Knowles Named 2015 Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow

Anne Kelly Knowles, who in August will begin her position at the University of Maine as a professor in the History Department, has been named a 2015 fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts, according to the foundation. The organization receives between 3,500 and 4,000 applications each year, and awards about 200 fellowships annually.

Knowles is considered a pioneer in applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to history, has written several books on historical GIS, and is an internationally recognized leader in the digital and spatial humanities.

She has been a geography professor at Middlebury College in Middlebury Vermont since 2002. Before that she was a fellow at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts and a lecturer at the Institute of Earth Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Knowles earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Duke University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Knowles was the recipient of this year’s Faculty Partner Accommodation Program at UMaine. Her spouse is Stephen Hornsby, director of the Canadian American Center and professor of anthropology and Canadian studies.

More information about the Guggenheim Fellowships, including a complete list of this year’s fellows, is online.