24 Jul 08

John McKeane is planning to write a chapter of his doctorate during his time at the Library of Congress

A researcher from the Modern Languages faculty is one of just 17 UK researchers to receive funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in order to have access to the American Library in Congress in Washington DC.

John McKeane, from the French department, has been awarded a Library of Congress Scholarship, which means he receives funding of around £6,000 for his research on ‘The call to come outside: Maurice Blanchot and the political'.

The Library of Congress is the USA’s oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections.

The award can be taken any time after October 2008 and runs for approximately six months. Mr McKeane will be taking up his award from June to September next year.

He said: ‘I am very excited about studying in Washington – both in terms of the excellent resources at the Library of Congress, and of the community of researchers based in the Kluge Centre.

‘I propose to write one chapter of my doctorate during my time there. This chapter will deal with Maurice Blanchot’s writing on politics and the political. More specifically, I intend to look at his writings during and around the ‘events’ of May 1968 in Paris – dealing with and enacting questions of anonymity, collective writing, and fragmentation.’