Nicholas Baldwin, a PhD student in American Literary Studies, was awarded the Larry Morris Scholarship. The Larry Morris Memorial Scholarship was dedicated in honor of Dr. Larry Morris, Senior Minister and co-founder of Hillside Community Church, who completed his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the University of New Mexico. This educational and travel scholarship is intended to encourage and support a graduate level academic project in the field of mystical or spiritual literature.
Baldwin’s current research explores the spiritual dimensions of correspondence between Beat Generation writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, focusing on the letters they exchanged before publishing their landmark works Howl and On the Road. Nicholas’ project looks at how these early letters by Ginsberg and Kerouac work not only as personal communication but also as a space for spiritual reflection and artistic experimentation. Baldwin plans to use the Larry Morris Memorial Scholarship prize to support living and travel expenses during time devoted to researching and writing about Ginsberg and Kerouac, which he aims to use as the basis for his doctoral dissertation.
Faculty members at UNM praise Baldwin as an “intellectually curious” academic whose “scholarship opens a rich, new vein in the study of twentieth-century American poetry.” He is also noted for having “devoted himself to wide-ranging studies in his pursuit of knowledge,” and having “traveled widely, engaging in numerous experiences out of curiosity and a desire to experience everything he can.” Among many other places, Baldwin’s journey pursuing the mystical experience has taken him to the University of Stockholm for a master’s degree studying Jack Kerouac’s “spontaneous poetics” and to Italy for work as a yogi-in-residence.
