An 18-month project to develop curriculum on African American history and culture for undergraduate education majors and for in-service teachers in local school districts.

Project description: With NEH grant funds, Rowan University proposes to establish a Black Humanities in Education Through History and Culture (BHE) Initiative to support the development and instruction of content knowledge for preservice and in-service teachers. Humanities courses taught by faculty from History, English, and Philosophy will examine the rich history and culture of African Americans to foster a deeper understanding of the U.S. Black experience, with a particular focus on southern New Jersey. The objectives for BHE are threefold: 1) to embed the newly established, humanities-based Certificate of Undergraduate Study in African American Studies for Future Educators in the education curriculum; 2) to develop a hybrid, interdisciplinary humanities graduate course that examines the U.S. Black experience; and 3) to disseminate content knowledge and share the BHE Initiative with in-service teachers, preservice teachers and community participants.

Development at Kean University of a new History Lab and undergraduate history curriculum focused on the life and times of William Livingston, first elected governor of New Jersey.

“MakeHistory@Kean: William Livingston’s World” is a three-year project to develop the Kean University Department of History curriculum around the concept of a History Lab. Using untapped archival resources and facilities of Kean, Liberty Hall Museum and the Liberty Hall Academic Center, undergraduates will generate a portfolio of original historical research to be shared with a broad public through talks, exhibits, websites, lesson plans, and other genres. Students will reconstruct and disseminate political, intellectual, and social worlds of William Livingston, first elected governor of New Jersey, signer of the U.S. Constitution, and builder of Liberty Hall, the estate on which Kean University now sits. The development of this curriculum writes an important chapter in American History, prepares history majors to compete in the 21st-century job market, and culminates in a 5-year BA/MA degree in History and Public Humanities.

The development of an interdisciplinary and place-based humanities minor that focuses on the writers, musicians, and artists of Paterson, New Jersey.

The IHP-Prism Paterson employs immersive place-based learning to engage 1st generation/at-risk college students in the study of humanities disciplines by focusing on Paterson's important writers, musicians and artists. Creating new experiential courses in the humanities that reflect Felician University's 1^st generation students' identities will increase student engagement, improve skills, enhance retention, and build connections between the city and the University, while enriching humanities learning.

The creation of a certificate program in translation and interpretation, and the development of its curricular, service-learning, and language-documentation components.

The Lives in Translation (LiT) program, which is housed within the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at Rutgers University-Newark, where we embrace our role as an anchor institution in our diverse social milieu as central to our identity, is proposing a three-year humanities initiative to (1) expand curricular offerings in translation, interpreting, and multilingualism, (2) to provide language services in a multitude of languages to our Limited English Proficiency members of our community, including indigenous and endangered languages, and (3) to support innovative teaching and learning of language documentation of multilinguals. Through this proposal, Lives in Translation’s vision is to cultivate the linguistic richness of our Rutgers-Newark campus by making languages a cornerstone of educational opportunities and providing deeper knowledge and understanding of global cultures as an integral part of our academic capacity.

A three-year project to collect oral histories from Jersey City residents and incorporate them into history and composition courses.

The Hudson Oral History Project employs the practices and tools of the humanities in the field of oral history in order to engage our students and the surrounding community by capturing the stories as the city around us transforms radically, and to embed oral history into relevant courses and curricula.

The development of four courses and eight course modules, related student engagement activities, and a campus-wide forum, focused on environmental humanities.

While rapid growth in STEM at Rowan in terms of student enrollment, faculty research, and administrative focus has been able to occur side-by-side with the existing core of humanities, this has been at the expense of mechanisms for thorough crossover between these areas of the university. Aside from a few general education requirements, there is little institutional encouragement for students to become well rounded in both humanities and STEM fields, let alone to develop active connections and conversations between them. This project aims to correct this problem through a focus on courses, curricular structures, and developing cultures of research and interaction around the environmental humanities (EH).

The development of a new community college program connecting the humanities and criminal justice.

