NEH awards religious studies professor Jane Geaney grant for study of early Chinese language development
April 11, 2012
Jane Geaney, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Richmond, has received a $6,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Stipend Program.
Geaney will use the grant to work on her book, “A Chinese Grammatology,” which documents and interprets the development of ideas about language in early China (c. 500 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.). Geaney's book focuses on that period because during most of that time, inhabitants of the Yellow River valley formed concepts of language without being aware of any type of writing other than their own non-alphabetic script. Her research will show how non-alphabetic scripts can shape a culture’s ideas about the nature of language.
Geaney has taught at Richmond since 1997. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross.
Geaney will use the grant to work on her book, “A Chinese Grammatology,” which documents and interprets the development of ideas about language in early China (c. 500 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.). Geaney's book focuses on that period because during most of that time, inhabitants of the Yellow River valley formed concepts of language without being aware of any type of writing other than their own non-alphabetic script. Her research will show how non-alphabetic scripts can shape a culture’s ideas about the nature of language.
Geaney has taught at Richmond since 1997. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross.