September 10, 2024 — A new research grant has made it possible for Marist faculty to further explore U.S. history, with a particular focus on the life of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The fellowship, made possible by The Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation, will fund work led by Dr. David Woolner, professor of history and a noted expert on FDR, as the inaugural Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation Fellow in Roosevelt Studies.

This fellowship will provide a $100,000 research grant to support two years of scholarly work on Roosevelt's transformative leadership during the Great Depression and World War II. It will offer Professor Woolner the opportunity to deepen his research and scholarship on Roosevelt's impact, including support for creating and enhancing courses that focus on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s leadership. The research time will allow for Woolner to debut a new history course for the spring semester— titled the New Deal in American Life, focusing on the broader consequences of FDR's landmark legislation, including its impact on the environment, civil rights, and the arts.

The fellowship will also allow for public engagements, including an appearance Woolner will make in Denmark in October at a public symposium sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. Dr. Woolner will discuss the past and present struggles to preserve and enhance American democracy, alongside E.J. Dionne, journalist, political commentator, and long-time op-ed columnist for The Washington Post.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Kovler Foundation Fellowship,” said Woolner. “It allows me to carry the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt forward for future generations through my teaching, scholarship, and public engagement. I also greatly appreciate all the support I have received from the Marist community in pursuit of this aim—especially from my colleagues in the Department of History.”

The fellowship complements the Long Reach Scholarship Initiative, launched in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which also provides opportunities for enriched student and faculty engagement in U.S. history.

Dr. Woolner is a senior fellow and resident historian at the Roosevelt Institute. He recently received the 2023-24 Fulbright Danish Distinguished Scholar Award in American Studies, where he served as a scholar-in-residence at the Center for American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark.

“Professor Woolner is one of the nation’s premier experts on the Roosevelt presidency, and I am both pleased and proud to see his fine work receive such richly deserved recognition,” said Marist Provost Catherine Gunther Kodat. “The Kovler Foundation’s generous gift will not only provide expanded research support for Professor Woolner’s work but will also increase learning opportunities for our students, as well, through new course development.”

Dr. David Woolner with filmmaker Ken Burns during a special screening of “The Roosevelts" in 2014. Photo courtesy of David Woolner.

Woolner has also served as a historical advisor for the recent Ken Burns film, The U.S. and the Holocaust, as well as for Burns’ 2014 film The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. He has served in a similar capacity at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum. Woolner is the author of The Last 100 Days: FDR at War and at Peace, and is the editor/co-editor of five books, including FDR, the Vatican, and the Roman Catholic Church in America, FDR’s World: War, Peace and Legacies, and Progressivism in America: Past, Present and Future.

“On behalf of the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation, I am so proud to be affiliated with Marist and David Woolner,” said Peter Kovler, Chairman of the Board of the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation. “Professor Woolner is undoubtedly one of this country's great FDR scholars, and this connection is especially meaningful to us. Now more than ever, I find it critical that young people know about one of our greatest presidents and understand this history. It is a form of history with great relevance to our own times.”

About the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation

The foundation has been a major supporter of public spaces, including as the largest underwriter of Washington's FDR Memorial and a key backer of the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History and Culture, where it solely funded the Emmett Till exhibit. It also provided major support to the United States Holocaust Museum and the new Statue of Liberty Museum. On Chicago's South Side, the foundation was an early and significant contributor to the Barack Obama Presidential Center.

In medicine, the foundation has long supported pancreatic cancer research, with substantial backing for Johns Hopkins Hospitals, particularly Sibley Memorial Hospital. It is also the primary funder of Chicago's Marjorie Kovler Center for Survivors of Torture, which has provided psychological care to thousands of survivors from over 60 countries for 38 years.