Next year marks the 60th anniversary of C. P. Snow’s notable essay “Two Cultures,” in which he laments the divide between vita activa and vita contemplativa, the active life of a scientist and the contemplative life of a humanist. The Division of Humanities at Bergen Community College seeks to accomplish what Snow and many others have advocated: to advance society by bridging activa and contemplativa. Through the interdisciplinary efforts of the Criminal Justice and Humanities departments at the College, courses integrating the content, competencies, and methodologies of the humanities and criminal justice will foster a future law enforcement that has a greater understanding of the narratives of the communities they serve and with stronger critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills.

The design of core courses and experiential learning activities for an interdisciplinary social justice minor.

Caldwell University, a private, Catholic Dominican liberal arts institution in Caldwell, New Jersey, requests support for the “Embracing the Challenge of a More Perfect Union: Plan to Develop a New Social Justice Minor” project focused on exploring theories and issues surrounding social justice, an area of high interest to Caldwell students and its founders, the Sisters of Saint Dominic. This project will lead to a new social justice minor degree connecting the humanities with the social sciences and professional fields and a new social justice core course anchored in the humanities that every Caldwell student must complete. This study will serve as a pathway from the humanities to their chosen major and profession by emphasizing the development of soft skills and fostering a greater understanding of diversity and different types of injustices. Professional development workshops will be offered for Caldwell faculty to develop greater expertise in team teaching with the humanities.

A two-year project to establish a minor in business humanities.

Seton Hall University’s (SHU) proposed interdisciplinary Business Humanities Minor and seven newly developed courses aims to overcome what has been identified and discussed by scholars for over a century, that the separation of the humanities from business is artificial and detrimental.

No project description available

To describe the collection development and acquisition process at selected university and college libraries. General planning and four case studies have been completed. Phase II will include additional case studies, the development of a synthetic overview and the testing of this overview by means of a research questionnaire sent to 25 college and 25 university libraries. The outcome of the project will be a report of recommendations for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of academic library collection development.

Three two-and-one-half day conferences in winter, spring, and summer 2010, for a total of 225 educators, to strengthen the use of Picturing America images in teaching core subjects in schools.

The Newark Museum proposes to present American Visions, a School Collaboration Project that will provide 225 American K-12 educators and librarians with the knowledge, skills, and resources that they will need to design, implement, and evaluate curriculum lessons/units that connect with the goals of Picturing America. Building on the success of a modest Picturing America teacher institute presented at the Museum in August 2008 (supported by a NEH Chairmans Grant), this proposal will give the participants opportunities to collaborate with educators from across the nation, museum educators and curators, prominent scholars in the humanities, educational specialists in curriculum design/evaluation, and computer specialists. "American Visions" will be comprised of pre-conference activities, three 2 and 1/2 day conferences held throughout 2009/2010, and post-conference evaluation and dissemination sessions utilizing technological resources.

The development and teaching of a new mid-level undergraduate course exploring the meaning of fame from the ancient world through the Enlightenment.

From Homer to St. Augustine to Shakespeare, writers and thinkers have grappled with the question "What is the Meaning of Fame?" Part of the NEH's Enduring Questions program, this course explores the history and literature of fame as it occurred before the advent of mechanical and digital reproduction. Tracing the response of the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, of the Romans and early Christians, and of the great thinkers and artists of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, it demonstrates how fame provoked deeply moral and philosophical questions about vanity, honor, virtue, and mortality.

The development of an undergraduate course on the question, What sustains liberty?

"What Sustains Liberty?" aims to stimulate wide-ranging discussions that grapple with varying accounts of the origin, preservation, and future of liberty. Supplemented with film viewing nights and an outing to a Shakespeare Theater Company of New Jersey performance, this course will cultivate intellectual excitement and critical reflection on the nature of politics. The first part of the class will focus on problems of sustaining democratic liberty in Ancient Athens, specifically the importance of the individual. The second section of the course will turn to a set of more modern American and European texts on the issue of how free societies come into being, in what way those beginnings inform their identity, and the manner in which these conditions determine the strength of their liberty. The third set of readings will introduce the possible tensions between sustaining liberty and achieving equality. The course will conclude with a look at what might help sustain liberty in the future.

