Guggenheim Fellowship will facilitate the completion of an ethnographic monograph on the real world applications of robot technology

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Five University of Michigan faculty can add the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship to their list of honors and awards.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation recently awarded the 180 Fellowships to individuals for distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

The U-M fellows are Arun Agrawal, professor and associate dean for research, School of Natural Resources and Environment; Jeffrey Gardner Heath, professor of linguistics; Mark Mizruchi, professor of sociology and business; Endi Poskovic, artist and associate professor of art and design; and Jennifer Ellen Robertson, professor of anthropology.

"Our faculty members who've been selected for Guggenheim Fellowships are outstanding scholars in their disciplines," Provost Phil Hanlon said. "They exemplify the strength and diversity of faculty work at the University and we are very proud of their accomplishments."

Agrawal's project "Poverty and Adaptation" will focus on how the poor have adapted for many years to climate change, as well as the effects of the reckless extravagance of the rich and the apathy of the powerful.

"The Guggenheim Fellowship, coupled with a sabbatical and support from the School of Natural Resources and Environment will afford the time and the space in which to complete the finest work of which I am capable on this subject," he said.

Heath says he will use the fellowship to work on the video and linguistic documentation of Dogon people in Mali, who speak at least 20 languages, as well as some of their neighbors. The results will be disseminated primarilyon the project website, www.dogonlanguage.org.

"The award will allow me to expand from basic linguistic documentation to also include video documentation of practical activities and of ceremonial events," he said.

Mizruchi is writing a book, tentatively titled "Power Without Efficacy: The Decline of the American Corporate Elite." He argues that in the post World War II period, American business leaders exhibited a relatively moderate, pragmatic approach to politics that included general acceptance of (if not support for) government regulation and management of the economy, the rights of workers to organize, and the need to address social problems such as poverty and urban blight. The corporate elite of today, however, is either unwilling or unable to act collectively to address any of the pressing economic and social issues of our age, he says.

"I am deeply honored to have received the Guggenheim Fellowship," Mizruchi said. "The fellowship, which I will use during the 2011-2012 academic year, will give me the space I need to be able to complete the book in a timely manner."

"Crossing the Mostar Bridge: A Series of Lithographic Prints and Drawings" is the title of Poskovic's project. He plans to travel to Southern Europe to collect images for new drawings and lithographic prints, and return to his Ann Arbor studio to develop the visual data into large-scale drawings and lithographs.

"I am excited about the time this award will allow for my work and research," Poskovic said. "I imagine it will lead me towards various new creative discoveries. Having this year to focus on my creative work will directly flow into my undergraduate and graduate teaching upon the return to the School of Art and Design and the University of Michigan."

Robertson will conduct research on service robots, focusing on their safety, security, and convenience in relation to the political economy of Japan. Most of her fieldwork, she says, will be based in Kodaira City (Tokyo).

"The Guggenheim Fellowship will facilitate the completion of an ethnographic monograph on the real time, real world applications of robot technology, and of human-robot interactions and their consequences," she said.

The 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship winners include artists, scholars, and scientists selected from a pool of more than 3,000 applicants. Since 1925, the Foundation has granted almost $290 million in Fellowships to more than 17,000 individuals in the United States and Canada.