Welcome back to the 255! We are excited to continue our Featured Reading series this week highlighting the work of Professor Lauren Erin Brown. Dr. Brown recently received two research grants to continue her book project Cold War, Culture War, and War on Terror: The Art of Public Diplomacy in a Post-Cold War World. .

Dr. Brown, on sabbatical for the Fall 2020 semester, is conducting research in Washington D.C. at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution Archives, and the National Archives. Dr. Brown received two research grants for her current project, the first coming from the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the second from the Dirksen Congressional Center.

Dr. Brown’s work examines how the National Endowment for the Arts lost funding during the 1990s and reframes the conversation around the relationship between the arts and larger U.S. foreign relations in the Cold War and War on Terror. Brown discusses her own work by explaining “I’m forever interested in how and why America supports the arts and the impact those policy and money decisions have on the art that actually gets made.” She elaborates on the mission of her project by adding “These are important stories to tell in 2020, as we face a new chapter in the culture wars in an unstable economy where continued support for artists is far from guaranteed.”

In the Spring semester, Brown will return to MMC as she expresses her enthusiasm to share her research finding with her students. A goal of Dr. Brown’s has been to reframe the ways that students view history. She adds:

Everyone needs to understand that you can’t change the world unless you understand how this world we live in came to be. Studying history—cultural, social, and political revolutions—provides lessons in shaping your own.

A digital copy of Dr. Brown’s previously published work around this subject can be found on the link below.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682745.2019.1706165

We would once again like to congratulate Dr. Brown on her research grants and we look forward to having her back in the classroom next semester.