Dole Institute Archive announces 2016 Research Awards


LAWRENCE — The Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas has announced the recipients of its 2016 Dole Archives Research Awards.

The Dole Archival Research Fellow is Caitlin Rathe, doctoral candidate in history of public policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation, “Food Assistance Policies and the Transformation of the Public/Private Welfare State in the U.S. and Britain, 1972-1988,” explores the shifting politics of hunger and welfare in the United States and Britain. In particular, she is using food assistance policies as a lens to examine how social provision changed during the 1970s and 1980s.

The Fellowship is a $2,500 award. Established in 2010, the fellowship program provides grants to scholars engaged in projects studying Congress, politics or policy issues on a national or international scale. Support for the fellowship is generously provided by the Friends of the Dole Institute.

“Instead of being a temporary emergency, hunger remains widespread in the twenty-first century,” Rathe said. “Debates about solving this problem continue to inspire diverse, and at times combative, political responses. My project seeks to provide the historical context for contemporary debates, demonstrating how the public and private sector have worked in concert to provide food assistance since the 1970s. Senator Dole’s commitment to reducing hunger will reveal how, in a different period of heated political debate, bipartisan reform expanded access to food assistance. This knowledge will help policymakers today navigate contentious political issues.”

A $2,500 Curatorial Research Fellowship has been awarded to John Robert Greene, Paul J. Schupf Professor, History and Humanities, Cazenovia (N.Y.) College. Greene’s research project, “Bob Dole and the Vice Presidential Campaign of 1976,” will complement his contributions to the upcoming Dole Institute exhibit titled “State to Nation: Dole for Vice President, 1976,” which will open with a public program featuring Greene on Aug. 14. The fellowship and exhibit are both made possible by a generous grant from the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation.

The Dole Institute also awarded a $750 travel grant to Richard Johnson, a doctoral candidate in Oxford University’s Department of Politics and International Studies. Johnson will examine the role of the “Dole Compromise” in extending the Voting Rights Act in 1982 for his dissertation, titled “The Deracialization Strategy in Black Electoral Politics, 1989-2014.”

“Our 2016 research awardees each explore historical topics that have direct relevance to issues that are live in our society today – issues of nutrition and food insecurity, campaign politics and racial equality,” said Audrey Coleman, Dole Institute assistant director and senior archivist. “A congressional archive like Senator Dole’s is an important resource for understanding the evolution of U.S. political issues that have impact on our lives today.”

Greene, Rathe and Johnson will visit the Dole Institute to conduct archival research during the 2016-2017 award year.

For more information on these or other research opportunities at the Dole Institute, visit dolearchives.ku.edu or call (785) 864-4900.

Thu, 05/19/2016

author

Makayla Hipke

Media Contacts

Makayla Hipke

Dole Institute of Politics

785-864-1156