Dr Will Norman, Lecturer in American Literature in the School of English, has received a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. The scholarship, which begins this academic year, will enable him to complete a book on how European émigré artists, writers and intellectuals responded to American mass culture in the mid-twentieth century.
Based at Yale University in Connecticut, Dr Norman will join a group of extraordinary women and men from all over the world who have been part of the Fulbright Awards programme. Notable alumni include writers Sylvia Plath, Ian Rankin and Malcolm Bradbury, architect Richard Rogers, art historian Sir Ernst Gombrich, and politicians Liam Byrne, Charles Kennedy and Baroness (Shirley) Williams.
The US-UK Fulbright Commission, created by treaty in 1948, is the only bi-lateral, transatlantic scholarship programme offering awards for study or research in any field, at any accredited US or UK university. The Commission is part of the Fulbright programme conceived by Senator J. William Fulbright in the aftermath of World War II to promote leadership, learning and empathy between nations through educational exchange.
Dr Norman, who was selected for the programme through a rigorous application and interview process, said: ‘I am delighted to be representing the University of Kent as a Fulbright Scholar in the United States. This award will allow me to follow in the footsteps of the European émigrés I am writing about, who found a safe haven in the US during the mid-twentieth century, and were inspired by American culture. The benefits of cultural exchange between Europe and the US are as important now as they have ever been and I will aim in my research to contribute to that ongoing project of mutual understanding.’
In 2007, Dr Norman won the Ambassador’s Award from the British Association for American Studies and in 2008 was offered a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. He is the author of Nabokov, History and the Texture of Time (Routledge, 2012) and various articles on modern literature. His research interests include transatlantic cultural history, modernism, crime fiction, and the relationship between high and low culture. Dr Norman has twice worked for NGOs in India, with the Tibetan exile community and with slum dwellers in Kolkata.
The School of English would like to wish Dr Norman every success at Yale and we look forward to welcoming him back next year.