbyterian itinerant Samuel Davies upon Patrick Henry’s oratory and Jefferson’s defense of religious toleration in Virginia.
“For a long time I have taught and done research in the history of rhetoric, particularly religious rhetoric and sermons in colonial America,” said Swearingen. “I am interested in this particular topic because Virginia and more generally the South have received less attention than New England in most religious histories of colonial or ‘British’ America.”
“NEH fellowships are very competitive and prestigious awards,” said Larry Oliver, professor of English and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “This fellowship not only adds to Dr. Swearingen’s distinguished achievements as a scholar, but also enhances the national reputation of the Texas A&M English Department.”
Swearingen received her Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin in 1978 and joined Texas A&M University as an English professor in 1998. Her research interests include comparative and historical studies in literacy, Chinese rhetorical traditions and early Greek and biblical women’s oral speech genres.
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Contact: Holly Lambert, hollyalyselambert@libarts.tamu.edu, 979.862.4879
