English professor wins
three-year faculty fellowship

Saint Joseph’s College has awarded its first faculty fellowship to Dr. Edward Rielly, a full professor of English on campus. The new faculty fellowship program supports a senior professor who has demonstrated substantial accomplishments in scholarship and who actively continues scholarly endeavors. The grant provides the professor with $4,000 annually for three years, to apply toward conferences, engage in research at other locations, employ a student research assistant, acquire research materials, or support related expenses.

Dr. Rielly, who has taught at Saint Joseph’s since 1978, has published 14 books, including 10 volumes of poetry. His biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald from Greenwood Press was published in October, and he recently signed a contract with the University of Nebraska Press to write Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, a companion to his earlier book about baseball and American culture now reissued in paperback. The football book will explore ways in which one of America’s major sports both reflects and affects our broader society.

Rielly is also editing a collection of essays on how college professors use baseball to teach courses in a wide range of disciplines including law, literature, film and psychology. Rielly will also write another biography for Greenwood about the great Lakota chief, Sitting Bull. “The biography of Sitting Bull meshes nicely with my interest in Western history and Native American culture, both of which form elements of the course I teach on the Western film genre,” he says.

In addition, Dr. Rielly has agreed to prepare a book about the Vietnam War for ABC-CLIO. For many years, he has taught a course titled Literature of the Vietnam War.

“One of the exciting aspects of my career is that I am able to bring together two activities that I love – teaching and writing,” Dr. Rielly says.

Rielly will visit the National Museum of the American Indian in December to gather information for the biography of Sitting Bull. In June, he will do further research at Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo., considered the finest museum on Plains Indian culture.

• www.bbhc.org