The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded University of South Florida Assistant Professor Anne Latowsky a $50,400 faculty research fellowship in support of her project Holy Land Fictions: Journeys to Jerusalem and Constantinople in the Medieval French Tradition. Latowsky joined the USF faculty in 2004 and specializes in Medieval French literature and its relationship to Frankish and Anglo-Norman historiographical traditions.
The NEH is an independent federal agency that supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities and is the largest funder of the humanities in the United States.
"Dr. Latowsky's achievement is spectacular and represents the high level of quality of her scholarship and the commitment she has for her discipline," said Ralph Wilcox, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. "NEH fellowships are very prestigious and are an even more precious commodity in these tough economic times."
Latowsky's project follows the roots of the false tales of Charlemagne's liberation of Jerusalem through six centuries of ecclesiastical documents, vernacular poems, Latin and vernacular chronicles, and images in stained glass.
"This is a great honor and a wonderful opportunity for me to bring my book to completion," said Latowsky. "I am deeply grateful to colleagues and friends here at USF who made it possible, including members of the Department of World Languages, the Florida MedievaList, and the staff of the USF Humanities Institute."
Latowsky teaches a variety of undergraduate courses in the Department of World Languages in the USF College of Arts and Sciences, as well as advanced courses in Medieval French literature, Old French linguistics and phonetics, and French civilization.
Latowsky earned her bachelor's degree in history and French from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a master's degree in French literature and a doctorate in French studies from the University of Washington, Seattle. She is multilingual, speaking and reading French at near native proficiency, with reading knowledge of Old French, as well as classical and medieval Latin, and is proficient in speaking and reading Spanish, and has reading knowledge of Italian and German.
