Institute For Advanced Study Receives Grant From Mellon Foundation

The Institute for Advanced Study has received a grant of $650,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City to support visiting memberships for young scholars in the School of Historical Studies. This funding is a renewal of a grant initiated in academic year 1997-98, and will cover the five-year period of academic year 2002-03 through 2006-07.

The Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships for Assistant Professors support two scholars per year. The recipients are relieved from teaching and administrative responsibilities and given the uninterrupted time that is necessary to complete research and writing.

Phillip A. Griffiths, director of the Institute, observes, "As we strive to provide an environment that is conducive to excellence in historical research, the assistance of the Mellon Foundation is of immense value."

To date, eight Institute scholars have received Mellon Fellowships for Assistant Professors. At the Institute for the year 2000-01 are Jane Baun of New York University, who studies Byzantine history, and Thomas Gallanis of Ohio State University, who writes on the history of English Law.

Gallanis is studying the history of the trial in 18^th-century England, when, he says, "Criminal defendants did not have the right to be represented by counsel. This changed during the 1780s when the percentage of criminal defendants represented by counsel increased dramatically." Gallanis is trying to explain why this change occurred, and "to determine whether the regular use of counsel made a difference to the outcome of the trial verdict and sentence."

Baun is working on a monograph exploring the imaginative structures in two visionary journeys to heaven and hell, the Apocalypse of the Theotokos, and the Apocalypse of Anastasia, as well as a study of the moral and social values revealed by these and related texts. Her goal is "to arrive at a new understanding of the cultural, social, and religious ties that held Byzantine society together."