Vyta Baselice awarded Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship

Since 1957 more than 12,000 scholars have held ACLS fellowships and grants. ACLS fellowships and grants are awarded to individual scholars for excellence in research in the humanities and related social sciences. The peer-review process used to select ACLS fellows enables distinguished scholars to reach broad consensus on standards of excellence in humanities research.

Vyta Baselice, Doctoral Candidate in American Studies, The George Washington University was awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship for  The Gospel of Concrete:  American Infrastructure and Global Power.

“The Gospel of Concrete” is the first interdisciplinary and global study of the US concrete industry. It explains how Americans contributed to making concrete the most consumed material on Earth after water, and why it has prevailed over alternatives such as treated wood or rammed earth—even as it has drawn widespread and enthusiastic disdain. The four chapters trace the material’s production and circulation, starting with the industry’s origins in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, and then following its expansion to the US South, the Global South, and outer space. By unearthing the deep and tangled roots of our attachment to concrete, the project offers a field guide to building a more sustainable and equitable future.

Vyta Baselice has been an SAH member since 2016.  

The mission of the American Council of Learned Societies is "the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and the social sciences and the maintenance and strengthening of relations among the national societies devoted to such studies."