Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature Jonathan Culler has been named a fellow at the National Humanities Center (NHC) for the 2011-12 academic year.

Culler is the 18th Cornell faculty member to be named an NHC fellow since the center was founded in 1978. He will work on "The Theory of the Lyric" at the center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., as the recipient of its M.H. Abrams Fellowship.

Culler and 31 other distinguished scholars from 23 institutions in the United States and two foreign countries were chosen from 404 applicants. The scholars will work on an array of individual research projects at NHC and have the opportunity to share their ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences.

The center will award nearly $1.5 million in fellowship grants to enable scholars to take leave from their normal academic duties and pursue research at NHC. Grant funding is made possible by the center's endowment and alumni contributions, and grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.