Shelby Ward, an instructor in the Department of Political Science, received an Emerging Voices Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Matched with the University of Texas at Austin, Ward is working remotely to create an undergraduate conference for its College of Liberal Arts. The fellowship program, which was established in 2019, targets recent recipients of a Ph.D. in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, providing financial support to 60 early career scholars the ACLS believes will help strengthen higher education and humanistic discipline with their voices, vision, and perspectives. Ward earned her Ph.D. from the Virginia Tech ASPECT program in 2019.