English Funds
Total funds: 27
English Department General Fund
The English Department General Fund provides support for the activities, programs, and operations, including named commemorative scholarships and awards, of the department.
Additionally Supports: Diversity and Equity, Excellence in TESOL Award, Glenn Grever Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Masters Student, Grammie Scholarship, Publications Unit Publishing Award, Taimi Ranta Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Ph.D. Student
ISU Publications Unit Fund
The Publications Unit builds upon the interests and strengths of the department's faculty, staff, and students working within the field and studies of publishing. The Publications Unit Publishing Award is intended to enhance this mission by acknowledging the excellent work of students involved in the study of publishing and nonprofit literary arts.
Neuleib-Scharton Scholarship
The Neuleib-Scharton Award is presented to the graduate student and undergraduate student who have written the best papers in rhetoric, composition, and writing studies in history, theory, or criticism. It honors Professors Jan Neuleib and Maurice Scharton, whose work together within and beyond the Department serves as a reminder that rhetoric and writing practices are inherently collaborative and thus essential to building and sustaining community.
Tom Kuster Creative Writing Award
The Tom Kuster Creative Writing Award endowment was established in 1998 by Richard and Marilyn Kuster in memory of their son. The award is given to a full-time or part-time junior, senior, or graduate student majoring in a program within the English department.
Taimi Ranta Childrens Literature Scholarship
The Taimi Ranta Childrens Literature Scholarship endowment was established in 1996 in memory of Professor Taimi Maria Ranta. The scholarship is awarded to a full-time or part-time junior, senior, or graduate student majoring in English focusing on children's or adolescent literature. In addition to scholarships, funds may be used to provide resources for deserving students who are studying children's literature and who wish to present scholarly works at related conferences. Those students who receive these scholarships will be designated as "Ranta Scholars."
Anna Keaton English Scholarship Fund
The Anna Keaton English Scholarship was established in 1993 through an estate gift of Anna Keaton. Keaton had a 30-year career at Illinois State Normal University (1937-1968). She was a professor of English and also served for some period as dean of students. Through a bequest, she directed that a scholarship fund be created to support upper class or graduate students majoring in English.
Class of 1939 Ruth Henline Scholarship
The Class of 1939 Dr. Ruth Henline Scholarship was established in 1984 by a committee of 1939 graduates to honor the Class of 1939 and Ruth Henline. Henline was a professor at Illinois State Normal University from 1926 until her retirement in 1970. The scholarship is available to students, junior or senior level, majoring in English Education and intending to teach.
English Graduate Scholarship in Teaching
The English Graduate Scholarship in Teaching provides financial support for students in the English Graduate program.
William Morgan Poetry Award
The William Morgan Poetry Award was established in 2003 by William Morgan. The award is normally given annually to an undergraduate English major who demonstrates excellence in both the writing of original poetry and in the scholarly and critical study of poetry. The award is also normally given annually to a master's or Ph.D. candidate in English who demonstrates excellence in both the writing of original poetry and in the scholarly and critical study of poetry (including poetry pedagogy). If, in a given year, there is no clearly deserving application at either the undergraduate or graduate level, no award will be given.
Maurice Scharton Faculty Research Fund
The Maurice Scharton Faculty Research fund was established in 2002 in in honor of Professor Maurice Scharton who taught rhetoric at ISU from 1977 through 2002. The Maurice Scharton Research award supports faculty research; in particular, travel to do archival research.
Spoon River Poetry Review
The Spoon River Poetry Review fund was established in 1991 to provide support, including publication review expenses and the annual Lucia Getsi/Spoon River poetry reading, for the Spoon River Poetry Review published through the Illinois State University Publications Unit.
Lois Lenski Lecture Series
The Lois Lenski Lecture series is named for two-time Newberry award winning children's author and illustrator, Lois Lenski (1893-1974). In the course of her career, she became friends with Illinois State University English professor Taimi Ranta (1916-1995). Ranta was instrumental in ensuring that Lenski donated many of her literary papers and the original art for some of her illustrations to Milner Library. The Lenski Lecture was named in honor of Lois Lenski, but Ranta's generosity of spirit was the inspiration for this fund. The Lenski Lecture Series, first established in 1994, was the first named lecture series in children's literature in the United States. The purpose of this fund is to support the oldest and best-known speaker series of its kind.
David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund
The purpose of the David Foster Wallace Memorial Restricted Fund is to support activities of the Department of English by sponsoring the Wallace Memorial Reading Series, which will bring well-known authors to campus to present a public reading of their work and to interact with students & faculty. It will also support activities of the Dept. of English by sponsoring the David Foster Wallace Award. This award will honor a graduate or undergraduate student whose writing engages its subject from an original, committed, and humane perspective.
Julia N. Visor Scholarship
The Julia N. Visor Scholarship is a monetary prize given each year for the best undergraduate essay on issues of race relations, colonialism and cultural diversity in any sub-field of English studies - literature, rhetoric, linguistics, creative writing, publishing, new media studies, technical writing, or education.
