Christopher Hager, associate professor of English at Trinity College, is the recipient of a Public Scholars Program grant award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. As a Schaenen visiting scholar at the Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University in Indiana this semester, Hager is writing for the publication, The Prindle Post, in addition to teaching an English course, leading a book discussion group on Danielle Allen’s Our Declaration, and working on his research.

Hager’s research was featured in an Inside Higher Ed story on Public Scholars. According to the article, he “plans on using the narratives he finds in Civil War letters to translate the historical facts surrounding the war and the evolution of letter writing during the era to the general public.”

Thanks to this award, Hager will be able to focus full time on writing his manuscript next semester. “I think that finding ways I can make the kind of research that I do stimulating to undergraduates is the same kind of skill that I hope to use in making that research accessible and engaging to readers of books,” said Hager.

This is the third recognition Hager has received from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This past summer, Hager was awarded a stipend supporting his work on the epistolary culture of the U.S. Civil War. He also received a full-year fellowship in 2010.

Coming from an academic home like Trinity, where he has taught for eight years, Hager’s scholarly work is not only supported, but welcomed into the classroom as well. “What’s great about teaching at a place like Trinity is that it has always challenged me to find ways to make the research that I do engaging and accessible to my students,” said Hager, who will return to Trinity in the fall of 2016.

Written by Eleanor Worsley ’17