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            Auburn University - University Relations
                         (334) 844-9999
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4/6/95              Janet McCoy 

AU ENGLISH STUDENT WINS PRESTIGIOUS NEH SUMMER STUDY GRANT
     AUBURN -- An Auburn University English major has been awarded
the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Younger
Scholars grant, and will spend this summer researching and writing
about the obscurity of an 18th century English playwright.
     Shelley Wunder of Little Rock, Ark., a senior English major at
AU, competed nationally against 508 college applicants for the 82
awards given to college students, says Leon Bramson, program
officer for the Division of Fellowships and Seminars of the NEH.
Students receive $2,500 each, including $500 for the student's
professor, who will provide intensive direction.
     The grant is for nine weeks of full-time work, and Wunder
cannot be enrolled in courses for the summer or earn credit hours
for their research paper, which must be submitted to the NEH.
     Wunder, who will be supervised by Paula Backscheider, the West
Point Pepperell-Harry M. Philpott Eminent Scholar in the Department
of English, will study Hannah Cowley, an 18th century dramatist,
and the impact of her plays.
     "Hannah Cowley was an important and successful English
playwright," Wunder says. "With the passage of time, her works have
become neglected, and there exists little commentary on her and her
plays.
     "The aim of my project is to learn what led to Cowley's
obscurity and to analyze to what extent changing cultural attitudes
toward women writers helped to render Cowley inconspicuous among
her contemporaries."
     Backscheider, an 18th century literary scholar, says, "Shelley
has a very well organized plan of attack" in her proposal to NEH.
"She wants to see how someone so popular just disappeared from
anthologies and stage and trace her fall from popularity."
     Wunder will do nearly all of her research at AU's Ralph B.
Draughon Library. She will use one unpublished manuscript from 
California's Huntington Library.
     Wunder says the experience of applying for the grant will help
her with a future goal of being a college English faculty member.
      "It's already been a good experience because I plan to go to
graduate school and applying for grants and doing extensive
research and learning how to use criticism adroitly will be a major
benefit," she said.
     "Students have few opportunities for sustained research and
writing on a quarter system, so it's really important for students
who want to go to graduate school to have such an appointment,"
Backscheider says. "This is a very long and difficult application
process -- it's the same one faculty have to go through for grants.
     "It takes several weeks of extensive research, then writing
two essays and a bibliography. They really have to defend their
project, how they are going to do it and why they want to do it.
They have to explain the merit of their idea and give a plan of how
they will carry it out." 
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april95:nehgrant
     CONTACT: Wunder, 334/826-0245; Backscheider, 334/844-9091; and
Bramson, 202/606-8463.