A two-year project to update a Global Peace, Law, & Justice concentration

Felician University requests National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education development grant support to strengthen and modify the current Global Peace & Justice concentration (renamed to Global Peace, Law, & Justice (GPL&J). Two new humanities (HUM) courses, 1) Environmental Ethics Seminar and 2) Introduction to Global Social Justice will be offered as part of the core curriculum for GPL&J concentration. Additionally, Felician is one of the few universities in the world to be granted Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status at the United Nations (UN). In proposing the modified GPL&J concentration, Felician aims to work with the UN to bring about impactful change, revitalize the current HUM content, and attract and retain the student population it serves.

The training of student veterans as discussion leaders for three discussion groups comprised of student veterans and other residents of the Bergen, New Jersey community.

As the ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and, more recently, Syria continue unabated, veterans and non-combatants with experience of war have become a growing segment of the Bergen County community and, more specifically, of the student population at Bergen Community College (BCC) in Paramus, NJ. There is a crucial need to create a space for these individuals to discuss, reflect on, and share their experiences with others. BCC’s proposed No Man’s Land: Dialogues on the Experience of War series focuses on the intersections of World War I and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Using humanities resources, the series will facilitate an open-ended dialogue with veterans and non-veterans on the experience of war, one that encourages exploration, discovery, and reflection. We envision a core of three combat veterans in residence who will support discussion leaders to extend the dialogues and expand the program beyond the grant period.

Four six-day teacher seminars. Topics include new scholarship in African American history, citizenship in the 21st century, religious diversity in America, and the literature of immigration.

NJCH seeks funding for its 2004 Teacher Institute, which will serve 100 of the State’s K-12 teachers. It consists of four residential six-day graduate-level seminars and workshops during the following year in the teachers’ home schools. The seminars are: A RECONSIDERED PAST: NEW SCHOLARSHIP IN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY, CITIZENSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY, RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY, AND LITERATURE OF IMMIGRATION.

A college-level course, "American Freedom: The History of an Ideal," for low-income individuals, a series of three hour seminars on American Heroes for K-12 teachers and a week-long summer residential teachers' seminar which will examine the life & legacy of George Washington in his command of the Continental Army, his leadership at the Constitutional Convention, & his Presidency.

A DEMOCRATIC VISION: FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION has 3 parts: AMERICAN FREEDOM: THE HISTORY OF AN IDEAL, targets low income individuals in NJ cities, exploring the concept of freedom through history, philosophy, art history & literature; AMERICAN HEROES, a south NJ teachers seminar, looks at the lives & complex decisions of famous & less well-known Americans; GEORGE WASHINGTON: FOUNDING OUR DEMOCRACY will study him as military leader & president to understand his legacy for our nation today.

two two-semester Clemente Courses in Camden and Somerset/Brunswick exploring the nation's founding principles and their development over time, and two K-12 teacher seminars.

A DEMOCRATIC VISION: FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION has 2 parts: AMERICAN FREEDOM: THE HISTORY OF AN IDEAL provides low-income individuals in 2 NJ cities the opportunity to explore the concept of freedom through history, philosophy, art history & literature; 2 seminars for K-12 teachers, GEORGE WASHINGTON & THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION examines him as military leader & president; LITERATURE & DEMOCRACY explores the idea of citizenship & its expression by writers from the founding to the present.

Funding will support three week-long residential summer seminars for teachers in 2011, and a series of three town hall meetings on the topic of "The Humane Society."

A HUMANE SOCIETY: USING THE HUMANITIES TO BRIDGE CULTURES is a two-part project. Part 1 consists of three week-long residential summer seminars, to take place in July 2011, for New Jersey's K-12 teachers: America and the Politics of the World's Religions; Narratives of Immigration: Latino/a Lives; and Race in American History and Culture: New Perspectives. They will be led by humanities scholars from the fields of history, religion, literature, and cultural studies. Part 2 will consist of a series of three town hall meetings, in northern, central, and southern New Jersey. Focusing on The Humane Society, these meetings of scholars, civic leaders, and community residents will create a forum, history-based, for informed, civil discussion aimed at understanding the possibilities for greater cooperation among our myriad communities -- both here in America and across the globe.

