The Marcus Bach Fellowships for graduate students in the humanities are awarded by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to support the completion of an MFA project or doctoral dissertation. The fellowship’s goal is to foster intercultural communication and/or the understanding of diverse philosophies and religious perspectives, and projects in this area are the most appropriate.
The Marcus Bach Fellowships are made possible by a bequest from the estate of Dr. Marcus Bach.
Dr. Bach received a doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1942 in Speech and Dramatic Arts (now the Department of Communication Studies and the Department of Theatre Arts). Awardees must successfully demonstrate how their research relates to the ideas and research of Dr. Bach.
Bach Fellowships provide a single semester of support, which includes:
- $10,700 Salary
- Associated Fringe Benefits
- Tuition Scholarship for 2 s.h. credit
- 50% of Mandatory fees
Each year, up to four Bach Fellowships will be awarded.
Questions?
Contact clas@uiowa.edu if you have questions concerning the Marcus Bach Graduate Fellowship.
Learn more about Marcus Bach
For more information on Dr. Bach, visit the Brigham Young University website devoted to him.
- The applicant must use the fellowship period to complete an MFA project or to conduct post-comprehensive research and writing on the doctoral dissertation.
- The applicant’s research/creative project must focus on intercultural communication and/or the understanding of diverse philosophies and religious perspectives. Especially appropriate are proposals which show an awareness of the ideas and research of Dr. Marcus Bach.
- Students in the creative arts, humanities, and related social sciences are eligible to apply, so long as their project has a relevant focus.
- Awardees must register for at least 1 s.h. credit during the fellowship semester.
The award application period for AY 2024-25 awards is now closed. The application due date was Monday, December 11, 2023, from departments to the CLAS Dean's Office.
Eligible graduate students apply through their departments. The DGS or DEO may recommend up to three student applications to the CLAS Associate Dean for Graduate Education. Applications for the AY 2024-25 fellowships should be sent by the DEO or DGS to clas@uiowa.edu.
Application materials must include the following collated into one pdf in the following order:
- the completed application cover sheet,
- a short description (up to 2 pages, 12 pt. font) of the creative or research project, and of the work already accomplished,
- a brief (1 page maximum) statement describing connections between the project and Marcus Bach’s research/ideas,
- a copy of the applicant’s current transcript (unofficial transcripts are acceptable),
- a statement of support from the applicant’s advisor, which includes comments about the progress towards completing degree requirements, and
- a statement of support from the DGS, DEO, or their designee in the case of a COI. In the case of more than one application from the same PhD/MFA/DMA program, a committee of at least three graduate faculty members and the DGS ranks the applications from that program and describes the formal process by which the ranking was determined. The committee should not include any faculty members serving as a thesis advisor for an applicant.
Awardees are selected by the CLAS Associate Dean for Graduate Education and the elected members of the CLAS Graduate Education Policy Committee on the basis of research design and the connection of their research to the ideas and research of Dr. Bach.
Projects funded
View projects funded since the Fellowships were established in 2005.
