Submitted by David Welky.
David Welky, a UCA professor of history, was awarded a 2022-2023 Houghton Library Visiting Fellowship for the study of the “Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt.”
Being a 2022-23 fellow, Welky must spend a total of four weeks at the Houghton Library at Harvard University between July 2022 and July 2023. He already spent three weeks there last July and will return back for his fourth week this June.
Welky’s teaching interests include 20th-century American history, the Great Depression, World War II, American film history and others. Welky has edited, written, and published a number of scholarly books and articles over the years, covering a wide range of topics such as President Ronald Reagan’s life, the film industry and civil rights movements of the period.
During his tenure at UCA, Welky has received numerous teaching awards and honors. Among his many accolades, he won outstanding faculty member for the former College of Liberal Arts, now the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. In addition, he earned UCA’s Research, Scholarship, Creative Activity Award, a Booker Worthen Literary Prize and a Best Presentation Award from the Arkansas Association of College History Teachers.
Welky’s most current award is his Houghton Library Visiting Fellowship. The visiting fellowship program will provide funding for Welky to pursue research projects that will require in-depth knowledge of the library’s holdings and use of library staff expertise. The program will also provide Welky with access to other libraries, and opportunities to exchange knowledge and promote his research through the university’s public and scholarly programs.
“I was overjoyed! Let’s be honest: It’s pretty rare that anyone offers to help cover a historian’s travel expenses, so having an opportunity to visit such a prestigious library was a great pleasure. It’s just nice to have someone recognize your work as worthy of their support,” said Welky.
He is using his visiting fellowship for his study of the “Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt.”
“I simply couldn’t complete my current research project without spending substantial time in Harvard’s library. I think a lot of people don’t understand that historians still have to travel to archives in order to see the historical documents that we build our work on. It hasn’t all been digitized or compiled into a giant book titled ‘Stuff Historians Need for Their Work.’ Having the ability to spend day after day with the Roosevelts was amazing. Reading their letters and nosing through their diaries has given me a deep understanding of who these people were and how they related to each other,” said Welky.
By Haley Helton
