Endowment for publication subventions and an award program in musicology as well as fund-raising costs.

The American Musicological Society seeks an NEH challenge grant of $240,000, which with a 4:1 match will yield $1,200,000. These funds will endow four publication-related initiatives of the Society. The bulk of the funds ($900,000) will create a new subvention supporting the publication of first books by young scholars, whose work often represents the cutting edge of scholarly research, but whose careers are often at their most fragile or challenging point. The remainder will go primarily to existing publication subvention programs, supporting musicological books more generally ($125,000) as well as a monograph series sponsored by the Society ($100,000). These subventions aim to optimize the quality of the best scholarly books on music while keeping their prices affordable. Finally, we propose a new award for books on music in American culture ($50,000), a vital area of musical research that appeals to the broadest literary and musical public.

The project investigates the origins of one of the most influential ancient Greek Secret Cults, the Eleusinian Mysteries. Extensive archaeological excavations at the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis have brought to light thousands of Bronze Age finds, which remain unpublished in the basement of the local museum. With this project, I seek to publish those finds fully and reconstruct the stratigraphy and chronology of early Eleusis. On the basis of this analysis of the material record, I will reconstruct the sociopolitical, economic, and religious organization of Eleusis in the third and second millennia BC and study the problem of the existence of a Bronze Age cult and its possible continuity into the Dark Age. Finally, through the comparative study of the evidence from Eleusis and other sanctuaries with Mystery cults, I will seek to reach an understanding of the genesis and early development of the phenomenon of ancient Greek Secret Cults.

Under the patronage of China’s powerful Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-1795), Chinese and European Jesuit court artists used Western illusionistic painting techniques to create life-size "scenic illusion paintings." These monumental works were seamlessly integrated into various imperial spaces, creating a seemingly permeable threshold between reality and illusion. The techniques of European trompe-l’oeil illusionism were found at the very heart of the Chinese empire, but the origins of scenic illusions at the Chinese court remain murky. In "The Study of Vision: Cross-Cultural Illusionistic Painting in Eighteenth-Century China,"I seek the missing link in their history with the first full translation of the Chinese text The Study of Vision (1729 and 1735). Written by court retainer Nian Xiyao (1671-1738), this illustrated manual articulated the principles and effects of scenic illusion painting well before its heyday. [Edited by Staff]

12 months of stipend support (1 to 3 fellowships) per year for three years and a contribution to defray costs associated with the selection of fellows.

The American Research Institute in Turkey requests support for its fellowship program for advanced research in the humanities affiliated with ARIT centers in Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey. Funds for long-term fellowships (tenures from four to twelve months) are requested from the National Endowment for the Humanities for 2016, 2017, and 2018. Also requested are funds for a portion of the expense of selecting the fellows, beginning in January 2016. (edited by NEH staff)

One fellowship per year for three years.

The institute seeks to renew, through the Endowment's Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions, funds for two-year fellowships for the 2007-2010 grant period. The proposal requests support for three fellows who will conduct research in areas of early American studies with the goal of preparing manuscripts for book publication. They will be NEH fellows in successive twelve-month terms in 2008, 2009, and 20010. The Institute's sixty-two-year old fellowship program has a well-deserved reputation for quality and productivity and is held in high regard by the historical profession. As a dedicated research center and a publisher of important work about the early American period, the Institute provides an ideal setting for scholars working on their first book-length publications.

The creation of an interpretive tour and special exhibit highlighting Hawaii’s queens and princesses at two royal palaces; retaining three positions

The Daughters of Hawaii’s humanities mission is to serve as an authentic lens for learning about and immersion in the cultures of indigenous Native Hawaiians and the Kingdom of Hawaii. Our project advances critical interpretive programs at two of Hawaii’s royal palaces using today’s technology. Palace tours and exhibits will highlight the strengths, achievements, and untold stories of Hawaii’s powerful Queens and Princesses, who embraced Western science, technology and diplomacy, to transform social, economic and education conditions for their people, unheard of in the 1850s. Our focus recognizes their visionary contributions that live on in present-day Hawaii. Other program activities include interactive classes, annual community festivals, public forums, and interactive workshops with cultural practitioners and scholars. In-person, virtual and hybrid activities will offer participants direct experiences in the heritage, arts and culture of Hawaii, its past, and its diversity.