Blinn English professor named fellow of prestigious research award at University of Texas at Dallas
Heather Almanza will use scholarship to research and write dissertation at Princeton University
November 28, 2018
A Blinn College District English professor has been selected as the fellow of a prestigious research award at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) for the 2018-19 academic year.
A doctoral student in UTD’s School of Arts and Humanities, Heather Almanza will utilize the $1,000 Abrams Dissertation Research Award to fund her travel to Princeton University in New Jersey to research and write her doctoral dissertation in Summer 2019.
“I am very appreciative of this exciting opportunity and the recognition of my scholarly work,” Almanza said. “This award allows me to immerse myself in my research and to explore a region I have never been to before.”
The Abrams Award is granted to one Ph.D. candidate in the School of Arts and Humanities based upon the quality and the significance of the candidate’s work. Only one applicant is awarded the scholarship each academic year.
“Ms. Almanza is an integral part of our English Department,” said Dr. Pat Westergaard, Dean of Humanities. “She is a gifted and productive scholar, and we are very proud of her commitment to her studies and our students.”
At Princeton, Almanza seeks to read the literary works of Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Gabriel García Márquez. Rare, archived documentation, such as Latin American ephemera, will bolster the cultural and historical aspect of her research, which focuses on the relationships between humans and the importance of hospitality in today’s culture.
Almanza has been a member of Blinn faculty since 2015. She holds a bachelor’s degree in literary studies and a master’s degree in humanities from UTD. She is working toward a Ph.D. in humanities with a focus on literary studies and plans to defend her dissertation in Fall 2019.
Almanza teaches English composition and introduction to literature courses at Blinn and is an advisor for Sigma Kappa Delta, the English honor society based on the Blinn-Bryan Campus. She hopes to use her research experiences to reinforce her classroom instruction, and credits her department leadership and fellow faculty members for their support in both her teaching and postgraduate studies.
“My peers in the Humanities Division have been extraordinary throughout my time at Blinn,” Almanza said.
