Strengthening the Humanities Core and Supporting Contingent Faculty During COVID-19

FAIN: AH-274656-20

Saint Joseph's University (Philadelphia, PA 19131-1308)
Shaily Menon (Project Director: May 2020 to July 2023)

The retention of five faculty in art history, English, musicology, Spanish, and philosophy, and professional development in online education for 50 contingent faculty.

Saint Joseph’s University provides a rigorous, student-centered education rooted in the liberal arts. With the humanities at its core, our curriculum aims to help students appreciate the role that ideas, values, and literary and other creative works play in all cultures, constituting a shared heritage that transcends differences and promotes a sense of common humanity. The goals of this application are to support at-risk undergraduate teaching positions in the humanities and to prepare contingent faculty to offer high impact virtual instruction in the humanities. We propose to do this by 1) retaining five at-risk contingent faculty positions in art history, English, musicology, Spanish, and philosophy and 2) strengthening the capacity of contingent faculty to deliver high quality virtual teaching in the fall through professional development and training during the summer. This will further our goal of preparing faculty and students for whatever the COVID-19 future brings.