President Bush presented the 2006 National Humanities Medals and National Medals of Arts Thursday during a ceremony in the Oval Office. Ten of this year’s honorees are academics.
The seven academics honored with National Humanities Medals are as follows:
- Fouad Ajami, a professor and director of the Middle East studies program at Johns Hopkins University (The Chronicle, February 6, 1991).
- James M. Buchanan, a professor emeritus of economics at George Mason University and at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University who is also the advisory general director of George Mason’s Center for Study of Public Choice and its James Buchanan Center for Political Economy. He won the 1986 Nobel Prize in economics.
- Robert Fagles, a translator best known for his English-verse translations of Homer’s epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. He is also a professor emeritus of comparative literature at Princeton University.
- Mary Lefkowitz, a classicist at Wellesley College (The Chronicle, February 16, 1996).
- Bernard Lewis, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University (The Chronicle, May 9, 1990).
- Mark Noll, a professor of religious history at the University of Notre Dame.
- Kevin Starr, a professor of history at the University of Southern California.
A humanities medal was also awarded to the Hoover Institution, a public-policy research center located on the campus of Stanford University.
The other winners of the humanities medals were: Nickolas Davatzes, a historian and founder of the History Channel; and Meryle Secrest, a biographer who lives in Washington, D.C.
The three academics awarded National Medals of Arts are as follows:
- William E. Bolcom, a composer and professor of composition at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Mr. Bolcom received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1988.
- Roy R. DeCarava, a photographer and distinguished professor of photography at Hunter College (The Chronicle, December 12, 1997).
- Gregory Rabassa, a literary translator and distinguished professor of comparative literature at Queens College of the City University of New York.
The other winners of the arts medals were: Cyd Charisse, an actress and dancer who has appeared in films such as Singin’ in the Rain; Wilhelmina C. Holladay, founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; Erich Kunzel, conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra; the Preservation Hall Jazz Band; Viktor Schreckengost, an industrial designer; and Ralph Stanley, a bluegrass musician.
An arts medals was also awarded to the Interlochen Center for the Arts, in Michigan.
