Kelsey Williams (right) visits with Elizabeth Grubgeld, OSU English professor, who directed Williams in his Honors College thesis.

Kelsey Williams

Kelsey Williams is one of 50 American students to be awarded an Oxford Clarendon Press Scholarship that provides full tuition and fees for American graduate students at Oxford University. The scholarship also includes a stipend for living and miscellaneous expenses.

“Oklahoma State University is thrilled that this outstanding young man has received this tremendous honor and scholarship,” said OSU President Burns Hargis. “Students at OSU can compete academically with students from anywhere in the country.”

Elizabeth Grubgeld, OSU English professor who directed Williams in his Honors College thesis, was excited with the news of the award.

“He was raised in a home that values reading, music, art and science as a part of one’s everyday experience, and I have rarely known a student so motivated by the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake,” Grubgeld said. “His intellectual curiosity, imagination and tenacity as a researcher are matched only by his generosity and kindness as a human being. It’s been a privilege to work with him.”   

Williams already has published on a variety of topics and has won an award for an essay for best new paper on medieval genealogy.

He has studied twice in Cambridge with OSU’s Scholar Development program, and is serving this year as a graduate assistant for the program. He spent the 2006-07 academic year as an exchange student at St. Andrews University on an OSU Bailey Scholarship, and was captain of the university’s competitive academic team and debating society.

 “Any faculty member who has taught Kelsey recognizes that his academic gifts are numerous and exceptional,” said Robert Graalman, director of the OSU Office of Scholar Development. “His scholarship, for one so young, is extremely sophisticated, and his breadth of knowledge in various fields hard to match. He has been a model for the new kind of OSU student who desires to travel and study widely off campus, through various OSU programs and his own initiative.”

Williams was named a finalist in the Gates/Cambridge competition, and has been selected as a 2008 OSU Senior of Significance. While at OSU, he also was the recipient of two Lew Wentz Research Scholarships.

Williams, a home schooled student, is the son of Kenneth and Gloria Williams of Stillwater. He plans to pursue a career in scholarship and teaching after completing his Ph.D. at Oxford.