Austin McCoy, a Michigan/Mellon Project on Egalitarianism and the Metropolis Humanities Fellow, has received a ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. History of Art is a partner in the Michigan/Mellon Project, a four-year academic and research initiative focused on architecture, urbanism and humanities research in Detroit, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro, and made possible by a $1.3 million grant from the A. W. Mellon Foundation. The project allows theory and practice to inform and be informed by questions of social justice, social movements and transformative creative arts movements - both past and present.

McCoy is a historian whose research explores the relationship between transformations in political economy and the evolution of city- and state-based social movements. His dissertation, “No Radical Hangover: Progressive Responses to Economic Crises in the Midwest, 1967-1988,” analyzes activists’ responses to plant closings and urban fiscal crises in the Midwest during the 1970s and 1980s. Austin recently published a historiographical essay on twentieth century labor history in the journal, Social History. He has presented papers at various national conferences including the Organization for American Historians, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the North American Labor History Conference. Austin also writes about issues of race, gender, and culture for Nursing Clio, a blog that connects the practice of history to contemporary issues of gender and medicine.

Awardees receive a $1,000 honorarium recognizing exceptional scholarly work and completion of their doctoral degrees in 2016. The annual competition is co-sponsored by ProQuest and Rackham Graduate School. Awardees, from left, are: Emily Waples, Elizabeth Mann, Austin McCoy, Nielson Baxter, Sara Rimer, Yoonseob Kim, Naveen Narisetty and Cassie Miura. Not pictured: Azadeh Ansari, Emily Maclary. (Photo by Elizabeth Kassab)