Wylie student earns Newcombe Fellowship

Wylie resident Joseph Hankins, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago, has received a Woodrow Wilson Foundation Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship.

Based in Princeton, N.J., the foundation selected 29 doctoral dissertation fellows for the 2008-’09 academic year. The Newcombe Fellows – doctoral candidates in the final year of writing dissertations that address religious and ethical values – receive a 12-month award of $23,000.

This year’s Fellows represent 10 fields of study, including anthropology, history, philosophy, music and art, and come from 20 institutions nationwide.

Hankins topic is “Working Through Skin: Making Leather, Making a Multicultural Japan.”

He is an anthropology major. His dissertation will deal with globalization of the leather industry.

“I focus on the present labor conditions of people who work in the leather industry and look at the trade between Texas and Japan,” Hankins said. “I lived in Japan for over four year and worked at a leather tannery there.”

Hankins holds undergraduate degrees in English, math and Asian Studies from Rice University in Houston.

According to information from the foundaiton, “since its inception in 1981, the Newcombe Fellowship has supported more than 1,000 doctoral candidates, many of whom are now noted faculty at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad.

“The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops the best minds for the nation’s most important challenges. In these areas of challenge, the Foundation awards fellowships to enrich human resources, works to improve public policy, and assists organizations and institutions in enhancing practice in the U.S. and abroad.”

Hankins is the son of Larry and Sally Hankins of Plano.
His sister and brother-in-law are Emily and Travis Lea of Wylie. Mrs. Lea is a Garland ISD elementary school teacher.

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