Humanities Explorations of Rural Poverty and Place: Fostering Narrative Imagination and Civic Curiosity
FAIN: AKA-279458-21
Juniata College (Huntingdon, PA 16652-2119)
Amanda M. Page (Project Director: September 2020 to December 2022)
Territa Poole (Co Project Director: April 2021 to December 2022)
A one-year planning grant to develop a humanities-centered interdisciplinary program in rural poverty studies.
Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA requests funding for a NEH planning grant for “Humanities Explorations of Rural Poverty and Place: Fostering Narrative Imagination and Civic Curiosity.” With this project, Juniata will complete the planning process for the creation of the Rural Poverty Studies (RPS) program rooted in humanities traditions. The goal is to utilize study in the humanities to help students better understand structural poverty and its impacts on the lives of people in rural settings. The program centers on how the humanities inspire curiosity about the causes and effects of rural poverty to help students imagine ways to make the world a better place. Historically, urban poverty dominates the field, but recently attention is given to how poverty manifests itself in the specificity of rural places. Comparative studies will explore rural poverty in the regions of central Pennsylvania served by the historic East Broad Top Railroad, and the Black Belt region of rural Alabama.