KU professor named one of first Carnegie fellows

The Carnegie Corporation of New York has selected a Kansas University professor as one of the first recipients of its new fellowship for social sciences and humanities, KU announced this week.

Greg Cushman, associate professor of history and environmental studies, is one of 32 scholars chosen from more than 300 nominees for the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. The 2015 honorees are the inaugural class for the prestigious award.

“This is a tremendous honor for Greg and for KU,” Don Steeples, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said in a news release. “Greg is an outstanding scholar whose work has garnered award after award.”

KU professor Greg Cushman is pictured on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) during initial field work for his second book.

Cushman, who has taught at KU since 2003, is an environmental historian known for his research on the human dimensions of climate change. His first book, “Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History” (Cambridge University Press, 2013), is one of the first studies to examine the environmental and cultural history of the modern world from the perspective of the whole Pacific Basin, according to KU.

Carnegie Fellows will receive awards of up to $200,000 each, which will enable them to take sabbaticals in order to devote time to their research and writing. According to KU, Cushman will use the Carnegie fellowship to complete a second book, “The Anthropocene and the Age of Revolution: A People’s History of the Earth Under Human Domination.”