The development of curriculum and resources for a new certificate in textual science, focused on cultural heritage recovery.

How should the humanities respond to the dual threat posed by global warming and terrorism to cultural heritage worldwide? Are the imaging technologies developed to recover the Archimedes palimpsest and restore lost works to the canon enough to safeguard the future of the past? Is science alone the answer? Textual Science: A Curriculum for Cultural Heritage Recovery offers a two-fold solution. First, it defines a new discipline combining the traditional skills of the humanistic scholar – paleography, codicology, bibliography – with imaging-, material-, and computer science. Second, drawing on the traditional strengths in optics, imaging, and humanities of both the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology, whose scholars are at the forefront of cultural heritage imaging, this proposal aims to formalize a curriculum for Textual Science through a joint UR – RIT certificate program for undergraduates at the 22 institutions of the Rochester Area Colleges consortium.

Planning for a five-course interdisciplinary Honors Program curriculum, “Humanities in Action.”

Humanities in Action (HIA) is a five-course honors curriculum which places the skills and values cultivated by the humanities at the center of student learning. We are seeking funding to develop and integrate two key features of HIA: interdisciplinary team-taught courses and a culminating experiential learning component. The interdisciplinary courses examine scientific, social scientific, and mathematical knowledge and reasoning in specific social and cultural contexts to illustrate how these factors complicate the acquisition and application of “objective” results. Armed with this knowledge and the tools and skills of different disciplines, students will design and operationalize experiential learning projects for the Humanities in Action capstone. During the planning year, a diverse team of faculty and staff will design team-taught interdisciplinary courses, develop experiential learning and leadership modules, and design a community-engagement capstone.

The development of an interdisciplinary archaeological curriculum incorporating skills and perspectives from humanities and the sciences.

This proposal seeks to create an interdisciplinary archaeological curriculum at Roanoke College that will focus on the skillsets needed for understanding and working with the archaeological past. During a planning year, we will create a curriculum that explores the archaeological intersections in the disciplines of Art History, History, Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Environmental Studies, and Statistics; we expect to create a minor or certificate in Archaeology. A committee of nine faculty members from six different disciplines will work together on lectures and exercises for archaeology classes, create new syllabi or restructure old ones, and meet with outside consultants. A key element of our work will be to design a field school using our on-campus archaeological site, Monterey House, to train students in excavation and analysis. We plan to place successful exercises and, once implemented, our curriculum online for other colleges and universities to use as a model.

Planning for a new interdisciplinary major in Critical Civic Engagement.

The small size of our campus means that declining enrollment trends seen throughout higher education are magnified. While our commitment to the humanities remains undiminished, we recognize the need to adjust our approach to teaching and learning in light of new realities. With expertise drawn from a range of disciplines we intend to design a major in Critical Civic Engagement (CCE). This will be carried out by a cross-disciplinary team of faculty and academic leaders. CCE presents our vision for a program that purposefully integrates the humanities and social sciences. CCE will equip students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to tackle complex issues. Through this planning grant we will focus on the development of CCE including the identification of courses, learning outcomes, and program objectives. The goal will be to develop a framework for CCE and a plan to move it through the appropriate processes for approval. This project will run from 05/01/19-04/30/20.

The development of three new interdisciplinary courses for a minor in human-centered engineering.

Michigan Technological University requests funding to spearhead a new Human-Centered Engineering Initiative. The purpose of this curricular initiative--which includes developing three new courses and a minor in Human-Centered Engineering--is to meaningfully integrate humanistic and technical inquiry; highlight the importance of humanistic inquiry to students in engineering disciplines; and expand the role of the Humanities at the institution. During the planning grant period, faculty from the Department of Humanities, College of Engineering, and Pavlis Honors College will collaborate to research, develop, and propose three interdisciplinary courses that will form the core of a new Human-Centered Engineering minor at Michigan Tech. These courses -- “Empathy,” “Creativity,” and “Innovation” -- will each focus on a key component of the design process, exploring connections and differences between humanistic and engineering perspectives.

A one-year curriculum development project on the integration of the humanities and business.

