| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 2, 2007 |
CONTACT: Beth Felice (800) 357-0909 beth @ mohumanities.org |
Each year the Governor of Missouri and the Missouri Humanities Council celebrate the accomplishments of people who have made exceptional contributions to our understanding of Missouri, its people, and its stories. The Community Heritage Award recognizes a person who has made a special contribution to a community’s understanding of its heritage.
Fred Fausz has committed himself to bringing humanities to the public, taking history from the classroom to the community at large. A tenured professor at the University of Missouri Saint Louis, and former first Dean of the Pierre Laclede Honors College, he has been honored by his colleagues with a named scholarship, given annually to some thirty students chosen for academic achievement.
Fred is an accomplished scholar of early American History. His areas of active research range from Jamestown in 1607, to Lewis & Clark in 1807. Three of his publications won best essay awards in Missouri, Virginia, and Maryland, and he is currently completing three books that reflect his broad interests and expertise.
He took a very active role as writer and lecturer during the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial and the Jamestown Quadricentennial. One of his many articles was cited in the May 7 “America at 400” issue of Time Magazine.
Fred is one of the few scholars to include French Creole Missouri in the teaching of Colonial America; most recently this summer when he introduced eighteen Missouri school teachers to that material as part of an online M.A. program funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
His thirty year collegiate teaching career has been dedicated to multi-cultural awareness and restoring American Indians to their central role in American History. And as Michael Bouman recently noted, “Since 1992, Fred has exemplified the idea of public humanities, going far and wide in Missouri with a trunk load of replica artifacts to speak about the early relations between traders and Native Americans.” He drove his show-and-tell Museum on Wheels over 13,000 miles during the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial to deliver public programs.
In addition to in his university classroom, Fred Fausz teaches history in many ways: as organizer of the 9th North American Fur Trade Conference in St Louis in May 2006; as a consultant to films such as Kevin Costner’s 500 Nations and PBS’ Roanoak; as documentary script author; through curating museum exhibits; online with fourth and fifth graders in an UMSL collaborative project; and through popular magazine articles, scholarly journals, and books, such as the forthcoming, Auguste Chouteau and the Founding of St. Louis.
A frequent consultant to and scholar for Council projects, he recently worked with curator Sandra Massey on the Sac and Fox Homeland exhibit to tell a complicated story of tribal unity and separation in a compelling way for a general audience.
“There is nothing elitist about the humanities, nor should there be. My parents did not attend college, but they loved learning and never regarded my liberal arts education as ‘impractical,’” said Fausz. “Teaching exclusively in public colleges and universities has made me realize that the humanities must be shared with people of every class and condition if they are to have the greatest impact on society and to be enriched themselves by broad diversity. By taking history into the community, I have learned more than I have taught, which is what the humanities are all about.”
These awards are based on nominations from the public, for outstanding contributions by a person, group, or organization to the humanities in Missouri. The deadline for submission for next year's awards is Friday, January 25th, 2008. To submit a nomination, please complete a one page information form, and include a one page summary and any supporting material to illustrate the nominee's accomplishments.
Missouri Humanities Council
543 Hanley Industrial Ct., Ste. 201
St. Louis, MO 63144-1905
(314) 781-9660 (800) 357-0909