The University of Nottingham is delighted to welcome its first two Fulbright Scholars to the Faculty of Arts, Prof Michele Hilmes who is working with Prof Roberta Pearson in the Department of Culture, Film and Media and Prof Joni Kinsey Fields whose sponsor here at Nottingham is Prof Mark Rawlinson from the Department of Art History.
Prof Michele Hilmes is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies and Chair of the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin. Michele grew up in Indianapolis and received her BA with Honours in Comparative Literature from Indiana University in Bloomington. She earnt her MA and PhD degrees in Cinema Studies at New York University, and joined the University of Wisconsin in 1993. Her work focuses on media history and historiography, particularly in the area of transnational influence and cultural exchange in the fields of radio and television. She is the author or editor of several books, including Radio Voices: American Broadcasting 1922-1952 (1997), Network Nations: A Transnational History of British and American Broadcasting (2011), Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States (4th edition, 2013), and Radio’s New Wave: Global Sound in the Digital Era (2013).
Research: While at Nottingham, Michele will be working with the Department of Culture, Film and Media to explore the history of television co-production between the US and the UK, particularly as it has contributed to the expansion of public service broadcasting in both countries. She is an ardent fan of radio and creative soundwork as developed by the BBC, and looks forward to developing a greater knowledge of British radio and television during her Fulbright term.
Prof Joni Kinsey Fields is Professor of American Art History at the University of Iowa where she has taught since 1991, after earning her Ph.D. is from Washington University in St. Louis. She specializes in the history and theory of landscape painting, print culture, and the art of the American West and Midwest. She is the author of four books, Thomas Moran’s West: Chromolithography, High Art, and Popular Taste (University Press of Kansas, 2006); The Majesty of the Grand Canyon: 150 Years in Art (First Glance Books, 1998); Plain Pictures: Images of the American Prairie (Smithsonian, 1996, and winner of the Eugene Kayden National Book Award), and Thomas Moran and the Surveying of the American West (Smithsonian, 1992) as well as many articles and book chapters. She is accompanied during her Fulbright award by her husband, Wayne Fields, a professor of American Culture Studies at Washington University and their daughter, and all three are looking forward to the adventure of living and working abroad.
Research: During her time in the UK Joni will teach a module at the University of Nottingham and work on a book project focusing on the British landscapes portrayed by the American painter Thomas Moran and the English artist J.M.W. Turner, considering them from the perspective of transatlantic change during the Industrial Revolution.
Fulbright is the US government’s flagship international educational exchange programme, designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of over 155 countries worldwide. Since its establishment in 1946, the Programme has given approximately 318,000 students, scholars and teachers the opportunity to study, conduct research and exchange ideas across the world. 44 Fulbright alumni have so far been awarded the Nobel Prize and 78 have received Pulitzer Prizes.
For further information about the Fulbright Commission please visit http://www.fulbright.org.uk/
Posted on Friday 7th February 2014