Durham, NC - Three Duke faculty members are members of the newest class of Fellows at the National Humanities Center.

They are Joshua Sosin from Classical Studies, Robert E. Mitchell from English and Sarah T. Beckwith, chair of the Theater Studies department. They join 30 other new scholars from institutions in the United States and five foreign countries who will work on projects at the center in 2012-13.

Based in Research Triangle Park, the National Humanities Center is a private institute for the advanced study of the humanities. Since 1978 the center has awarded fellowships to more than 1,200 scholars in the humanities, whose work at the Center has resulted in the publication of more than 1,400 books in all fields of humanistic study.

Beckwith, Mitchell and Sosin will each work on an individual research project while also sharing ideas at seminars, lectures and conferences.

Their projects:

-- Beckwith: "Shakespeare and the Names of Action."

-- Mitchell: "Experimental Life: Vitalism in Romantic Science and Literature."

-- Sosin: "A Possession for All Time: Charitable Foundations in the Hellenistic World."