page

Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Jr. Fellowship

Endowed by trustee A. Morris Williams Jr., and his late wife, Ruth W. Williams, the Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Jr. fellowship has been awarded annually to a humanities scholar since 2013.

After marrying in June 1961, Mrs. Williams joined her now husband at Duke University to earn her bachelor’s degree in education while he completed his master’s degree in teaching. For almost 30 years, Mrs. Williams taught preschool-aged children at the Gateway School in Durham, NC and later assumed the role of school director.

Mr. Williams transitioned out of his teaching career to become a partner in the investment management firm Miller, Anderson & Sherrerd, before founding the investment firm Williams & Company in 1997 where he continues to serve as president. For many years, Williams has served Duke University as a member of the Board of Trustees (emeritus), the Divinity Board of Visitors (emeritus) and the Athletics Advisory and Leadership boards. Outside of Duke, Williams has been heavily involved in philanthropic efforts for the College of Wooster, CARE, the Free Library in Philadelphia, the National Humanities Center, the Philadelphia Scholars Fund, the Pine Tree Family Foundation and the Salvation Army.

2013–2014	Martin Summers	Boston College	Race, Madness, and the State: A History of Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital and Washington, D.C.’s African American Community
2014–2015	Kunal Parker	University of Miami	Immigrants and Other Foreigners: U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Law, 1600–2000
2015–2016	Sharon Strocchia	Emory University	Cultures of Care: Women, Knowledge, and the Pursuit of Health in Late Renaissance Italy
2016–2017	Ásta	San Francisco State University	Categories We Live By
2017–2018	Mark Cruse	Arizona State University	Representing the Unknown: Place and Knowledge in the Manuscripts of Marco Polo’s Devisement du monde
2018–2019	Joseph E. Taylor III	Simon Fraser University	Forty-Seven Percent of the West: Congressional Conservation during the Long Progressive Era
2019–2020	Harris Feinsod	Northwestern University	Into Steam: The Global Imaginaries of Maritime Modernism
2020–2021	Melissa Bailes	Tulane University	Nature’s Clockwork: The Natural History of Time in British Literature, 1750–1859
2021–2022	Jessica Hurley	George Mason University	Nuclear Decolonizations
2022–2023	Karima K. Jeffrey-Legette	Hampton University	Black Girls Write the Future: A Scholarly Investigation of Speculative Fiction by or about Women and Girls of African-Descent
2023–2024	Sequoia Maner	Spelman College	A Critical History of Black Elegy in the United States
2024–2025	Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodriguez	Spelman College	Dramas and Horrors of Immigration in Latinx Cinema