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SPOTLIGHT ON ACHIEVEMENT
Stacy Davidson, History and Continuing Education faculty member, is awarded a Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship
Davidson is one of 28 recipients of a highly-selective Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship for 2021-2022. Fellows each receive up to $40,000 to advance their respective projects, which significantly expand humanistic study and knowledge. The fellows will also participate in a convening hosted by ACLS to build their cohort, share work in progress, and discuss wider issues related to the humanities in community colleges and the impact of COVID-19.
Davidson’s project, “We Are For Egypt: The History, Culture, and Legacy of Egyptian Southern Illinois,” combines her expertise in Egyptology, American history, regional and local history, music, folklore, reception studies, and more into this interdisciplinary project. Southern Illinois has been known as “Egypt” and “Little Egypt” for nearly 200 years. Throughout the turbulent nineteenth century, Egyptian Illinoisans strengthened their regional cohesiveness in spite of and in response to internal and external political and social upheavals. Distinct from the rest of Illinois in dialect, superstitions, folk tales, and musical traditions, traces of this Egyptian identity still resonate in Southern Illinois today. “We Are For Egypt” integrates underrepresented voices into an inclusive history of the region, generates a handbook for educators to incorporate local history into their curricula, and produces musical recordings that bridge the past and present artistic heritage of Egyptian Illinois.
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