Michael Lackey, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of English, has been selected for the Laszlo Orszagh Distinguished Award in American Studies. This honor is among the most prestigious within the Fulbright Program.
Lackey has been assigned to the University of Pécs in Hungary to teach a graduate course about American biofiction.
Biofiction is literature that names its protagonist after a real person, and Lackey is considered the world’s leading scholar about the literary form. In the spring of 2015, he developed a biofiction course at UMN Morris, the first of its kind at any college or university. Since then, he has published Biofiction: An Introduction (2022), a book that is currently being taught in biofiction courses across the globe.
“I will teach American literature to graduate students, but I will do so through biofiction, which is something that has not yet been done in Hungary,” Lackey said.
In addition to teaching, Lackey will mentor Hungarian scholars in the art of interviewing writers. Specifically, he will help scholars interview famous Hungarian authors of biofiction and get those works published in English.
As the Laszlo Orszagh scholar, Lackey will also work with Hungarian faculty on curriculum development and give public lectures at universities throughout Hungary. Those lectures will be primarily about his current research project, which focuses on Empress Elisabeth. Her husband was Franz Joseph, the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Throughout her life, Elisabeth struggled with serious forms of mental illness, specifically a debilitating form of depression. But she lived in Hungary for a brief period, and it was during that time that she was at her best emotionally and psychologically. Lackey believes that Elisabeth flourished in Hungary because she played a crucial role in bringing about the political union of Austria and Hungary. In essence, he hypothesizes that there is a link between a person’s ability and freedom to create reality and that person’s mental well-being. During his time in Hungary, Lackey will do research about Elisabeth in order to figure out if his hypothesis about Elisabeth is correct.
Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright, the program's purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries. This is America's flagship international educational exchange activity and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in their fields.