Endowment for Classics Research and Teaching

FAIN: CH-50359-07

American Philological Association (New York, NY 10003-7112)
Adam D. Blistein (Project Director: November 2005 to June 2013)

Endowment for staff positions and other expenses in the American Office of the l'Année philologique, a bibliographic resource for classical studies, and direct expenses for fund raising.

The American Philological Association (APA) requests a Challenge Grant in the amount of $650,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to establish an endowment for classics research and teaching. Initially, the sole purpose of this endowment will be to support both ongoing operations and new initiatives of the American Office (AO) of l'Annee philologique (APh). Since 1927 classics scholars around the world have considered the APh to be the primary and indispensable source of information about research published in all areas of their field. It is now also a rich and accessible "point of entry" for other humanists seeking information about the ancient Greek and Roman world. This powerful bibliographical tool embraces an extremely wide range of modern scholarly materials and lets the student or scholar pursue serious inquiry in a way that is the envy of many other disciplines. The AO is an indispensable part of this international project, assuring that American and other English language materails are included in the international bibliography. The rapid pace of improvements in the use of technology by scholars and teachers makes it impossible to predict how they will do their work or what resources they will need in 10 years (to say nothing of 25 or 50 years). It would therefore be irresponsible to build an endowment that can be used only for an existing tool, however essential it may be now. In addition, the Association hopes to add to the endowment via additional gifts and capital appreciation and must be prepared for the possibility that in time funds will be available to support other important initiatives besides the American Office.