Two Berkeley Professors Awarded Guggenheim Fellowships

By Kathleen Maclay, UC Berkeley News

BERKELEY, CA - Two UC Berkeley faculty members are among the 2016 recipients of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowships.

H. Mack Horton, a professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Edmund Campion, a professor in the Department of Music, are the campus’s winners this year.

Altogether, the foundation awarded 175 fellowships to 178 scholars, artists and scientists among the nearly 3,000 applicants for the honor. The awards help recipients pursue a special project for six to 12 months. The award is intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

Horton is the Catherine and William L. Magistretti Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and chair of UC Berkeley’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.

He will conduct a comprehensive study of renga, a Japanese verseform where stanzas of three linesalternating with stanzas of twolines are composed in alternation by two or more poets.

Horton plans to address the 500-year history of the genre, the commentaries that linked-verse poets wrote to guide interpretation and teach the art to others, and performative aspects that contributed to the art.

Campion, with his Guggenheim, will compose for the Korean Traditional Contemporary Orchestra, an ensemble that features more than 55 musicians performing on ancient instruments from Korea.

Campion, a professor of music composition and director of UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, will study and work in Korea alongside the musicians.