University of Notre Dame historian has won a , the Carnegie Corporation of New York announced Tuesday (May 5).
Carter, an associate professor in the , was one of 24 scholars and writers from a record 381 nominees to receive the honor. The fellowship includes a two-year grant of up to $200,000 to support research for her second book, 鈥淭he Politics of Truth in Early America,鈥� and to develop an undergraduate course aimed at the fellowship鈥檚 theme of understanding and addressing political polarization in the United States. The stipend is among the most generous of its kind, and previous Carnegie fellows have received numerous honors for their research, such as the Nobel Prize and National Book Award.
鈥淐oncern about the declining importance of truth in American politics is a crisis that can feel new to us, but Katlyn鈥檚 scholarship is a reminder that this phenomenon has existed since the founding of our country,鈥� said , the I.A. O鈥橲haughnessy Dean of the and a professor of political science. 鈥淚鈥檓 thrilled that the Carnegie Corporation is supporting her vital research on this topic, which will provide a much-needed historical lens to a question that is so fundamental to contemporary social and political life.鈥�
A historian of 18th-century America and France, Carter explores research topics inspired by issues that feel intractable in our politics today, she said.
In her first book, 鈥淒emocracy in Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions,鈥� how decisions and debates about the place of secrecy in politics during early American and French revolutionary history shaped representative democracy and addressed the realities of what it meant to make government transparent in practice.
The book earned the from the Society for French Historical 91视频, was shortlisted for the Rodel Institute鈥檚 for its outstanding contribution to the understanding and practice of democracy and American politics and received an honorable mention for the by the .
Through that project, Carter began developing questions about the origins of truth and trust as they related to the press and government 鈥� specifically in the United States.
鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing to say this group of people met in secret and talked about this, and that became a flash point. It鈥檚 another thing for people to say, 鈥榯hose people are lying to you, and I鈥檓 telling you the truth,鈥欌�� Carter said. 鈥淎nd I just started getting really interested in tracing that in early American political debates and rhetoric.鈥�
In 鈥淭he Politics of Truth in Early America,鈥� Carter will examine those large topics of truth, trust, communication technology and politics in early American history by exploring digital archives and traveling to historic research centers and libraries in Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, London, Paris and Washington, D.C.
She will also take the time to develop a course tentatively titled The Politics of Truth: A History, which will aim to 鈥渉istoricize some of the tough questions that we鈥檙e wrestling with today about truth and politics.鈥�
鈥淚 want to try to take those challenges and try to break students out of this rigid political binary that we鈥檙e in right now by taking these difficult questions and translating them to history,鈥� Carter said. 鈥淚 just don鈥檛 think we can understand these challenges without understanding the history of those problems, of the political system we live in or of the way people have thought about these questions in the past.鈥�
The Carnegie Fellowship class of 2026 is the third cohort focused on developing a body of rigorous, evidence-based research about what can be done to strengthen the forces of cohesion in the United States, an overarching priority for the foundation鈥檚 grant-making. The 2026 class also includes Notre Dame alumnus Wayde Marsh, who received a Ph.D. in political science in 2022 and is now an assistant professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
With support from the Notre Dame and the , Carter became the fourth Notre Dame faculty member to receive a Carnegie Fellowship. , the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy, and , professor of religion, conflict and peace studies in the , both won in 2017, and political scientist Sarah Zukerman Daley .
鈥淭here was a team of people at Notre Dame who are really skilled at what they鈥檙e doing and who really helped me deliver the message clearly and connect to the theme of the fellowship,鈥� Carter said. 鈥淚mportant research and scholarship that connects with people and helps inform and work on current challenges takes time. This fellowship actually gives researchers time to read and think, which is increasingly rare in a society that really likes to push for efficiency and going fast. That鈥檚 really valuable.鈥