Projects
- Caelainn Barr, English (Nonfiction Writing Program), "Written in the Land"
- Nathan Chaplin, History, "Surveying the Tropics, Constructing the Heartland: Identify Formation in Nicaragua and the Midwest"
- Spencer Jones, English (Nonfiction Writing Program), “All Skillful in the Wars”
- Xiaoyan Kang, Theatre Arts, “The Words of Ants"
- Mariana Mazer, Spanish and Portuguese, “The book as an object and container of multiple stories"
- Erin Daly, School of Art and Art History, "Dreaming the Past: From Arche to the Epiphanous Moment in the Art of Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)"
- Christopher Lysik, Theatre Arts, “The Cultural Assimilation of Italian-Americans in Providence, RI, During the 20th and 21st Centuries”
- John Sheridan, Religious Studies, “Hutterite Religion, Emotion, and Matter: How Hutterites 'Dress' and are 'Dressed' by Their World"
- Maria Capecchi, English, "Performing Early Modern Women: 1620-1680"
- Mason Hamberlin, English, "The Queer Mormon Suicides"
- Valerie Muensterman, Theatre Arts, “The Living Light: A Play”
- Michael Pekel, Music, “Musical Style in the Anglican Choral Works of Jonathan Harvey”
- Jessica Dzielinski, Art and Art History, "Lost and Found"
- Garrett Taylor Lewis, History, “Ourselves and Others: Native Alliances, Nationhood, and Social Identity in the Northeastern Borderland, 1689-1838”
- Wenxin Li, Music, “Dream Butterfly Dream”
- Jeremy Lowenthal, English, “Sound in Memoriam: Airing Trauma on the BBC Third Programme”
- Emma Silverman, Theatre Arts, “The Morality of Holocaust Tourism”
- Steven Glavey, Theatre, "Bal des Ardents"
- Joseph TenHulzen, History, "Peacemaking and Religious Tolerance in the Valentinois during the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598)"
- Lei Wang, English, "From Here to Here"
- Bambi Whitaker, English, "Investigating Enchantment and Disenchantment in Golden Age British Detective Fiction"
- Chris Henderson, American Studies, "Pleasurable Labors: Fandom, Community and the Contested Performance of Place."
- Troy Mills, Religious Studies, "The Rastafari and The Nation of Islam: From Black Internationalism to Globalization, 1960s - 1980s."
- Juana New, Cinematic Arts, "The Cartographic Impulse and the Emergence of other Americas in Contemporary Latin American Documentary Cinema."
- Caitlin Simmons, English, "Dispossession and Survivance in the Literature of Atrocity."
- Iva Patel, Religious Studies, "Devotional Lyrics and their Pedagogy of Thinking in Swaminarayan Hindu Devotion"
- Pranav Prakash, Religious Studies, "Reimagining Sufi Poetics in South Agia: The Literary Works of Hasan Sijzi Dihlavi (1253-c.1336)"
- Rachel Walerstein, English, "Masculine Gestures: How (Some) Men Performed Modernism"
- Jing-Fu Jeffrey Chiou, Music, to complete his dissertation, "Using Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching to Cultivate a Classical Performing Musician’s Professional Mindset"
- Erica Damman, Interdisciplinary PhD Program, Environmental Humanities, to complete her dissertation, "Playing within the Trouble: Critical Art Games and Environmental Thought"
- Aldrin Tinashe Magaya, History, "Christianity, Culture and the African Experience in Marange: 1932-1960"
- Stephanie Grossnickle-Batterton, American Studies, to complete her dissertation, "Ye Shall Know Them By Their Clothes: Rhetorics of Women's Religious Dress in the United States 1865-1920."
- Miriam Janechek, English, to complete her dissertation, "Faith in the Golden Age: Imagining Religion in Victorian Children's Literature."
- John R. Kennedy, Religious Studies, "En el Nombre de Dious: Baroque Piety, Local Religion and the Last Will and Testament in Late Colonial Monterrey."
- Salvatory Stephen Nyambo, History, "The Roots of African Christianity in East Africa: Conversion, Slave Emancipation and Translation in Western Tanzania, 1878-1960."
- Noaquia Callahan, History, to complete her dissertation, "Divided Duty: African American Feminist Transnational Activism and the Lure of the Imperial Gaze, 1888-1922."
- Kyle Dieleman, Religious Studies, to complete his dissertation, "Battle for the Sabbath in the Dutch Reformation: Desecration or Devotion."
- Jennifer Loman, English, to complete her dissertation, "Christian Hospitality, Shame, and the Making of an American Ethos."
- Aihua Zheng, History, to complete her dissertation, "Shaku Sōen and Rinzai Zen in Modern Japan: 1868-1919."
- Shuhita Bhattacharjee, English, to complete her dissertation, “The Conversion Cornucopia: Religion, Secularism, and Gender in Victorian Colonial Conversion Narratives on India; 1870-1914.”
