2008 Research and Creativity Award goes to Holcomb

Dr. Gary Holcomb, winner of the 2008 President's Award for Research and Creativity

Dr. Gary Holcomb, Associate Professor in the department of English, has received the 2008 President’s Award for Research and Creativity. This award was established in 1996 to honor and recognize research, scholarly activity, or creative endeavors. The individual receiving this award must be peer-nominated and is selected by a subcommittee of the ESU Faculty Research and Creativity Committee.

Dr. Holcomb received his Ph.D. in English at Washington State University in May 1995 and came to ESU in 2000. Since then he has authored and co-authored many refereed journal articles and essays on Claude McKay and on black renaissance scholarship. His recently published book, Claude McKay, Code Name Sasha: Queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance, has become a “sensation in several areas of literary studies,” as stated by a colleague. It won honorable mention for the 2007 Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights Book Award.

In addition to furthering scholarship and study in this area, his research has led to many invited lectures and the opportunity to co-edit collections and scholarly books on this topic. Most notably was his invited book launch lecture at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY. According to a colleague, “in Black Studies, it is considered a singular honor to be invited to speak at the Schomburg, the nation’s leading African American studies research institute.”

Dr. Holcomb is also co-editor with William J. Maxwell on The Claude McKay Reader for the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas Series, due to be published in 2009 by Rutgers University Press.

The impact of his book is further evidenced by the formation of the Claude McKay Society, which will have an international membership and an academic journal. Dr. Holcomb’s continuing research in this area has led to efforts to apply Black Renaissance scholarship to canonical literatures, which like the McKay book, “has begun to change the conversation in American and Modernist literary studies,” according to colleague Amy Sage Webb.

Dr. Holcomb was a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies in Bucharest in 1998-1999, served as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies and Literature in Romania in 2004-2005, and was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in American Studies in Germany during the summer of 2006. He has developed prestigious relationships with international universities and scholars, as evidenced by his lecture tour of eastern German universities in 2005, which was arranged by the American Consulate in Germany and Fulbright-Germany.

In addition to his exemplary research and scholarship, he is an inspiration to his students, many of whom embark on careers in literary research and criticism at some of the most prestigious universities in the world.

Dr. Holcomb was honored at the Research and Creativity Forum award ceremony held in the Colonial Ballroom on Thursday, April 10. He will receive $1,000, an engraved plaque, and his name will be added to the annual plaque on display in the President’s suite in Plumb Hall.

Last Updated May 2, 2008>