History Prof Keisha Blain awarded Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship from AAUW

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Keisha Blain
Keisha Blain

Keisha N. Blain, assistant professor of History, has been awarded a 2016-17 American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

The American Fellowships program has been in existence since 1888, making it the oldest non-institutional source of funding for women in the United States. The primary purpose of the Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship is to increase the number of women in tenure-track faculty positions and to promote equality for women in higher education. This fellowship is designed to assist the candidate in obtaining tenure and further promotions by enabling her to spend a year pursuing independent research. The primary criterion for fellowship awards is scholarly excellence.

Blain is an assistant professor in the Department of History, part of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. She is an historian of the 20th century United States with broad interdisciplinary interests and specializations in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies.

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.