Elite Mellon Fellowship funds grad student's archival research in Britain

Meaghan Brown, a Ph.D. student in FSU’s interdisciplinary History of Text Technologies (HoTT) program, is one of just 15 students nationwide to win a $25,000 Mellon Dissertation Fellowship for Research in Original Sources.

The fellowship will enable Brown to travel to England, where she will study the 16th-century print industry in England and continue to work on her dissertation, to be titled "A Good Report of England: Shaping the Nation in Early Modern Print." While there, Brown plans to do archival research in the British Library, the National Maritime Museum, the Lincolnshire Archives, and the University Libraries at Oxford and Cambridge.  

Brown has been working on her project under the direction of Professor Anne Coldiron, herself an award-winning scholar, and was one of the first students to join FSU’s innovative HoTT program. “Meg’s dissertation project is very promising, which heralds good things to come from this talented emerging scholar,” Coldiron said.

Professor Elizabeth Spiller, who heads HoTT, is thrilled at Brown’s fellowship. “This fellowship is dedicated to supporting work in original source materials in ways that align precisely with HoTT’s focus on the history of the material features of texts, so I am particularly pleased at this national recognition for Meg," Spiller said.

Brown, who received her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and a master’s from the University of Texas-Austin, is happy with the scholarly environment she has found at FSU. “History of Text Technologies has been one of the most flexible and adventurous learning environments I’ve ever had the privilege of participating in,” Brown said.

In spring 2011, Brown was also awarded one of FSU’s International Dissertation Fellowships and participated in a seminar at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. She will begin her studies in England in August 2011.

To read more, go to http://www.fsu.com/Featured-Stories/FSU-grad-student-plans-HoTT-research-with-25-000-Mellon-Fellowship