Dunson selected for Ford Foundation fellowship

Grant supports dissertation work

by Mike Watt, special to the Chronicle

tephanie Dunson, a doctoral candidate in the Department of English, has been awarded a Dissertation Fellowship for Minorities from the Ford Foundation to support her work in American Studies. She is one of 130 fellows selected from 982 applicants.

     The fellowship allows Dunson to working on her dissertation, "De Old Folks at Home: 19th Century Sheet Music and the Domestication of Blackface Minstrelsy."
The focus of Dunson's research is the period between 1838 and 1852 when blackface minstrel shows went from being somewhat bawdy lowbrow affairs to being culturally accepted with the music from these shows being performed in the most polite of parlors throughout the Northeast.

     In looking at the covers of the sheet music, Dunson noticed subtle changes in the depiction of blackface minstrels. In the span of two years, the cover art for this sheet music moved from portraying minstrels in grotesque caricature to portraying minstrels in tuxedoes and obvious blackface. Two years later the cover art evolved yet again, portraying the minstrel performers both in and out of costume. Dunson, who is also a trained musician, is also looking at the complexity of the music as it became more acceptable. The tunes themselves changed from songs for the single voice to songs with four part harmonies often including parts for women's voices.

     "Stephanie is doing some really remarkable research," said her advisor, English professor Randall Knoper.

     According to Dunson, the process of applying for a Ford Fellowship was a great way to focus her research. Because the fellowship application requires brief answers to complex questions, she knew she had to have a clear sense of what she was doing, where her research was going, and what it was connected to. By the time she had finished with the application, Dunson knew exactly what the focus and parameters of her writing would be and, for someone working on a dissertation, "that was reward enough ... but the money was nice too."

     Dunson said applying for fellowships is a worthwhile effort for graduate students, even if success is not immediate. Dunson applied for four different fellowships last year and received only one. "Because they ask you to package yourself in specific ways. ... it easily translates into other areas, writing CVs, cover letters, and abstracts are skills that translate into finding a job in both the academic and non-academic world."

     The Ford Foundation offers several fellowships to minority graduate students. Academic disciplines supported by the foundation include those in the behavioral sciences; literature, languages, and humanities; history, philosophy, and religion; social sciences; life sciences; chemistry; earth sciences; physics and astronomy; engineering; mathematics; and computer science. The application deadline this year is Nov. 20.

     For more information on funding opportunities visit the Graduate Student Grant Service website (www.umass.edu/research/gsgs/).