The National Humanities Center is the only major independent American institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities. Privately incorporated and governed by a distinguished board of trustees from academic, professional, and public life, the Center was planned under the auspices of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and began operation in 1978. It provides a national focus for the best work in the liberal arts, drawing attention to the enduring value of ancient and modern history, language and literature, ethical and moral reflection, artistic and cultural traditions, and critical thought in every area of humanistic investigation. By encouraging excellence in scholarship, the Center seeks to insure the continuing strength of the liberal arts and to affirm the importance of the humanities in American life.

Outstanding scholars from across the United States and more than thirty other nations have been awarded fellowships for advanced study at the National Humanities Center. The Center annually admits forty fellows, who represent a broad range of ages, disciplines, and home institutions. Individually, the fellows pursue their own research and writing. Together, they create a stimulating community of intellectual discourse. Interdisciplinary seminars on topics of mutual interest provide a context in which fellows share fresh insights and thoughtful criticism. The most tangible result of the fellows' work is the publication of nearly a thousand books since the Center opened. In addition, the Center has given many scholars a renewed sense of the possibilities of intellectual inquiry in the humanities.

Most fellows are chosen in an annual competition, for which the Center typically receives more than five hundred applications. The Center's trustees also invite a few scholars of distinction. Scholars in the humanities from any nation are welcome to apply to the Center as well as individuals from the sciences, social sciences, the arts, the professions, and public life who wish to pursue a humanistic project. Successful candidates are offered fellowships and travel expenses in order that they may spend an academic year at the Center.

"The National Humanities Center is a building informed by an idea and animated by people. I recall so clearly the first time I entered this space almost twenty years ago to the day. What I remember is my exhilaration and almost disbelief that such a space could be dedicated to an activity that had always been, for me and others, a solitary labor undertaken in a small room. The space represented a powerful concept: a collective undertaking with common stakes larger than any individual project." Geoffrey Harpham, from his inaugural remarks on March 27, 2003

The National Humanities Center is located in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina on the campus of the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies, Inc., a consortium of Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The proximity of these and other colleges and universities enhances the intellectual environment of the Center. The Center finds housing for its Fellows in the surrounding communities of Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh.

The Center's building and services were carefully conceived to foster scholarly research and intellectual exchange. The plan and aesthetic quality of the 30,000 square foot white brick and glass building, designed by Hartman-Cox Associates, have served the Center admirably. Each fellow has a private study, appropriately furnished for reading, writing, and reflection, overlooking the surrounding woods. A central commons and several conference rooms and lounges provide comfortable settings for dining, reading, conversation, seminars, lectures, and conferences. Books and research materials are delivered daily, and the building is networked for computer access to the resources of the World Wide Web. A continental breakfast is provided, and the fellows gather daily for lunch together in the commons.

During the academic year, fellows and invited visitors are featured in monthly lectures attended by local scholars, students, and the general public. The Center also organizes conferences on topics of broad intellectual and public interest. Friends of the Center are welcomed at concerts, exhibitions, and other cultural events.

The National Humanities Center is distinctive among centers for advanced study in its commitment to linking scholarship to improved teaching. Model programs developed at the Center provide teachers with new materials and instructional strategies to make them more effective in the classroom and rekindle their enthusiasm for the subjects they teach.

Summer institutes bring high school teachers to the Center for intensive study with alumni fellows and other leading scholars on topics drawn from American art, history, and literature. From each institute, the Center designs an online "seminar toolbox" that provides texts and discussion questions from which teachers can create their own interdisciplinary professional development seminars. The Center makes these seminar toolboxes available free of charge on its website and trains teachers to use them in their home school districts.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of teachers and students visit TeacherServe^®, the Center's online interactive curriculum enrichment service. TeacherServe supplements the seminar toolboxes with essays by leading scholars, instructional activities, and links to online resources.

The Center also designs summer seminars for humanities faculty from colleges and universities. Like the high school institutes, these programs are led by alumni fellows and other leading scholars.

The National Humanities Center communicates with its fellows, trustees, and other friends through an annual report; a newsletter, News of the National Humanities Center; and occasional papers. Current publications and archived materials are available on the Center's website.

The National Humanities Center is supported by grants from private foundations, corporate philanthropy, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Triangle universities, income from the Center's endowment, and by the generosity of individual donors. Friends of the Center support its programs through annual giving, bequests, and planned gifts. Further information is available from the Center's development office and on its website.

Meyer Abrams
Morton Bloomfield
Frederick Burkhardt
Charles Frankel
Robert F. Goheen
Steven Marcus
Henry Nash Smith
Gregory Vlastos
John Voss