The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Julie Tolliver, assistant professor of French and Francophone Studies in the department of Modern and Classical Languages, has been selected as a grant recipient by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for her research project, A Poetics of Solidarity in Francophone Independence Literatures.

Tolliver’s research project argues that the solidarity linking intellectuals from different regions from the 1950s through 70s, what she calls the “independence era,” helped create new political and artistic possibilities. As intellectuals from French colonies imagined alternatives to colonial and neo-colonial situations, their texts—essays, manifestos, novels, short stories, plays, films—became blueprints for thinkers in other parts of the world.

“The humanities help us study our past, understand our present, and prepare for our future,” said NEH Chairman William D. Adams. “The National Endowment for the Humanities is proud to support projects that will benefit all Americans and remind us of our shared human experience.”

The NEH is funding 290 projects in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. $16.3 million in grants will support a variety of humanities-based research and programs. The grants announced include the inaugural round of Humanities Access grants, which were awarded through NEH’s Office of Challenge Grants to 34 organizations that provide cultural programming to underserved groups.

"It is wonderful to have the pertinence of my work recognized in this way,” said Tolliver. I am extremely excited that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) fellowship is going to give me the opportunity to work in a concentrated fashion on finishing my book. This type of support makes all the difference in the world."

-Toni Mooney Smith