PHILADELPHIA – Marwan M. Kraidy and Kevin M.F. Platt of the University of Pennsylvania have won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.  They are among 180 recipients of 2011 Fellowships, selected from a field of more than 3,000 nominees.

Kraidy is associate professor of communication in Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication and Platt is professor of Slavic languages and literatures in the School of Arts and Sciences,

Kraidy’s fellowship will support his research into music videos and Arab public life.  His latest book, published in 2010, “Reality Television and Arab Politics: Contention in Public Life,” is an examination of reality television’s impact on Middle East culture.

“Day in and day out, we at Annenberg see what an exceptional scholar Marwan Kraidy is,” said Michael X. Delli Carpini, professor of communication and Walter H. Annenberg Dean of Penn's Annenberg School. “It is especially gratifying to see that he is being honored by so prestigious an organization.”

Platt, works on representations of Russian history, Russian historiography and history and memory in Russia.  He frequently writes on Russian lyric poetry.  He will use his fellowship to work on a research project on Russian history from Peter the Great to Putin.  Platt is author of “Terror and Greatness: Ivan and Peter as Russian Myths,” slated for publication this year.

"This award is well-deserved recognition of Kevin’s distinguished scholarship, and it furthers a long tradition of SAS Guggenheim Fellows in a wide range of fields," said Rebecca Bushnell, dean of Arts and Sciences. 

 Each year the Guggenheim Foundation recognizes distinguished scholarly achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment by granting aid to a diverse group of scholars and artists pursuing research in 78 fields from the natural sciences to the creative arts.  Additional information is available at www.gf.org.