- Cory Gundlach, School of Art & Art History, to complete his dissertation, "Anonymity, Invention, and Reclamation: Lobi Art in Public and Private Collections."
- Christian Haunton, Anthropology, to complete his dissertation, “Religion, Change, and Material Culture: An archaeological Examination of the Amana Colonies.”
- Sumeyye Pakdil Kesgin, Religious Studies, to complete her dissertation: “Uncovering Turkish Women’s Identity: State, Religion, and Gender.”
- James Chan Yu, Creative Writing, to complete his MFA thesis: “A Credit to Your Rice and Other Stories.”
- David Greder, Religious Studies, to complete his disssertation, "Prophecy, Eschatology, and the 1641 Irish Rebellion."
- Katherine Massoth, History, to complete her dissertation, "As is the Custom of the Country: Gender, Cultural Practices, and Ethnic Identity in Arizona and New Mexico, 1846-1941."
- Quince Mountain, English (Nonfiction Writing), to complete his MFA thesis, "You Are a Prince."
- Lynne Larsen, Art & Art History, to complete her dissertation, "The Royal Palace of Dahomey: Symbol of a Transforming Nation."
- Anna Stenson Newnum, English, to complete her dissertation, "The Poetry of Religion and the Prose of Life: The Path from Evangelicalism to Immanence in British Women's Religious Poetry and Prose, 1835-1925."
- Christina Ortiz, Anthropology, to complete her dissertation, “What Does it Mean to ‘Belong’ in a Rural Midwestern Meatpacking Town?”
- Ezra Lincoln Plank, Religious Studies, to complete his dissertation, “Creating Perfect Families: The French Reformed Church and Family Formation, 1559-1685.”
- Jessica Wilson, English (Nonfiction Writing), to complete her MFA thesis, "Road Worth Walking."
- James Lambert, English, to complete his dissertation, “Religious Joy in Early Modern Literature.”
- Jennifer Silverman, Playwrights' Workshop in Theatre Arts, to develop her thesis project, “Six Bright Horses.”
- Bounnak Thammavong, Art and Art History, to exhibit his MFA thesis project in metalsmithing, "Binary Tales."
- Karissa Haugeberg, History, to complete her dissertation, "Women in the Anti-Abortion Movement, 1960-2000."
- Crystal Ann Gauger, Art and Art History, to complete her dissertation, tentatively titled “Transcending History: The Religious Paintings of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.”
- June Melby, English (Nonfiction Writing), to complete her MFA thesis, "Little House on the Astroturf."
- Nicole Buscemi, English, to complete her doctoral dissertation, "Diagnosing Narratives: Illness, the Case History, and Victorian Fiction."
- Anita Gaul, History, to complete her dissertation, "Bishop John Ireland’s Catholic Colonization Project and the Formation of Rural Ethnic Parishes on the Minnesota Frontier, 1876-1905."
- Mamadou Badiane, Spanish and Portuguese, to work on a doctoral dissertation comparing Negrismo and Négritude.
- Caroline Campbell, History, to continue her study of women members of the French nationalist group the Croix de Feu.
- Brett Gaul, Philosophy, to develop a doctoral dissertation exploring the ways in which Augustine's philosophy was related to the dominant pagan philosophies of his day.
- Ben Otto, English (Nonfiction Writing), to develop a book-length study documenting the civil war occurring in Nepal.
- David Puderbaugh, Music, to complete a study of the Estonian National Song Festivals in 1938 and 1947 exploring the intersections of art and politics.
- Carla Carlargé, French and Italian, to complete her thesis exploring alternative discourses of fundamentalism in literary works by authors from four Arabic-speaking countries of the Mediterranean basin.
- Andy Douglas, English (Nonfiction Writing), to complete a memoir of his life as a monk in Asia after a childhood in the U.S.
Funded projects questions
Contact Catherine Moore with questions on funded projects.