The Seton Hall University College of Arts and Sciences and Stillman School of Business are committed to breaking down the false divides between the humanities and business through a collaborative Business Humanities Initiative which will integrate philosophical, spiritual, historical, literary and business perspectives into the curriculum. The project will: identify interdisciplinary working groups; design a faculty development and certification program; investigate curriculum exemplars; conduct student surveys/focus groups to gauge interest; create a plan to integrate humanities into the existing business curriculum, including the development of experientially oriented case studies; outline curriculum, learning outcomes and an assessment plan for a proposed undergraduate Certificate in Business Humanities; and create a syllabus, course description, learning outcomes, experiential component and assessment process for a new business humanities capstone course for the Certificate.

Planning for an interdisciplinary minor in Appalachian studies.

Located in the heart of Rural Appalachia, West Virginia Wesleyan College wishes to construct a multifaceted Appalachian Studies minor program. This program will cultivate the essential avenue for Humanities and Non-Humanities disciplines to truly work in tandem towards the goal of a historical, political, cultural, social, economic and scientific assessment of a common question, "What defines Appalachia and is there truly an 'otherness' to the region?" The opportunity to pursue an Interdisciplinary minor will equip students with the tools to enhance self-awareness and contextualize the past, present and potential future of Appalachia within a national and global setting.

A one-year project aimed at developing a freshman-level interdisciplinary course sequence on the Middle East and North Africa.

A faculty team from the departments of Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Islamic Studies, Law, and Sociology will transform UCLA's pedagogy on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by creating a multidisciplinary freshman course sequence exploring MENA cultures through diverse humanistic perspectives. The team-taught sequence, offered annually, will incorporate two terms of lecture courses followed by a term of experiential learning in the MENA communities of Los Angeles. The planning phase will explore methods and topics for a sequence that highlights the Middle East's rich cultural and religious traditions, histories, and literary and artistic practices. The product of this planning phase will be a detailed proposal to UCLA's Governance Committee for course approval, after which our team will establish working relationships with the course's assigned staff from the library, the writing program, and experiential learning partners.

Planning for a new interdisciplinary major in Public Heritage.

Faculty at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) seek support from NEH to develop a new, interdisciplinary bachelor degree (a BAIS) in Public Heritage that combines elements of traditional public history, cultural heritage studies, and museum studies programs and moves substantially beyond any of them. The proposed Public Heritage BAIS has two primary foci, Bilingual, Bicultural, Border Heritage and Integrated Cultural and Natural Heritage Landscapes. These foci build on the strengths of current faculty teaching and research activities across multiple disciplines, as well as existing experiential learning and institutional partnerships in the region. An NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grant will support a yearlong process during which the faculty committee will consult with external scholars and local collaborating institutional to finalize the design, structure, content, and expected student learning outcomes for the Public Heritage BAIS.

The development of a new Emphasis in Technology and Human Values program integrating humanities study into pre-professional pathways.

Newman University proposes an NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grant to develop a new Emphasis in Technology and Human Values (ETHV) to address a pressing need in higher education today. Mounting evidence demonstrates that the humanities are no longer seen as vital to a university education. At the same time, the accelerating pace of technological change threatens the values needed to sustain a thriving human community. NU’s Emphasis in Technology and Human Values will address both of these concerns by offering a technology-focused integration of the humanities with some of our most popular programs. Emphasizing interdisciplinary course design, hands-on learning, and civic engagement, the ETHV will provide Newman with an innovative curricular model for introducing humanities-based skills, content, and modes of inquiry into a broad range of disciplines.

A one-year planning grant to create a minor and three-course cluster in future studies.

The University of Rochester (UR) seeks NEH support to develop a minor, a cluster (a 3-course sequence), and experiential learning activities in humanistic futures studies. Two critical ideas drive the project: that the ability to think well about the future should be foundational to undergraduate education, and that the texts and habits of mind cultivated by the humanities are invaluable facilitators of futuristic inquiry. Home to the Futures Studies Research Circle and the Rochester College Consortium, a regional confederation of 22 IHEs whereby students may take courses at any member college, the UR program will be a national model for undergraduate futures studies in the humanities. The planning grant will achieve these 5 outcomes: 1) design curriculum and courses; 2) obtain approval of the minor and cluster; 3) identify additional community collaborators for the experiential learning components; 4) recruit additional faculty aligned with the topic; and 5) begin to recruit students.

The development of a new Pathways curriculum that would connect humanities offerings with a wide range of interdisciplinary courses, for incoming freshmen.

