Gettysburg College Prof. Jim Downs awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

Gettysburg College is proud to announce that Prof. Jim Downs, the Gilder Lehrman NEH Chair of Civil War Era Studies and Professor of History, has been named a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He is one of just 198 individuals selected from a pool of more than 3,500 applicants and only the second Gettysburg faculty member to receive this prestigious honor in the 100-year history of the award.

Downs, a renowned scholar of the Civil War era and the history of medicine, joins a distinguished cohort of fellows recognized for their exceptional creative ability and career achievement. The Guggenheim Fellowship supports individuals engaged in advanced research in any field of knowledge or the arts under the “freest possible conditions.” Downs was one of two recipients in the category of History of Science, Technology, and Economics.

“It is a profound honor to be awarded this distinguished fellowship,” Downs said. “Historians make up only a tiny fraction of recipients, so to be selected among such an interdisciplinary and accomplished group is truly humbling. I feel privileged to be associated with an institution that has contributed so substantially to groundbreaking art and pioneering scholarship in the United States.”

Downs is currently researching the 1866 cholera pandemic and its impact on Native Americans in the West and Black communities in the South following the Civil War. His past work has already reshaped historical understandings of race, epidemiology, and slavery and emancipation. He is the author of several influential books, including “Sick from Freedom: African American Sickness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction” and “Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine.” Downs’s research and expertise has been featured in national media outlets, ranging from The New York Times to the LA Times.

“When I applied, I described my current research project,” Downs explained. “But when I advanced in the competition, they requested copies of my first three books instead. That implied they were making their decision not only based on the promise of my future work, but also on the basis of my prior scholarship. That validation means a great deal.”

For Downs, the fellowship is a powerful opportunity to continue mentoring the next generation of scholars. His work in the classroom is deeply connected to his research, and he views teaching and scholarship as mutually reinforcing.

“Faculty research forms the core of my teaching endeavors and pedagogical objectives,” he said. “It’s important for students to see that I am an active scholar, and that the books and ideas we engage with in class are being created here at Gettysburg College. I, like many of my colleagues, am producing the knowledge that contributes to their education.”

The Guggenheim Foundation, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, has supported more than 19,000 Fellows since 1925—including Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and other globally acclaimed thinkers. Downs’ selection reflects the academic excellence fostered at Gettysburg College and highlights the national and international reach of its faculty. Prior to Downs, former Gettysburg College Art Prof. Amer Kobaslija received this award in 2013.

“The Guggenheim Fellowship honors scholars who are visionary leaders in their fields and it is exciting - but not surprising - to see Jim recognized for his significant contributions at the intersection of history, medicine, invisible communities, and the Civil War,” said College Provost Jamila Bookwala. “Gettysburg College celebrates Professor Downs’s Guggenheim Fellowship with him and looks forward to his ongoing and future scholarly accomplishments.”

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By Corey Jewart
Photos provided by Prof. Jim Downs, Zach Aumen
Posted: 06/24/25