Archive: Around Town

Andrea Huskie, a Lansing High School English teacher, was selected as an NEH Summer Scholar from a national applicant pool to attend one of 34 summer study opportunities supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The Endowment is a federal agency that each summer supports seminars and institutes at colleges, universities, and cultural institutions so that teachers can study with experts in humanities disciplines.  The approximately 715 NEH Summer Scholars who participate in these programs of study will teach almost 90,000 American students this academic year.

Huskie participated in an institute entitled Picturing John James Audubon, a four-week program held at Indiana University in July directed by Professor Christoph Irmscher of IU’s English Department.  The Institute was housed at the Lilly Rare Books Library on IU’s Bloomington campus.  The Lilly owns a Double Elephant Folio of Audubon’s Birds of America, containing 435 meticulously detailed, hand-colored illustrations, as well as an early, paper-wrapped edition of the Royal Octavo edition of the same work.

In addition to their work at IU, the Institute’s participants traveled to Chicago’s Field Museum and Art Institute, as well as the Audubon Museum and State Park in Henderson, Kentucky.  The teachers met with experts on Audubon, American art and natural history, as well as world-renowned writers and artists including novelists Scott Russell Sanders and Katherine Govier, poet Dave Smith, artist Peggy McNamara, scholars Alan Braddock and John Schilb, and filmmakers Larry Hott, Diane Garey and Danny Heitman.

According to Huskie, the institute was an incredible experience that she plans to continue in subsequent summers.

“The interconnections between art, history, science and literature were made so rich during our sessions, I am bursting with ideas for the upcoming school year, she says.  "I can’t wait to see what the offerings are for next year.”

Huskie also plans to work on an article for publication based on her studies during the session.

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