2010 Governor’s Awards in the Humanities Announced

SC Humanities is pleased to announce that three extraordinary South Carolina individuals will be recipients of this year’s annual Governor’s Awards in the Humanities, presented at a luncheon to be held September 30, 2010 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.  The three recipients are: Dr. Benjamin “Bernie” Dunlap, President of Wofford College;  Lynn Robertson, Executive Director of McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina; and Dr. Theodore “Ted” Rosengarten, National Book Award-winning author and university professor.

Established in 1991, the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities recognize outstanding achievement in humanities research, teaching, and scholarship; institutional and individual participation in community-based programs that promote public understanding of ideas and issues related to the humanities; excellence defining South Carolina’s cultural life to the nation or world; and exemplary support for public humanities programs.  From 1991-2009 fifty-three awards have been presented. See the full list of award winners.  SC Humanities is completing its 37th year as the state-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dr. Benjamin “Bernie” Dunlap is the 10th President of Wofford College and a former Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.  He has taught at Harvard and the University of South Carolina, and he was a Fulbright Lecturer in Thailand.  Dunlap taught humanities at Wofford until becoming President in 2000.  He has been involved for years with the Aspen Leadership Institute in Colorado and helped found the Liberty Fellowship program in South Carolina.  He has been a major contributor to public television programs and is well published in a variety of genres.

Lynn Robertson is Executive Director of McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina.  She has been involved in museum work and public humanities programs for 37 years.  Lynn started at the Florence Museum and moved to McKissick in 1978.  She is credited with focusing the museum’s mission on the material culture of Southern life ways.  She has brought much attention to the folk arts and life of South Carolina; the Museum helps sponsor the annual Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards, and its longstanding work on the sweet grass basket tradition recently resulted in a traveling exhibit that is currently on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art.  Robertson has actively been involved as a consultant on major state cultural projects, including the Penn Center and National Heritage Corridor, and has been a field reviewer for both the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  She has directed and taught in the USC’s Museum Management Program.

Dr. Theodore “Ted” Rosengarten is a highly acclaimed writer and researcher, with two National Book Awards and the Order of the Palmetto to his credit. His focus included race relations and Holocaust studies; among his publications are All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw, Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter, and A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life, edited with Dale Rosengarten. He is a senior research associate with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and was a former assistant to the Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  He has taught at the College of Charleston, University of South Carolina, and Harvard.

The 2010 awardees will be honored at a luncheon on Thursday, September 30, 2010 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, 1101 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC 29201. A reception will take place from 11:00 – 11:45 a.m., and the luncheon and awards program will start at 12:00 p.m.

Online sale for tickets to the 2010 Governor's Awards in the Humanities luncheon is closed. Please call the office at 803-771-2477 if you are interested in purchasing a ticket.

To learn more about the Governor's Awards in the Humanities and see a complete list of the previous fifty-three recipients, please follow the link to the Governor's Awards in the Humanities page of SC Humanities website.

The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. SC Humanities programs and initiatives are balanced, reflecting sensitivity to the diversity of ideas, encourage open dialogue, demonstrate integrity, and are ethical in operations.