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NEWS RELEASE

04-15-03

Contacts:
Brett Bowles, Foreign Languages and Literatures, (515) 294-9017
David Hunter, Philosophy and Religious Studies, (515) 294-5848
Dave Gieseke, Liberal Arts and Sciences, (515) 294-7742
Kevin Brown, News Service, (515) 294-8986

IOWA STATE FACULTY MEMBERS RECEIVE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES AWARDS

AMES, Iowa -- Two Iowa State University faculty members have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer stipends.

One professor will use the award as he translates ancient biblical commentaries, and the other will research newly discovered World War II-era newsreels to analyze the layers of propaganda used in the works. Both professors are in Iowa State's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

David Hunter, the Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of Catholic studies and professor of philosophy and religious studies, and Brett Bowles, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures, will each receive of $5,000 NEH stipends.

Hunter will produce the first English translation of a set of biblical commentaries written in Latin in the late 4th century Rome. The anonymous author produced the first complete Latin commentary on the Pauline Epistles, as well as an extensive set of questions on the Old and New Testaments.

Hunter, editor of the project, is working with three other religious studies scholars in translating the works. The complete translation of the Pauline commentaries will appear in a text and translation format in the series, "Writings from the Greco-Roman World," published in the United States by the Society of Biblical Literature and in Europe by E.J. Brill (Leiden).

Bowles is comparing French and German newsreel series produced in France during World War II (1940-44). His project highlights the layers of compromise and conflict that was below the surface of state collaboration between the Vichy French government and the Nazis.

The recently rediscovered newsreels also will allow Bowles to reevaluate the relative effectiveness of French and German film propaganda in shaping public opinion on a variety of social and political topics, as well as to better understand the psychology of collaboration and resistance.

The NEH program provides scholars with an opportunity to pursue research in the humanities that contributes to scholarly knowledge or to the public's understanding of the humanities.

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