The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation aims to further the development of artists, writers, scientists, and scholars through its annual fellowship awards. This year, out of nearly 3,000 applicants, 173 candidates were selected, including five Fellows from various Woodrow Wilson programs:

Wendy Brown WS ’81 is the Class of 1936 First Chair in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her areas of interest include the history of political theory, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Continental theory, critical theory, and theories of contemporary capitalism. Her fellowship year will support the research and writing of a new book, “This Vale of Tears”: Marx’s Critique of Religion.

John E. Cort CN ’87 is a professor of religion at Denison University. He teaches courses on the religions of Asia, as well as comparative courses on issues such as environmentalism, art, and human rights. The Guggenheim Fellowship will support work on his project on the devotional culture of the Digambar Jains in early modern North India.

Michael David-Fox SP ’92 is a professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of History at Georgetown University. A historian of modern Russia and the USSR, Dr. David-Fox is conducting a study of the exercise of power in a Russian region under Stalinism and the German occupation during World War II.

Sharon Marcus WS ’92 CN H ’93 is the Orlando Harriman Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her teaching and research focus on nineteenth-century English and French literature and history, specifically exploring how cultures assign value. She will use the fellowship year to complete a book tracing the rise and allure of modern celebrity culture.

Adela Pinch WS ’87 is a professor of English at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. A specialist in nineteenth-century British literature, Dr. Pinch is particularly interested in the relations between literature and philosophy. Her current work investigates Victorian era writings as examples of literary realism explored as an affective, psychological structure rather than as an imitation of life. Dr. Pinch has also been awarded fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the National Endowment for the Humanities this year.

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