Prof. Sackley receives $37,500 grant to research and write book about American social scientists abroad

University of Richmond professor Nicole Sackley has been awarded a $37,500 Truman-Kauffman Research Fellowship from the Harry S. Truman Library Institute for her studies on American social scientists who sought to modernize undeveloped parts of the post-1945 world.

Sackley, assistant professor of history and American studies, received the award for continued research for her forthcoming book, “Development Fields: American Social Scientists and the Practice of Modernization during the Cold War.” The book will trace how American experts, from economists to agronomists, saw a strategy for winning the Cold War in the practice of social science abroad.

During the fellowship period, Sackley will conduct archival research at the Truman Library and the Ford Foundation, and continue writing her book manuscript, which she expects to complete in 2014. Sackley also will be invited to lecture on her findings at the library.

Sackley has taught at Richmond since 2005, after completing her A.B. at Brown University and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Princeton University. Her area of interest is the history of Americans abroad and how expert knowledge is debated and constructed across national borders.

Sackley is one of two inaugural recipients of the award, supported by a gift from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The gift allowed the institute to create a major new research initiative and public lecture series featuring scholars researching, presenting and publishing about the role of foreign aid on development, modernization and societal reconstruction.

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