Anthropologist Wins Guggenheim

Louise Burkhart of the Department of Anthropology has been named a winner of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for her research into religious beliefs as revealed in the texts of the indigenous people of Colonial America.

"The Guggenheim is the most prestigious award for mid-career academics in America," said Gary Gossen, chair of the anthropology department and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies. "There are only about 150 scholars, scientists and artists in the U.S. and Latin America that receive this award, from the several thousand that apply. It is a tremendous achievement."

The project title, reflecting the research Burkhart will conduct under the fellowship, is "The Virgin Mary in Early Nahuatl Literature"

"The project involves preparation of an anthology and analysis of Nahuatl-language text materials - in Nahuatl with English translation - relating to the introduction of Marian worship to native Mexican people during the 16th and early 17th Centuries," said Burkhart, who has been a member of the Albany faculty since 1990.

Texts surviving from the early Nahua church include prayers, sermons, songs, dramas, miracle narratives, and other genres, written by Spanish priests in collaboration with Nahua scholars, and sometimes by Nahua scholars themselves.

"The goal of the project is to make available a wide range of original text materials while at the same time exploring how the Virgin Mary was understood by native people and adopted into their religious life," said Burkhart. "Previous study in this area has focused on the Virgin of Guadalupe, a cult that actually was not very significant to native people until later, and has overstated supposed continuities between Mary and Aztec goddesses."

Guggenheim fellowships are awarded annually on the basis of a scholar's demonstrated accomplishment in the past and promise for the future. Burkhart is the author of Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico, which was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1966. The dollar amount of the award is based upon the research needs of the fellowship winners.

Jerome Eckstein, Professor of Judaic Studies, is planning to retire this May, after thirty-one years of service to the University. Together with several campus Jewish student groups, the Department of Judaic Studies will be holding a dinner in Jerry's honor on Tuesday, April 8, at the Albany Jewish Community Center. The main speaker will be Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Rackman, Chancellor of Bar Ilan University, who will address the topic, "Dr. Jerome Eckstein: The Search for Jewish Meaning."

The cost for dinner, which also includes a contribution to a scholarship fund in Jerry's name, is $30. a person. For more information, contact Judith R. Baskin, Chair, Department of Judaic Studies, at 442-4135.

Spanier addressed the question "Is Diversity Relevant to What I Teach?" from the standpoint of a biologist (other scholars deal with the fields of business, engineering, and mathematics). She stressed, in her essay, that "in biology, students need to understand that `race' is not a biological or fixed category." Works by Stephen Jay Gould and Ruth Hubbard, she said, "offer evidence of the social, political, and economic nature of the categories."