Two Brandeis professors appointed National Humanities Center fellows
By By Steve Foskett
May 12, 2026
• Humanities and Social Sciences
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom, Myra and Robert Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Associate Professor of Christian Studies and chair of Classical and Early Mediterranean Studies with a joint appointment in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and Peter Kalb, Cynthia L. and Theodore S. Berenson Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and chair of the Fine Arts Department, have been appointed fellows of the National Humanities Center for the 2026-2027 year, the organization announced recently.
Brooks Hedstrom and Kalb were among just 29 scholars across the country and in Ghana to be appointed fellows for the coming academic year. The appointment comes with a fellowship grant enabling selected scholars to take leave from their normal academic duties and pursue research at the Center. This funding – $1.6 million for this year’s cohort – is provided from the Center’s endowment and by grants and awards from the Henry Luce Foundation, as well as contributions from alumni and friends of the Center.
Each fellow will work on an individual research project, and will have the opportunity to share ideas in seminars, lectures, and conferences at the Center.
Brooks Hedstrom, a scholar of archaeology and history of Eastern Monasticism, will write “Monks as Makers: A Material History of Monasticism.”
She said the book offers a new history of the early monastic movement through the objects crafted by Christian monks in the Eastern Mediterranean world during the fourth to eighth centuries. The study uses archaeological evidence of daily, mundane things recovered through excavations at monasteries, such as palm-woven mats, wooden utensils, leather aprons, and grass mats, for example, to reconstruct a domestic history of lived monasticism in Late Antiquity.
“‘Monks as Makers’ expands the history of monasticism by viewing ascetic life through the objects monks made, the raw materials used, and the social and emotional ties that brought the two together,” Brooks Hedstrom said.
Brooks Hedstrom studies ancient and early Byzantine Christianity of the eastern Mediterranean world (circa 300-1000 CE) with a specialization in the archaeology and history of monasticism. She is Senior Archaeological Consultant for the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project-North, in Wadi Natrun, Egypt, and co-director of the Monastic Archaeology Field School in Scotland. Her work combines texts, material culture, and theory to examine the history of monastic makers of late antique objects and spaces. Her book, “The Monastic Landscape of Late Antique Egypt: An Archaeological Reconstruction” (Cambridge, 2017), won the Biblical Archaeology Society's Best Popular Book in Archaeology for 2019. Her recent book is "Desert Ascetics of Egypt" (Arc Humanities Press, 2023).
Kalb, a historian of modern and contemporary art history, will work on “Apollo’s Gift: An Art History of the Moon Landing,” a book project platforming the artists who witnessed humanity become a spacefaring species. Kalb said that for this small group from the U.S., Europe, and China, Apollo offered tools with which to center humanity over the technology, politics and extraterrestrial unknown threatening to overwhelm it. These artists’ legacy continues in the art of a 21st century generation seeking routes to the still unfulfilled dream of a Space Age for all, he added.
Kalb is the author of “Art Since 1980: Charting the Contemporary,” which details the expanding contemporary art world from its New York explosion in the early 1980s to its global expanse in the 21st century. He has served as a revising author of the Fifth Edition of H.H. Arnason History of Modern Art, and authored “High Drama: The New York Cityscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe and Margaret Bourke-White.” His current research examines the intersection of archeology and art history in the contemporary art world.
“We are so excited to support the important work of this upcoming class of scholars,” said Martha Kelly, vice president for scholarly programs at the National Humanities Center. “Their projects showcase some of the best work being done in the humanities and highlight the value humanistic scholarship brings to our daily lives. Their diverse interests will also help foster the vibrant intellectual community for which the National Humanities Center is known.”