This Humanities Connections Planning Grant will allow University of St. Francis (USF) faculty and administration to develop a program that shows students the links between the humanities and other disciplines, increases their achievement outcomes, and develops skills employers are looking for while enhancing the vital role of the humanities at USF. This Planning Grant will refocus general education requirements to include four different Pathways representing USF’s four guiding values: Service, Respect, Compassion and Integrity. Each Pathway will require a total of 6 courses (existing, revised, and new options) that are thematically linked with experiential and service learning components. Faculty in disciplines including philosophy, history, theology, business and health administration, economics, and education will play a role in this project. Benchmarks are set for this planning project and upon implementation all incoming freshmen will participate in the Pathways program.

A one-year planning grant to develop a minor in digital public history.

The University of Connecticut requests $35,000 to undertake a one-year planning process toward the launch of a Digital Public History Minor. The new minor will be a led by the Department of History in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Department of Digital Media and Design (DMD) in the School of Fine Arts. It will be housed in and administered by Greenhouse Studios (greenhousestudios.uconn.edu), an interdisciplinary digital humanities incubator that is a collaboration between these units and the University Library. Combining core course offerings in History and DMD with a set of joint course offerings in digital humanities that bridge the two disciplines with experiential learning opportunities in partner organizations throughout Connecticut, the Digital Public History Minor will give students the technical skills, content area knowledge, and collaborative working styles that will help them succeed in the 21st century economy.

A curricular development project integrating the humanities with global engineering through an expanded program of language and cultural study.

This project expands the role of humanities in undergraduate education at Purdue by integrating language and cultural studies with global engineering. The project has four initiatives, an engineering design course linking engineering and cultural analyses, a research course in which students use a second language and apply humanistic-engineering skills in an internship abroad, a speaker series and associated hands-on academic activities that join cross-disciplinary programs, and a redesign of both pre- and post-internship abroad workshops based on our framework. Purdue, a world leader in engineering education and well-known for cross disciplinary humanities programs, is the ideal institution to highlight the professional and societal value of the humanities. This project will give students a unique set of analytical skills, shape the future practices of global engineering industries, and impact the broader society that will benefit from culturally-relevant engineering solutions.

Planning of a minor and certificate in environmental ethics that combines interdisciplinary study of humanities and the natural sciences with experiential learning.

The College of Saint Elizabeth proposes the development of a minor and certificate in Environmental Ethics with an interdisciplinary curriculum of study in the humanities and the natural sciences. The one-year planning phase will produce a comprehensive proposal for the program to be reviewed, approved, and implemented for students to enroll in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Planning for a new interdisciplinary major and minor in environmental studies with a specific humanities focus.

The College of Arts and Sciences at MU will create a curricular project that expands the role of the humanities by addressing crucial environmental topics from the perspectives of multiple humanities disciplines as well as those of the natural sciences in collaboration with a community partner. Specifically, we will create a curriculum that allows students to: 1) develop an appreciation for the philosophical and ethical dimensions of environmentalism, and to the various meanings of the idea of nature, 2) cultivate an understanding of the natural environment that is shaped by evolutionary history, human history and pre-history, the history of environmental advocacy, 3) demonstrate the scientific, geographical, and socio-economic literacy necessary to analyze an environmental situation, and 4) construct and apply a framework for understanding environmental challenges from a multi- and inter-disciplinary perspective.

A one-year planning grant to enhance an interdisciplinary concentration in health, culture and society.

In a time of what some are calling a “double pandemic” of both a novel virus and ongoing disparities exacerbated by race, our understanding of health and wellness, illness and disease and their social intersections is entering a new era—one for which humanistic concerns are essential. New College of Florida has just launched an interdisciplinary Health, Culture, and Societies (HCS) “joint-disciplinary concentration” that bridges not only academic disciplines in scientific and humanistic fields, but also academic study and practical experience in the form of community engagement and professional internships. This new program responds to both an emerging field and to the need for a structured approach to an area of high student interest and community need.

A one-year planning grant to develop an interdisciplinary minor in medical and health humanities. 

Johnson & Wales University seeks NEH support to develop an interdisciplinary minor in Medical and Health Humanities (MHH) that will enhance undergraduate health education while infusing humanities content and practices into the curriculum, demonstrating to undergraduates the real-world applications of the humanities. Medical and health humanities is a growing field, and there is mounting evidence that education in the humanities not only helps students to develop valuable skills in critical thinking and analysis, problem solving, and communication, but also increases their familiarity with culturally diverse approaches to disease and healthcare, encouraging the development of empathy. Through the MHH minor, JWU will better prepare students for health-related careers and ultimately, to deliver patient-centered, humanistic healthcare. The grant outcomes will help create future programming that integrates instruction in the humanities with professionally-focused subject matter.

