July 19, 1999

UC creates fellowships in California studies

By Dante Noto
Office of Research, UC Office of the President

The University of California has established the Kevin Starr fellowships for postdoctoral research in California studies. Named in honor of State Librarian Kevin Starr, the fellowships are aimed at bolstering research in all aspects of California, including its history, cultural and social heritages, politics, and the influence of economic forces on the state's environment.

The one-year fellowships include a stipend, housing allowance, health insurance, and a research and travel budget. A committee of experts on California studies selects the recipients.

Four initial awardees, all historians, have been selected. They are:

• Mary Coomes of Oakland, Calif., who will devote her study to the relationships between California's ethnic populations and the environment;
• Glen Gendzel of Athens, Ga., who has researched every major collection of California politicians' papers of the early 20th century, will focus on social memory and political culture;
• Phoebe S. Kropp of La Jolla, Calif., who will study how popular, romanticized notions of California's history helped to form the state's regional cultures and politics;
• Jared Orsi of Evanston, Ill., who will focus on human causes of natural disasters, investigating how social relations and the political economy of urban growth influence the flow of water through Los Angeles just as much as rain and flood-control measures.

"I am pleased that these fellowships will bear the name of a distinguished California scholar who has contributed so significantly to documenting the history of the Golden State," said UC President Richard C. Atkinson. "With four Starr Fellows working simultaneously on books in the field of California studies, the University of California will have a major influence in shaping the way California is seen and understood for decades to come."

The awardees will be in residence next year at the University of California Humanities Research Institute, a unit of the UC Office of the President that serves the 10 UC campuses and is based at UC Irvine. The fellows will have access to the archives of the Huntington Library in San Marino. University of California Press, the nation's largest publishing arm of any public university, will have the first option to publish the books resulting from the research.

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