Dorothy Bryan Schemske Scholarship
The Dorothy Bryan Schemske Scholarship was established in 1998 by Dorothy Bryan Schemske, a 1941 graduate of Illinois State Normal University. The scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate student working toward a career in teaching English, with a preference to a student with an interest in creative writing.
Dr. Janice G. Witherspoon Neuleib and Genevieve Witherspoon Perhach Endowed Fund
The Dr. Janice G. Witherspoon Neuleib and Genevieve Witherspoon Perhach Award was established by Janice upon her retirement from Illinois State University in 2010. Janice came to Illinois State as a graduate student in 1967 and taught full time while completing her Ph.D. She developed and directed the Writing Center, was instrumental in the combining of the Writing Center and Reading Studies Center into the Center for Learning Assistance, and founded the Illinois State Writing Project. Janice's older sister, Genevieve, was a 1953 graduate of Illinois State and was a math major and a Gamma Phi Circus trapeze star. Genevieve finished graduate school in California and taught there until her retirement. Awards from this endowment may be used to recognize excellence in teaching by graduate students in English or graduate student travel to present research, costs to publish research, and other costs.
Glenn Grever English Education Scholarship Fund
The Glenn Grever English Education Scholarship Endowment was established in 1996 in memory of Professor Glenn Grever. The scholarship is awarded to a full-time or part-time senior, majoring in English Education and student teaching during the semester that the scholarship is available.
Dr. Robert and Marilyn Sutherland Endowment for Creative Writing Fellows
Robert Sutherland retired from teaching in January 1993. He is pleased that he and his colleagues were able to establish a successful creative writing program at Illinois State and foster departmental support for literary publications. The Sutherland Fellowships are awarded to students involved with the production of publications on a daily basis, whether engaged in proofreading and preparing text, design and layout, printing preparation, or marketing and advertising. In addition, students on fellowship learn about non-profit publishing, current trends in the publishing field, and lobbying for the literary arts.
English Graduate Student Research Fund
The English Graduate Student Research fund provides financial assistance English graduate students for research including research travel, research preparations, and archival work.
Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora Fund
The Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora Fund was established in 2019 to provide financial support associated with operating and promoting the Publishing Platform. Funds may also be used to support students' professional development and to encourage student involvement in the Publishing Platform's editorial and production work. The fund supports and ensures Obsidian's ongoing engagement with the global community of African and African Diaspora writers, artists, and scholars.
Sharon P. and William B. Oglesby Endowed Scholarship
The Sharon P. and William B. Oglesby Endowed Scholarship was established in 2018 by Sharon and William Oglesby to provide financial assistance for juniors or seniors majoring in English at Illinois State University. Preference will be given to students who were born in, or currently reside in, DeWitt County, IL. If a qualified candidate from DeWitt County is not available, students from Illinois who reside outside of Cook County may be considered.
Elizabeth Hatmaker Memorial Graduate Scholarship
The Elizabeth Hatmaker Memorial Graduate Scholarship was established in 2017 by Christopher Brue in memory of his wife Elizabeth Hatmaker. The scholarship provides a one-time scholarship for a doctoral level student in English Studies.
George Canning Scholarship
This endowment was established in 1976 by family, friends, and colleagues in memory of George Canning, professor of English at Illinois State University. The scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate or graduate student majoring in English in a field most allied to British Literature.
Drs. Steven and Jill Doner Kagle Undergraduate Assistantship Endowment
The purpose of the Drs. Steven and Jill Doner Kagle Undergraduate Assistantship is to encourage student interest in American literature and culture and to enhance the English Department's offerings in American literature; to help the department attract and retain quality students and to provide some students with the preparation and credentials for future success; and to serve as a model for future expansion of UTA opportunities.The endowment earnings will support undergraduate English majors who serve as undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) for faculty teaching lower-level American literature courses, such as English 130--Survey of American Literature or English 131--American Culture: Traditions and Texts. Students serving as UGAs for distance learning or summer travel classes in American literature and culture are also eligible for support.
Sally Parry-Robert McLaughlin Sigma Tau Delta Travel Award
The Sally Parry-Robert McLaughlin Sigma Tau Delta Travel Award was established in 2018 to support travel for students who are members of the Lambda Delta chapter of Sigma Tau Delta. Support may be used to help students who are traveling for professional conferences.
Ventures in Poetics Publishing (VIPP) Fund
The Ventures in Poetics Publishing (VIPP) Fund was established by Dr. Lucia C. Getsi to benefit the Publications Unit in the Department of English at Illinois State University by providing fundamental support for both new and existing affiliated publications, projects, and programs that shape and advance the interconnected fields of poetry, poetics, and publishing. VIPP initiatives seek to foster artistic and intellectual collaboration, creative practice, and community building among students, staff, and faculty--as well as with the wider poetic and literary community--to create an enduring legacy of poetics publishing activity at the Publications Unit.