FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2015
Once completed, Dr. Cassedy’s project will be “essential reading for anyone
in early American studies.”
Dallas (SMU) – Dr. Tim Cassedy, assistant professor of English, has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for his study of linguistic consciousness and awareness among English speakers from 1775 to 1825. Cassedy is one of the 233 prestigious humanities projects receiving the reported $17.9 million in awards and offers made by the NEH in December.
“It is my great pleasure to announce the latest round of NEH grant awards,” said NEH Chairman William Adams. “NEH grants play a critical role in making the insights afforded by the humanities available to all to help us better understand ourselves, our culture, our society.”
Cassedy’s project argues that English speakers had strong opinions about language and believed that a person’s accent and vocabulary revealed his or her true character. At times, Americans even thought of themselves as English speakers first and American citizens second — part of what Cassedy describes as “a forgotten turning point in the history of Western identity.”
Cassedy recounts an incident in which an elderly farmer, asleep in his bed in Connecticut in 1788, suddenly cried out in the middle of the night: “Why do C-O-U-G-H stand for K-O-F?” Cassedy’s book is about a time when language problems seemed so urgent that they tormented people in their dreams.
Rave reviews from NEH panelists regarding Dr. Cassedy’s project:
“Cassedy proposes an ambitious project which, when completed, will be essential reading for anyone in early American studies. This is just the sort of project to which the NEH should lend its full support.”
“The book concerns a broad, hitherto under-examined and inadequately theorized subject which will make a significant contribution to the humanities.”
“It is a very strong and promising project, using fascinating sources and bringing an equally fascinating diversity of theoretical knowledge to bear. The argument itself is also likely to be significant in understanding the rhetoric of a period that did much to bring the modern world into being.”
READ THE FULL NEH PRESS RELEASE
ABOUT DEDMAN COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES
Named in 1981 after SMU alumni Robert H. Dedman Sr. and his wife, Nancy McMillan Dedman, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences is the oldest and largest academic unit at SMU. Students in Dedman College have the advantage of exploring more than 38 undergraduate majors, 56 minors, 17 master’s programs and 14 doctoral degrees offered in 16 academic departments spanning the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, statistics and interdisciplinary studies. Smu.edu/dedman
ABOUT THE NEH
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov
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