A one-year planning grant to revise an existing certificate program in medical humanities.

Revising the Certificate in Medical Humanities is a project led by a multidisciplinary cohort from the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Our goal through this project is to strengthen the medical humanities certificate and to expand it to include a more broadly-termed health, humanities, and society initiative. Using the existing certificate as a springboard, we seek to further bridge the artificial divide between the humanities, social sciences, arts, and health professions with the following aims: 1) Formalize and expand an interdisciplinary advisory cohort centering on health, humanities, and society at UTA; 2) Critically assess the curriculum in medical humanities at UTA to identify new integrative learning opportunities for students; and 3) Establish dynamic communication and partnerships with the Dallas-Fort Worth community to provide experiential learning activities for undergraduate students.

A one-year planning grant to develop and pilot team-taught interdisciplinary courses in the general education curriculum.

Nazareth College proposes a $35,000 NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grant to promote Strengthening the Core Curriculum: Integrative Learning through the Humanities that will allow us to plan for and pilot the creation of team-taught integrated, multidisciplinary upper-level courses that combine the humanities with the sciences, arts, and other professional fields. The challenge grant will allow us to address two concerns related to higher education, the lack of purposeful integration of learning by students, and students' declining enrollment in humanities courses. Strengthening the core by creating multi and interdisciplinary courses incorporating the humanities will address these concerns.

A one-year planning grant to develop a science writing curriculum.

This project will plan a curriculum in which the instruction of science writing, both popular and scholarly, is integrated organically into a field mycology and myco-cultivation courses. With collaboration from the Departments of English, Biology, and Agriculture and Applied Sciences, the planning committee will fashion at least two courses, one in biology and one in agriculture and applied sciences, that employ experiential learning, including the collection of specimens in the field and the cataloguing of these specimens in a student-led herbarium, in order to better prepare students to be effective and versatile writers in their fields. The final project of these courses would involve contributions to an Alcorn-affiliated and student-led website that offers amateur-oriented descriptions of the fungi of western Mississippi and easy-to-follow instructions on how to cultivate safe edible mushrooms that grow wild in western Mississippi.

A one-year planning project integrating the study of history into undergraduate professional programs in in homeland security, informatics, and public health.

The University at Albany, SUNY, seeks planning support to expand the role of history in its undergraduate curriculum. By integrating historical methodology and scholarship into the university’s professional programs in homeland security, informatics, and public health, the proposed project will grow the history major and foster historically informed, technology-enhanced learning across the university. Support allows us to develop a new general education course that brings historical context to the study of contemporary issues; implement “Common Problems Pedagogy” course pairings that bring students in history and non-humanities courses together with community groups to address issues of pressing concern; add history courses to electives counted toward majors in professional programs and encourage dual majors; expand interdisciplinary undergraduate research symposia; and share resources, training, and technology across disciplines to enhance active, participatory learning.

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.

Planning a general education curriculum pathway in philosophy for students enrolled in engineering degree programs.

California State University San Marcos seeks a Planning grant to design a Humanities General Education pathway for undergraduate Engineering majors. The pathway will consist largely of coursework in Philosophy and will be supplemented by a program of co-curricular events, gatherings, and student engagements. Philosophy courses will be redesigned explicitly to address topics and issues of relevance to engineering as a professional field and social enterprise. The curriculum will focus on the ethical and social dimensions of engineering as a human enterprise. A team of colleagues from Philosophy and Engineering will integrate topics of relevance to engineering within Philosophy GE courses; explore the feasibility of first-year student learning communities; and outline a program of co-curricular events and activities, featuring lectures, films, and panel discussions that will include in-service professional engineers as guest speakers.

A one-year planning grant to develop and pilot a two-quarter sequence of co-taught interdisciplinary courses for first-year honors students.

This proposal for an NEH Humanities Connections planning grant aims to build meaningful collaborations by beginning with the self-selected and very motivated faculty and students involved in the UC Davis University Honors Program (UHP) and those affiliated with the UC Davis Humanities Institute (DHI). An excellent opportunity therefore exists to pilot and expand deeper connections between STEM and humanities disciplinary approaches and pedagogy around the greatest challenges of our time, beginning with a first-year common curriculum developed through the University Honors Program.