AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Alison Frazier, an associate professor in the Department of History at The University of Texas at Austin, is the recipient of a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and an I Tatti Fellowship from Harvard University.
Frazier will use the awards primarily to complete her study of the Sanctuarium, a two-volume collection of medieval saints’ lives that was printed in 15th century Milan by Bonino Mombrizio, a Milanese poet, bureaucrat and printing entrepreneur. In order to tell the story of why the Sanctuarium exists, and what made it important again centuries later, Frazier will do archival research in Europe and North America. She will determine possible manuscript sources; examine and describe the more than 80 extant copies; analyze the margin notes, which range from 15th to 18th century comments; and propose a history that accounts for the changing attitudes of readers in different political, intellectual and religious environments.
Frazier, the first woman from the university’s Department of History to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship, is a fellow of the American Academy of Rome. Her I Tatti Fellowship will allow her to concentrate on some additional research projects as well.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was established in 1925 by U.S. Senator Simon Guggenheim and his wife as a memorial to a son who died at age 17. The 2005 fellowship winners include 186 artists, scholars and scientists selected from more than 3,000 applicants for awards totaling $7,112,000. Decisions are based on recommendations from hundreds of expert advisers and are approved by the foundation’s Board of Trustees. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.
Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti in Florence offers up to 15 post-doctoral fellowships each academic year for advanced research in any aspect of the Italian Renaissance. Fellows are selected by an international committee of senior scholars in Italian Renaissance studies.
For more information contact: Dr. Alison Frazier, 512-475-7263.
