The inaugural recipients of the Jerome Evenson Research Award and the Harriet Evenson Visiting Scholars Award have been announced. These awards, overseen by the College of Arts and Sciences Office of Research, are funded by the Evenson estate. The will foster new research and bring innovative scholarly perspectives to campus through faculty-led projects and visiting scholars:
- Jerome Evenson Research Support Endowed Fund supports the creation of new knowledge and creative work related to Jewish history, religion, culture, health, migration, and identity by providing funding for faculty research projects.
- Harriet Evenson Visiting Scholars Endowed Fund supports the recruitment of distinguished scholars from outside UNCG to visit campus for guest lectures, workshops,
student engagement, faculty collaboration, and public programming.
JEROME EVENSON RESEARCH AWARD
Rachael Hershon (English), “Bein HaMetim (Between the Dead): The Body, Reverence, and Ritual in Contemporary Jewish Burial Practices”
Professor Hershon will explore how Jewish tradition understands and treats the body at and after death, with particular attention to a central tension: burial practices that emphasize modesty and the erasure of hierarchy. This tension is seen in the context of exceptional reverence afforded to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century. Based on her research at the Ohel Chabad-Lubavitch mausoleum in Queens, New York City, interviews with Hevra Kadisha volunteers (who prepare deceased individuals for burial), and visits to Jewish enclaves in New York City, she will write a book of poetry that examines how ritual, grief, and reverence shape the understanding of the body in life and after death in Jewish tradition.
HARRIET EVENSON VISITING SCHOLARS AWARD
Travis Hicks (Interior Architecture), “Renewing the Loewenstein Legacy”
Professor Hicks will focus on expanding knowledge about the Jewish architect Edward Loewenstein, who practiced in Greensboro from 1946 to 1970, through an extended visit with Dr. Patrick Lee Lucas. Lucas will work with undergraduate students to create a story map and an online exhibition to increase access to Loewenstein’s archives, housed at UNCG Libraries.
Lucas will give guest lectures in classes, lead a workshop, meet with students and faculty, and present a public lecture during his two visits to campus to help further the understanding of Loewenstein’s contributions not only to design but to gender and racial equality in architecture. Loewenstein’s firm, for example, hired the first African American architects and design professionals in Greensboro, and Loewenstein taught at Woman’s College from 1958 through the late 1960s. On campus, the Presbyterian House (300 Forest Street Building), built in 1963, and Coleman Gymnasium, built in 1952 on Walker Avenue, were his firm’s designs. Also, he led Woman’s College students for two springs in designing and building a Greensboro house – each known as a Commencement House.
on the campus of UNCG, designed by Loewenstein
By Amanda Kennison