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Giving to American Studies

Members of the American Studies Program Steering Committee
Steering Committee at work

Cheryl Lester, Director A message from Cheryl Lester, Director of the American Studies Program.

The American Studies Program strives to maintain high national ranking through excellence in publication, teaching, and service, but the focus of our efforts over the course of the past several years has been on hiring new faculty and on revising the graduate curriculum. Last year, your generous contributions to our endowment funds supported activities that are vital to maintaining and developing the excellence of our Program and that State funding does not support:

  • Deanell Reece Tacha was awarded the 2009 Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal and Sciences at the University of Kansas.  Judge Tacha completed her bachelor’s degree in American Studies and later returned to serve as a faculty member and as associate dean in School of Law and as vice chancellor for academic affairs at KU.  She was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in 1985.
  • Terri Rockhold, Administrative Associate Sr., was recognized as a KU Woman of Distinction in the category of Administrative Professionals and appears on the 2009-10 KU Women of Distinction Calendar sponsored by the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center.
  • Professor William Chafe delivered the 2009 Tuttle Lecture “From Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement: The Continuity of Struggle” on Sunday 22 March at the Dole Institute of Politics.
  • Professor Ruben Flores was awarded a 2009-2010 National Academy of Education Fellowship to support writing and research on his book manuscript, Forging an American Pluralism, which examines the influence of the Mexican Revolution on the American civil rights movement.
  • Professor Tanya Golash-Boza received a 2009-2010 award from the U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Program to support research on a cross-national study of deportees in Jamaica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil.
  • Professor Sherrie Tucker was awarded a sabbatical leave for Fall 2009 to work on her book manuscript, Dance Floor Democracy: The Social Geography of Memory at the Hollywood Canteen.
  • Earl Brooks, American Studies and Music major, was selected to receive the Hall Center Scholar award.  In addition to the $500 award, Hall Center Scholars act as liaisons to the Humanities Lecture Series and have the opportunity to interact with the well-known authors, scholars, and public intellectuals who speak in the series.
  • MA candidate, Perry Collins, received the Hall Center Summer Graduate Internship award and will serve as an intern at the Kansas City Public Library.  Interns were chosen from a pool of exceptional and well-rounded PhD or MA students who demonstrate the capability to make outstanding contributions in their chosen humanities or social science disciplines and an interest in both interdisciplinary studies and community outreach.
  • PhD Candidates Hong Cai and Megan Williams were awarded 2009 Summer Research fellowships from the Office of Research and Graduate Studies. This award is supporting  Hong Cai’s research in San Francisco and Los Angeles on Chinese women in the United States and Megan William’s  research for her dissertation "Not Quite Black and White: Representing Jewishness in the Autobiographical Practices of Hettie Jones, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, and Lisa Jones."

              Your ongoing support of the American Studies Program is greatly appreciated.

         Thank you,Signature of Cheryl Lester, sort of

You may give online by using the buttons below. Online giving is secure, speedy and simple. Click the area you would like to support and you will be redirected to the website of KU Endowment, the non-profit fundraising organization that supports KU.

For information on other ways to give, please visit the KU Endowment web site. Or for information on other opportunities to assist the Department, please contact Cheryl Lester, at (785) 864-2309 or chlester@ku.edu.

American Studies Fund
Give to the American Studies Innovation FundThis fund is our only unrestricted expendable fund and is indispensable to sponsor and fund visiting lectures; provide hospitality for faculty and student lectures, meetings, and retreats; host receptions on campus and at the American Studies Association meetings; offer minimal support for graduate student travel to conferences and for research; support faculty and graduate student recruitment; and fund other program initiatives and needs.
Norman and Anne Yetman Scholarships
Support the Norman and Anne Yetman ScholarshipsThe Norm and Anne Yetman Fund was established to honor Norm’s commitment to graduate education with a student-oriented dissertation award and an endowment fund substantial enough ultimately to support an advanced graduate student writing his or her dissertation in American Studies.
Tuttle Lecture Lectureship
Support the Tuttle Lecture LectureshipThe Tuttle Lecture will contribute to the University of Kansas a uniquely open forum. As Professor David Katzman noted in his introductory remarks to the lecture, many lectures on campus are dedicated to celebrating American capitalism, but this is a series that will give a different view. The Tuttle Lectures will not be censored by the donor and will provide a unique forum for free speech at KU. Professor Litwack’s inaugural lecture in Spring 2008 assessing the Civil Rights Movement offered a sobering reminder of how far we have come and how much more needs to be done at the outset of the 21st century. We count on your generous support to the Tuttle Lecture Fund to ensure that the annual Tuttle Lecture will continue to make a major contribution to intellectual life and political consciousness at KU. Please note that we will continue to list your donations in future programs for the Tuttle Lecture.
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