Mihaela Moscaliuc, Ph.D., professor of English and graduate program director at Monmouth University, has been awarded a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the most prestigious honors in the arts and humanities. She joins a distinguished group of 198 fellows—including faculty at Berkely, Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale—selected this year from nearly 3,500 applicants across the United States and Canada.
Awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the fellowship recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or outstanding creative ability. Since its founding in 1925, the foundation has supported more than 19,000 fellows and awarded over $400 million in grants. This year’s awards mark the centennial of the program, which has included Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and pioneering scientists, scholars, and artists.
Moscaliuc will use the fellowship to work on a new body of poetry and nonfiction focused on cross-cultural beliefs and practices related to death and mourning. Her project includes travel to Latin America and Eastern Europe to explore the rituals, narratives, and spiritual frameworks surrounding loss and remembrance.
“The news was humbling and slightly numbing (but in a good way). I was too excited to react or even share the news,” said Moscaliuc. “It’s a huge honor to join the 2025 cohort of fellow artists, scholars, and scientists, and to be part of this 100-year-old tradition.”
“I am indebted to all the writers who inspire me and whose work is a form of mentorship, and also to my students, who never fail to amaze me and who keep me excited about teaching and writing,” she said.
“Dr. Moscaliuc embodies the best of Monmouth University’s academic community—internationally recognized for her scholarship, deeply committed to creative inquiry, and devoted to mentoring the next generation of global thinkers,” said Richard F. Veit, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “Her leadership in guiding students through transformative opportunities like the Fulbright program reflects the personal, purposeful education that defines Monmouth.”
Moscaliuc is the author of four poetry collections—”Cemetery Ink,” “Immigrant Model,” “Father Dirt,” and the forthcoming “Heartmoor”—and has translated and edited major works by Romanian poets, including “Hiss of the Viper,” by Carmelia Leonte and “Clay and Sky” by Liliana Ursu. Her academic work focuses on translation studies, Romani literature, migration narratives, and illness narratives. A bilingual collection of Moscaliuc’s poetry, Algunos Poemas Fugitvos, translated by Frances Simán, was launched at the Cultural Center Benjamin Carrión in 2023.
J.P. Hanly, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the Department of English, said, “Dr. Moscaliuc is an incredible advocate and role model for our creative writing and literature students. She is a great scholar and a powerful poet, a transformative teacher and a dedicated mentor, an effective graduate program director, and an energetic community builder. We’re enormously fortunate to have her as a colleague and as an integral contributor to our English department.”
In 2023, Moscaliuc was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship for Poetry from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts “in recognition of the outstanding work” and to enable Moscaliuc “to further [her] artistic goals.”
The 2025 class of Guggenheim Fellows represents 53 fields, 84 academic institutions, and 38 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. While the fellowship provides generous financial support, its distinguishing feature is the freedom it offers recipients to pursue innovative work across disciplines.
For more information about the Guggenheim Foundation and the 2025 Fellows, visit www.gf.org.