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Bartow J. Elmore Wins 2016 Arlt Award in the Humanities
Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2016 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Bartow J. Elmore, assistant professor of environmental history at The Ohio State University. The awards ceremony was held during the CGS 56th Annual Meeting.
COLUMBUS, OHIO – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2016 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Bartow J. Elmore, assistant professor of environmental history at The Ohio State University. The Dec. 8 awards ceremony was held during the CGS 56th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.
The Arlt Award is given annually to a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Elmore becomes the award’s 46th recipient for his book, Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2014). He received his PhD in history from the University of Virginia in 2012.
Citizen Coke chronicles the making of what Dr. Elmore calls “Coca-Cola capitalism,” a system for making money deployed by many twentieth-century businesses, one that involved scavenging on natural capital stockpiles generated by vertically integrated industrial empires, agribusinesses, and government-run utilities. Dr. Elmore argues that Coca-Cola capitalism ultimately weighed heavily on host communities, especially in regions where the company was able to capture precious water resources in arid regions of the country. The book has been praised in media outlets ranging from The Wall Street Journal to Times Higher Ed.
“I am thrilled that CGS has recognized Bart and Ohio State with this award. Bart's book is a great example of the power of storytelling at the intersection of the environment and history, in this case,” said Scott Herness, Ohio State’s interim vice provost of graduate studies and dean of the Graduate School.
“Ohio State has many strengths in the area of environment research, and faculty like Bart benefit our students—both undergraduate and graduate—every day. We're proud that this prestigious CGS award recognizes the high quality of work accomplished by our faculty.”
“The Council of Graduate Schools is delighted to recognize Dr. Elmore for his important contributions to the field of History,” said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools. “The Arlt Award has a long and prestigious history of recognizing exceptional humanities scholarship generated by early-career humanities faculty.”
Created in 1971, the Arlt Award honors the first president of CGS, Gustave O. Arlt. The winner must have earned a doctorate within the past seven years, and currently be teaching at a North American university. Nominations are made by CGS member institutions and are reviewed by a panel of scholars in the field of competition, which rotates annually among seven disciplines within the humanities. This year’s field was history. The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium, a certificate, and travel to the awards ceremony.
The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) is an organization of approximately 500 institutions of higher education in the United States and Canada engaged in graduate education, research, and the preparation of candidates for advanced degrees. The organization’s mission is to improve and advance graduate education, which it accomplishes through advocacy in the federal policy arena, research, and the development and dissemination of best practices.