Rollins selected for Oklahoma Humanities Award
Friday, November 19, 2010
Rollins selected for Oklahoma Humanities Award
Peter C. Rollins of Stillwater, Emeritus Regents Professor of English and American/Film Studies at Oklahoma State University, has been named the recipient of the 2011 Oklahoma Humanities Award from the Oklahoma Humanities Council.
He will be presented with the honor during the annual Oklahoma Humanities Council dinner on Feb. 24 at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma Humanities Award, the council’s highest honor, is presented to an individual with a long-term commitment to the humanities through a career in education or cultural programming and/or a body of work that has increased the understanding of the human experience through the humanities disciplines in Oklahoma. The recipient need not be a resident or former resident of Oklahoma.
“We want to honor the people and programs that enrich our state’s cultural life,” said Ann Thompson, OHC executive director. “The occasion demonstrates the relevance of the humanities to modern society. By recognizing outstanding public programs like exhibits, book discussions, and classroom projects, we can showcase how the humanities expand our worldview and change people’s lives every day.”
Rollins is the author of several award-winning books, including two volumes honored with the National Popular Culture Association’s Ray and Pat Browne Award: “Why We Fought: America’s Wars as Film and History,” published in 2008, and “Hollywood’s White House: The American Presidency in Film and History,” published in 2003. His book “Television Histories: Shaping Memory in the Media Age,” published in 2001, received the Best Book in American Culture Studies from the Popular Culture Association.
“I have received an award for doing what I love with passion, work that has been its own reward,” said Rollins. “Many people deserve credit for this recognition—too many to name, but they include department heads who gave me liberty to pursue unusual directions in the humanities; students whose faces lit up when they recognized how the arts and humanities belonged in their lives; publishers who encouraged my work when it was good, but set me right when I went astray; and journal editors who took time out from their own careers to make my findings more cogent.”
His most recent book is “America Reflected: Language, Satire, Film, and the National Mind,” was published this fall.
Rollins has received the 1998 Award for Distinguished Service, presented jointly by the American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Association. More than 40 travel awards are given to junior faculty who wish to attend the annual, national Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association meetings, along with popular culture book awards in New England and in the southwest, are given in his name.
In 2001 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for the American Culture Association and his book “Television Histories” was selected as “the best book in American culture studies” by the American Culture Association.
In 2004, he received the Governors’ Award from the Popular Culture Association and a second “best book in American culture studies” for “Hollywood’s White House.” That same year, the PCA created an annual film award in his name. His “Columbia Companion to American History on Film,” product of a decade of scholarly effort, was published in 2004, and “Hollywood’s West” was released in 2005, both receiving national awards.
In 2007, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University Film and Screen Studies Society and an Angie Debo Award from the OSU Edmon Low Library. In 2008, the University of Kentucky released his “Why We Fought: America’s wars in Film and History.”
The Oklahoma Humanities Council is one of the state-based programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Some recent winners of this annual award are Wilma Mankiller, former chief of the Cherokee Nation; Charles Banks Wilson, Oklahoma artist; N. Scott Momaday, novelist; and Gene Rainbolt, philanthropist.