Tore Olsson, assistant professor of history, was recently the recipient of a year-long fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. During 2016, he will use his time away from teaching to complete his first book, Agrarian Crossings: Remaking the U.S. and Mexican Countryside in the Twentieth Century (under contract, Princeton University Press), which explores the interconnected rural histories of Mexico and the United States from the Great Depression to the Cold War. Surprisingly, the city of Knoxville casts a significant shadow on the book’s narrative, as portions explore our very own Tennessee Valley Authority and its influence upon Mexican rural development after World War II. Olsson was previously a fellow of the University of Tennessee Humanities Center, and this year he will present his research at Yale University, the Agricultural History Society, the Association of American Geographers, and the Canadian Latin American and Caribbean Studies meetings.