Frederick K. Weyerhaeuser Forest History Fellowship

Lynn Weyerhaeuser Day (1932-1999) and her husband Stanley R. Day (1925-2002) endowed the Society's Frederick K. Weyerhaeuser Forest History Fellowship in 1986 to honor the memory of Lynn's father, F. K. Weyerhaeuser (1895-1978), to support FHS programs, and to strengthen the Society's affiliation with Duke University. The fellowship provides a stipend to Duke University graduate students pursuing research in the fields of forest, conservation, or environmental history.

Fellowship Details

The fellowship consists of an $11,000 stipend, distributed quarterly, to support the research of a Duke University graduate student whose research examines in some way forest and conservation history. The recipient is selected on the basis of merit; proposals are judged in terms of overall significance and quality of presentation. The project must be historical in nature and treat land use, forestry, or the environment in some general way. Examples of acceptable topics include:

• general changes in a forest ecosystem caused by natural or human intervention;
• environmental change resulting from the introduction of a nonnative tree or plant species;
• the evolution of policies or practices relating to natural resource use or management;
• the historical development of resource-dependent communities;
• changes in science or technology affecting forestry, natural resource conservation, or environmental management.

The committee that selects the recipient typically includes the Forest History Society (FHS) president, a representative from Duke University, and a couple of FHS Board members. The fellowship is awarded on an annual basis.

Submission Guidelines

1. Provide a cover letter that states the title of the proposed research, a one-paragraph summary of the significance of the project, and a description of the historical nature of the project.
2. Prepare a narrative description of research (up to eight pages), including significance of topic, research approach, author's background, research and writing schedule, and budget (how you plan to use the fellowship if awarded). Attachments are not necessary but may include previous publications, written chapters, and basic bibliography, etc.
3. Supply curriculum vita and 2-3 letters of recommendation from persons knowledgeable of your research. Letters of recommendation should address the author's qualifications and may describe the significance of the topic to forest and conservation history.
4. Send 5 hardcopies of the proposal to: Forest History Society, 701 William Vickers Avenue, Durham, NC 27701-3162 and an electronic copy of the proposal without supporting documents to: Andrea Anderson.
5. Deadline is January 31. Winner usually announced mid-April.

Winners of this award are required to submit one bound copy of their thesis or dissertation, when completed, to the FHS library.

Recent Recipients

2006-2007 F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellowship
Krithi Karanth, is a Ph.D. student investigating “Forests, People, and Wildlife: Forest History and its Influence on Large Mammal Range Contractions and Extinctions in India .” Her proposal integrates both forestry and historical questions into a larger project. Karanth's ambition of integrating the landscape changes and shifting species distribution patterns into a comprehensive framework that interrogates the last 150 years of land use and wildlife policy is a compelling and promising project.

2005-2006 F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellowship
Jason A. Jackson, a Ph.D. student investigating “Fungal Succession: A History of Fungal Communities and Land Use Change.” One reviewer wrote, “This sophisticated piece of science and history comes the closest to integrating what I think of as the objectives of the Weyerhaeuser Fellowship. Jackson nicely proposes to integrate forestry, history, and ecology, making this an exceptionally worthwhile project.”

2004-2005 F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellowship
The Forest History Society awarded Ashwini Chhatre, a third-year graduate student in the department of political science, the 2004-2005 fellowship to support his research on "Political Landscapes: Property, Environment, and Democracy in the Western Himalayas." His project includes an examination of the interaction between property rights, environmental change, democratic politics, and forest policies from 1846 to 2003.

2003-2004 F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellowship
Master of Environmental Management and Master of Public Policy candidate Elaine Lai won the 2003-2004 Weyerhaeuser Fellowship. Her project "Path of the Panther: Land Use Change Analysis and Reserve Design in Southeastern Mexico" integrates history, policy, and science in an effort to best inform conservation planning in Mexico.

2002-2003 F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellowship
Benjamin Poulter received the 2002-2003 Fellowship to assist his Ph.D. studies on the response of a coastal North Carolina forest to recent sea-level rise and land use change. His project involves reconstructing the historical extent of coastal forests for the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula. In 2002 he was a second-year student in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences program at Duke University.