No project description available

Two one-week workshops for 80 school teachers focused on Ellis Island, an immigration gateway to America, and its role in providing a healthy workforce for America in the early 20th century.

Two one-week workshops for 80 school teachers on the history of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century immigration at Ellis Island.

Save Ellis Island (SEI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the National Park Service partner for the restoration and reuse of the U.S. Public Health Service hospitals on Ellis Island, will convene two one-week workshops investigating the impact of immigration to America in the early twentieth century. Ellis Island was the gateway to America, where 12 million immigrants first set foot in the country, some to continue on in a few hours, some to be held back because of the 1891 legislation restricting immigrants' entry for reasons that included "loathsome and contagious disease." Using the power of place on Ellis Island, and the resources there, the workshop will examine the implications of federal immigration legislation at the time in light of contemporary economic, social and political thought. The workshop will include presentations by scholars, tours of Ellis Island's hospital buildings and Immigration Museum, field trips, and opportunities for teachers to research primary source material.

Two one-week Landmarks workshops for eighty teachers that will use the Hudson River as a focus for the study of nineteenth-century intersections of art, culture, commerce, and nature.

The Hudson River is an American landmark of immeasurable historical depth and significance, and has aptly been called "America's River." The workshops we propose will explore American history and culture of the 19th century by focusing on the Hudson River as a site where art, culture, commerce, and nature collide. On one hand, the River is "conquered" in the 19th century by steam power, the Erie Canal, industrialization, and population growth. On the other, painters such as Thomas Cole and writers such as Washington Irving endowed the River with romantic, transformational power, the power to overcome human force. Each day of our program will include a lecture by a renowned scholar, a site visit, and a workshop with a Master Teacher where participants will work in small groups to develop lesson plans related to their teaching area. The workshops will be appropriate for middle and high school teachers of social studies, history, English, humanities, and environmental studies.

Two one-week workshops for seventy-two school teachers that use the Hudson River for a study of modernization in nineteenth-century America.

This workshop focuses on the Hudson River as a case study of the scope of modernization in nineteenth-century America. By focusing on art, literature, and architecture alongside the developments in commerce, industry, and tourism that emerged on the nineteenth-century Hudson, the workshop reveals the several ways in which Americans navigated the waterway. This approach also brings an interdisciplinary perspective to history and a humanities focus to environmental studies. Each day allows for a specific topic with lectures, discussions, readings, and site-based activities tied to a region of the river. Participants begin by considering the mouth of the Hudson as an estuary and economic gateway; they survey New York Harbor by boat, walk the commercial district of Wall Street, and read Walt Whitman's poetry at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Farther up river, they discuss short stories by Washington Irving, visit his home, Sunnyside, and compare this modest structure to Lyndhurst, its Gilded Age neighbor and home of financier Jay Gould. They study the development of the steamboat and Erie Canal for the purpose of industry and commerce, and the Hudson River School paintings of Thomas Cole as romantic depictions of nature. A session on "Race, Labor, and the Landscape" illuminates the stories of African Americans in the Hudson River Valley. Finally, an afternoon boat trip--enhanced by readings in period guidebooks--enables participants to interpret the river's dramatic geology, iconic vistas, and environmental change through a nineteenth-century lens. Project directors Stephen P. Rice and Meredith Davis are scholars of American studies and art history, respectively. Their expertise is supplemented by Elizabeth Hutchinson (art history, Columbia University), Judith Richardson (English and American studies, Stanford University), Myra Young Armstead (history and Africana studies, Bard College), Thomas Wermuth (history, Marist College and Director of the Hudson River Valley Institute), and Stephen Stanne (Hudson River Estuary Program, Cornell University). In addition to place-based writing exercises, a session entitled "Teaching Your Place" assists teachers in translating the Hudson River workshop to other local sites.