Michael Albani named a 2020-2021 William S. Willis, Jr. Fellow at the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society’s Library & Museum announces its latest round of fellowship recipients
The American Philosophical Society’s Library & Museum is excited to announce that Michael J. Albani, a PhD Candidate in History at Michigan State University, has received the William S. Willis, Jr. Fellowship. This is the inaugural year for this short-term fellowship, which was created in honor of anthropologist William S. Willis. Willis did important work on Native American, Black, and settler relations in the American south. The fellowship supports projects that explore race, Native American history, and the history of anthropology. You can learn more about Willis here.
This fellowship will allow Michael to further his project, “Racializing Indigenous Society: Native Americans, Euro-Americans, and the Struggle for Authority in the Great Lakes Borderlands, 1763-1888.”
We look forward to working with Michael and learning more about his research efforts. As the Society’s Librarian Patrick Spero said, “We are thrilled to welcome a new class of fellows to the Library & Museum. Our fellows conduct cutting edge research in a wide range of fields, and every year they make new discoveries in our collections that change what we know about our past.”
The American Philosophical Society (APS), the oldest learned society in the United States, was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purposes of “promoting useful knowledge.” In the 21st century, it serves to advance knowledge and promote scholarship in the humanities and social, mathematical, life, and physical sciences. Members of the Society are elected from among the most eminent scholars and civic and cultural leaders in North America and abroad. More than 100 living APS Members are Nobel laureates.
The APS Library & Museum collections make it among the premier institutions for documenting and exhibiting the history of the American Revolution and founding, the history of science from Newton to NASA, Native American languages and culture, and the development of American anthropology. The Library houses over 14 million manuscripts, 275,000 volumes and bound periodicals, 250,000 images, fine art, and other objects. Museum exhibitions interpret these extensive collections for the regional, national, and international visitors who come to Philadelphia’s historic district. In doing so, the exhibitions aim to nurture the spirit of inquiry, promote critical thinking, and engender enthusiasm for object-based learning by using primary source documents and authentic objects. The Library & Museum also hosts a robust fellowship program, offering over 25 short-term and 10 long-term fellowships each year to scholars using its collections.
You can connect with the APS by subscribing to our e-newsletter or by following us on social media to receive updates on our fellows (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). For a full list of this year’s fellowship recipients, click here.