Pitt Graduate Named ACLS New Faculty Fellow

PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh postdoctoral lecturer Tanine Allison has been selected an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) New Faculty Fellow for 2011-13. She will complete her fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta. 

According to the ACLS, the New Faculty Fellows program was created in response to the increasingly jobless market that confronts recent PhDs in the humanities; it funds two-year positions at universities and colleges nationwide where their particular research and teaching expertise augment departmental offerings.  

During her time at Emory, Allison will teach in the Department of Film and Media Studies, including undergraduate and graduate courses in both film and new media studies.  She also will work on converting her dissertation—which involved reevaluating World War II combat films by expanding the genre to include contemporary films and video games—into a book. 

Fellow 2011 ACLS New Faculty honoree Jessie Ramey, who earned her PhD in history from Carnegie Mellon University, will complete her fellowship at Pitt. During her fellowship, Ramey will be teaching classes for the Women’s Studies Program. She also will be working on expanding her dissertation—“A Childcare Crisis: Poor Black and White Families and Orphanages in Pittsburgh, 1878-1929”—into a book on the history of institutional childcare. 

While at Emory, Allison will look at issues of technology, realism, and spectacle by focusing on motion capture (a technology that combines digital animation and a live actor to create a character on the screen, like Gollum from Lord of the Rings). She will work to “draw conclusions about the state of contemporary cinema, which is torn between traditional conventions, such as live-action performance and acting, and digital innovations, such as computer-generated imagery, characters, and settings,” said Allison. 

ACLS Fellows receive an annual $50,000 stipend, a research and travel allowance of $5,000, a $1,500 moving allowance, and health insurance. Mentors from the universities help fellows integrate into their new academic community. 

Allison completed her undergraduate studies at Brown University with a degree in modern culture and media. In September 2010, she presented her dissertation defense with distinction and received her PhD from Pitt. 

Allison’s other honors include the Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship and the Elizabeth Baranger Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

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