News

Delia Steverson, assistant professor in the Department of English, was named among 39 new Career Enhancement Fellows by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars for the 2021-22 academic year.

Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Career Enhancement Fellowship supports the research of underrepresented junior and other faculty members in the humanities, social sciences and arts. The Institute for Citizens & Scholars, which administers the fellowship, seeks to award those who “represent unique perspectives in their disciplines and are committed to increasing diversity and inclusion on campus through service and research.”

Fellows receive a sabbatical stipend of up to $30,000; a research, travel or publication stipend up to $1,500; mentoring and participation in a professional development retreat.

Steverson, PhD, who also holds affiliate appointments with the African American Studies Program and the Center for Gender, Sexualities and Women Studies Research, plans to use the fellowship to further her work exploring the relationship between race and disability in African American literature.

“I am interested in placing in conversation literary theories about black subjectivity in Black literary studies with theories about disability representation in American literature,” Steverson said. “My current manuscript surveys 19th and 20th century African American Literature to explore how Black and disabled people have been subjected to state-sanctioned violence.”

Of the 39 honorees, Steverson was among 16 to receive yearlong fellowships. With the mentorship of Riché Richardson, Associate Professor of African American Literature at Cornell University, Steverson expects to use the fellowship year to complete her manuscript and, if safety allows, use the stipend to travel to conferences and a writer’s retreat.

Previously, Steverson has been awarded internal funding through a Humanities Scholarship Enhancement Award and a Rothman Faculty Fellowship.

Learn more about Steverson’s work here.