The Phi Beta Kappa Society Announces 2022 Winner of the Walter J. Jensen Fellowship
WASHINGTON, DC – The Phi Beta Kappa Society has chosen Alexis Stanley, PhD candidate in French at University of California, Berkeley, as the winner of the 2022 Walter J. Jensen Fellowship in recognition of her exceptional work as a scholar and teacher of French language, literature, and culture. Established in 2001 by Professor Walter J. Jensen (ΦΒΚ, UCLA), this award provides this year’s winner with a stipend of $17,000 and round-trip travel to France for six months of continuous study.
Stanley is a Berkeley-Mellon Fellow at UC Berkeley, where her emphasis is in New Media and Renaissance & Early Modern Studies. She received her in-house Master-level degree in French literature at the École normale supérieure in Paris, and her BA in French and International Comparative Studies, with a minor in Dance, at Duke University (ΦBK).
She intends to use the Jensen Fellowship for her project, “Gestures of Enlightenment: Theatricality and Embodiment in 18th-Century France.” Stanley’s dissertation analyzes the “changing conceptions of the theatrical body in Enlightenment France as both a medium for artistic expression and a reference point to address questions of socio-political community.” The fellowship will fund her research on the "historical evolution of several eighteenth- century trends in properly “theatrical” accounts of bodily expression in order to better situate the innovations and influences of [her] three primary authors: Marivaux, Diderot, and Rousseau."
Stanley plans on conducting archival research, focusing on digital humanities, and engaging with theatrical groups during her six months in France, with the intent of teaching future students about the "benefits and complexities of experimental thinking across disciplinary boundaries." With this research and experience, she plans to develop a new undergraduate course syllabus at UC Berkeley in French studies.
For more information on the Jensen Fellowship, please contact Hadley Kelly.
About The Phi Beta Kappa Society
Founded on Dec. 5, 1776, The Phi Beta Kappa Society is the nation's most prestigious academic honor society. It has chapters at 293 colleges and universities in the United States, nearly 50 alumni associations, and more than half a million members worldwide. Noteworthy members include 17 U.S. Presidents, 42 U.S. Supreme Court Justices and more than 150 Nobel Laureates. The mission of The Phi Beta Kappa Society is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, foster freedom of thought, and recognize academic excellence. For more information, visit www.pbk.org.