June 12, 1995 Contact: Jim Burns (408/459-2495)

EDITOR'S ADVISORY

Patricia Nelson Limerick, who will receive $275,000 as one of 24 new MacArthur Fellows named today (June 12, 1995) by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, earned a bachelor's degree in American studies in 1972 from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Limerick was also the 1990 recipient of UCSC's Alumni Achievement Award, presented by the campus's Alumni Association. She is the fourth person affiliated with UCSC to receive a MacArthur fellowship. The others are Shelly Errington, a professor of anthropology, and former students Alfred Jay Cantor (History of consciousness, Ph.D.) and Robert Shaw (Physics, Ph.D).

Background of award: Twenty-four new MacArthur Fellows were named today (June 12, 1995) by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago. Among the people honored are individuals in fields ranging from human rights, to theater, to history, to fiction and poetry, and to biology and neuroscience. All will receive MacArthur Fellowships, which range from $150,000 to $375,000 over five years, or $30,000 to $75,000 annually, depending on the age of the recipient. MacArthur Fellowships have no strings attached. Recipients are free to use the awards as they wish. "The creative person is at the heart of a society's capacity to improve the human condition," said Adele Simmons, MacArthur Foundation president. "By supporting these fellows, highly talented individuals working in a wide range of fields, the foundation means to honor creative persons everywhere." Individuals cannot apply for MacArthur Fellowships. Instead, names are proposed to the foundation by a group of more than 100 designated nominators in a variety of professions and areas of the country. Their nominations are reviewed by a twelve-member selection committee, which meets seven times a year. Final approval for MacArthur Fellowships comes from the Foundation's Board of Directors. There is no annual quota of fellows and no predetermined time for naming them. Including today's group, a total of 458 fellows have been named since the program began in 1981. In the fourteen years since the program began, the foundation has invested over $140 million in the Fellows Program.

Background of recipient: Patricia Nelson Limerick is a professor of history at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has broadened perspectives on the history of the American West through her stories of women's history, ethnic histories, and environmental history. In her influential book, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West (1987), Limerick presented a region whose defining experience was conquest: conquest of nature, Indians, Mexicans, and often, conquest of the human spirit.

To contact Professor Limerick, call Kathy McClurg (303/492-3113) in the Office of Public Relations, University of Colorado, Boulder.

To contact the MacArthur Foundation, call Ted Hearne (312/728- 6996).

To contact the UCSC Alumni Association, call Executive Director Carolyn Christopherson (408/459-2530).

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