CONTACT:
- Sue Peabody, 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø College of Liberal Arts, 360-546-9647, peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu
- Sheri Byrd, 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø Office of Marketing and Communications, 360-546-9602, byrds@vancouver.wsu.edu
- Sarah Bowman, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 646-366-9666 x38, bowman@gilderlehrman.org
NEW YORK, NY - Sue Peabody, Professor of History at Washington State University, Vancouver, has been awarded a research fellowship by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Peabody will conduct research in 2009 - 2010 at the New York Historical Society for her book project, "Free Soil: Slaves and the Law in the Atlantic World." The book traces the legal principle of "free soil" from the middle ages through the 19th century. This principle states that a slave who crosses into a particular territory becomes free. The project builds on the research for her first book, "There Are No Slaves in France: The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancien Régime," by tracing the movement of the idea outside of France to the wider Atlantic of Europe, the Americas and Africa.
Students in Peabody's senior history seminar class at 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø have contributed preliminary research to the project. In this course, each student is assigned a state in which to study the legal history of slavery or race.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History awards short-term fellowships to doctoral candidates, postdoctoral scholars, and independent scholars to conduct work in five archives in New York City. Peabody is one of twenty Gilder Lehrman Fellows for the second half of 2008. The Gilder Lehrman Institute has funded a total of 521 fellowships since 1994.
Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. The Institute also conducts awards including the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and George Washington Book Prizes, and offers fellowships for scholars to work in the Gilder Lehrman Collection. The Institute maintains two websites, and the quarterly online journal
91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave., east of the 134th Street exit from either I-5 or I-205, or via C-Tran bus service. We offer 16 bachelor's degrees, nine master's degrees, one doctorate degree and more than 36 fields of study. Visit us on the Web at
Photo: Sue Peabody. Click thumbnail for high resolution image.