Laura Furlan, associate professor and director of American studies in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA), has been named the 2026 Carl and Betty Pforzheimer Fellow in English and American Literature by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

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Furlan is among 63 scholars selected nationwide from a competitive pool of more than 2,000 applicants through a multi-stage peer review process. Awardees represent a broad range of institutions, fields and career stages and more than half of the 2026 ACLS fellows are early-career scholars and scholars who do not hold tenure-track faculty appointments.

With the support of the fellowship, Furlan, a specialist in Native American literary and cultural studies and American studies, will continue work on her book project, “The Archival Turn in Native American Literature and Art.”  The project examines how contemporary Native writers and artists repurpose items from the colonial archive—historical photographs, documents, journals, ethnographers’ field notes and heritage objects—in their written and visual texts.

“I am thrilled to have this time to finish this project, and I am immensely thankful to the ACLS and the Pforzheimers for their continued support of the humanities,” Furlan said. 

A nonprofit federation of 81 scholarly organizations, the ACLS is a leading humanities organization that supports scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. Its fellowship program provides up to $60,000 to support six to 12 months of full-time research and writing. Awardees who are independent scholars, adjunct faculty or have teaching-intensive roles receive an additional stipend of between $3,000 and $6,000.

“Congratulations to Laura Furlan. Her scholarship is vital and this recognition is thoroughly deserved,” said HFA Dean Maria del Guadalupe Davidson.  

The ACLS Fellowship Program is funded primarily by the organization’s endowment, with additional support of foundations, institutional members and individual donors since its founding in 1919.

More information about the program, including Furlan’s research, is available on the ACLS website.