Arizona Humanities has announced the recipients of the 2014 Humanities Awards. The public is invited to attend the awards reception on Thursday, November 13, 2014 from 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.

Arizona Humanities Board Member and host of PBS’ “History Detectives,” Dr. Eduardo Pagán, will present the awards to the recipients. There will also be a special poetry performance by last year’s Rising Star awardee, Myrlin Hepworth. Guests can enjoy appetizers, drinks, a silent auction and live music. Tickets are $40 and available here or by calling 602-257-0335.

For more than 20 years, the Arizona Humanities Awards have recognized community members and organizations that have made significant contributions to Arizona’s civic and cultural vitality through the humanities. Carrie Gustavson, Director of the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum and Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Arizona Humanities announced, “We are thrilled to introduce the winners for the 2014 Arizona Humanities Award, and we couldn’t be more proud of David William Foster, ASU’s Project Humanities, and Tyler Wayne Vertrees for their achievements as humanities champions. We invite the public to join us and celebrate these fantastic individuals and organizations who have provided scholarship and research, enhanced public knowledge, and cultivated the humanities in their communities. They have reached people from all walks of life, and taught us to appreciate the richness of arts and culture in our state.”

The recipients of this year’s Humanities Awards are:

Dan Shilling Public Humanities Scholar Award
David William Foster Ph.D.

David William Foster (Ph.D., University of Washington, 1964 [BA, 1961; MA, 1963 University of Washington]) Regents’ Professor of Spanish, Humanities, and Women’s Studies at Arizona State University. He served as Chair of the Department of Languages and Literatures from 1997-2001. In Spring 2009, he served as the Ednagene and Jordan Davidson Eminent Scholar in the Humanities at Florida International University. His research interests focus on urban culture in Latin America, with emphasis on issues of gender construction and sexual identity, as well as Jewish culture. He has written extensively on Argentine narrative and theater, and he has held Fulbright teaching appointments in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. He has also served as an Inter-American Development Bank Professor in Chile.

Juliana Yoder Friend Of The Humanities Award
Project Humanities

Project Humanities is an award-winning initiative at Arizona State University that promotes and showcases the range, relevance, and diversity of faculty and student humanities programming and community outreach. With both a national and international presence in conversations about the role, impact, and importance of humanities study and humanist thinking through multidisciplinary collaboration, Project Humanities highlights the value of humanist perspectives through talking, listening, and connecting.

Humanities Rising Star Award
Tyler Wayne Vertrees  

Tyler Vertrees was born and raised in Bisbee Arizona. In high school he was a top ten student that participated in numerous extracurricular activities including Student Council, National Honors Society, Thespian Society, and Football. Tyler also volunteered much of his time at the local radio station KBRP where he produced a number of original pieces, including the national award winning radio drama “Fallen Angels.” He is currently studying at the University of Arizona where he is majoring in Film and Television with a minor in Creative Writing. Afterwards he hopes to pursue a career in film.

The recipients were chosen by the Awards Committee from amongst a competitive field of nominees showcasing the best and brightest of the humanities in Arizona.

Dan Shilling Public Humanities Scholar Award Nominees: Paul Espinosa, James Garcia, Ann-Mary Lutzick, Brooks Simpson, Michelle Tellez

Juliana Yoder Friend of the Humanities Award Nominees: Karen Applewhite, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, Frontdoors, Bjorn Krondorfer, Flagstaff Library

Humanities Rising Star Nominee: Johnny Martin