News From the Center

Center Mourns Recent Passing of Trustee Anne Firor Scott, Friends Nancy Lewis and Clay Whitehead

The trustees and staff of the NHC mourn the recent passing of trustee emerita Anne Firor Scott on February 6, 2019, age 97. Scott was a distinguished historian whose long list of accolades included the National Humanities Medal, bestowed on her in 2013 for her pioneering work in the area of women’s history. The Center is also deeply saddened by the loss of longtime friends and supporters Nancy Lewis on October 27, 2018 and Clay Whitehead, who died in December 2018.

National Humanities Center Names New Education Programs Manager

The National Humanities Center has named award-winning history educator Michael “Mike” Williams as its new education programs manager. Williams comes to the Center having most recently served as chair of the history department at Warren New Tech High School in Warrenton, NC, where he has taught for the past decade. In that time, he has twice been recognized as the Warren County Teacher of the Year (2014, 2017–18) and was named the 2017 Tachau National Teacher of the Year by the Organization of American Historians.

Bill and Jean Anne Leuchtenburg Celebrate Forty Years Together at the Center

Over the past four decades, Center lunches have offered a wonderful occasion for those who love the humanities to meet and discover their shared passions, and it's not uncommon for those kindred spirits to form deep and lasting relationships. Probably none, though, can match William and Jean Anne Leuchtenburg, who met and fell in love at the Center forty years ago when he was a Fellow and she was a new member of the NHC staff.

Center Launches Online Courses for Teachers

The NHC has launched the first in a new series of online courses for teachers exploring “Digital Literacy in the Classroom.” In this five-week online course, educators will explore digital literacy through a humanities lens, considering how media has evolved in the digital age, how its messages shape our citizenry, and how this understanding can be effectively conveyed in a classroom setting.

National Humanities Center Board Elects New Chairman and Vice Chairman

The NHC Board of Trustees has selected Ben Vinson III, provost at Case Western Reserve University, and New York businessman Joshua Ruch as board chairman and vice-chairman, respectively. Trained as a historian with a focus on colonial Mexico, Dr. Vinson has been a member of the Center’s board since 2013 and was a Fellow at the Center in 2005–06. Mr. Ruch has been a trustee of the NHC since 2010 and is cofounder and chief executive officer of Rho Capital Partners, an investment and venture capital management company based in New York and Palo Alto.

Steven Marcus

Steven Marcus (1928–2018)

The trustees and staff of the NHC mourn the passing of Steven Marcus, one of the Center’s founders, on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. He was 89. Steven was instrumental in the conception and realization of the Center,​ ​and his​ ​intellectual leadership and continuous devotion helped nurture and guide the Center for most of the past 40+ years. Beyond his importance to the Center, Steven Marcus was an influential literary critic and professor at Columbia University where he taught from 1956 until 1994. His work on nineteenth-century literature and culture, including over 200 publications, continues to shape thinking in the field.

National Humanities Center Names Fellows for 2018–19

The National Humanities Center is pleased to announce the appointment of 38 Fellows for the academic year 2018–19. These leading scholars will come to the Center from 15 US states, as well as from Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. These newly appointed Fellows will constitute the forty-first class of resident scholars to be admitted since the Center opened in 1978.

National Humanities Center Receives Grant to Support Research Fellowships for HBCU Faculty

The NHC is pleased to announce a $1,147,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a new initiative to provide residential fellowships for a dozen scholars from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) over the next three years. These fellowships will allow four HBCU scholars per year to pursue individual research projects and take part in the Center’s intellectual community.

Andrew Delbanco Selected to Lead Teagle Foundation

The Teagle Foundation recently named Andrew Delbanco from Columbia University as​ its president beginning July 2018.​ ​A noted literary scholar and social critic, Delbanco has twice held fellowships at the National Humanities Center (1990–91; 2002–03) and served as a trustee of the Center from 1996 until 2006 when he was made an emeritus trustee. Delbanco has been a member of the Teagle Foundation board of directors since 2009 and has served as chair of its program committee since 2014.​ In 2012 he received a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.​

Corbette Capps (1946–2018)

The staff and trustees of the National Humanities Center mourn the passing of Corbette Capps, the Center’s longtime building engineer, on February 28 after a brief illness. Capps was hired in 1978 to help care for the distinctive Archie K. Davis building he had helped construct and in the course of the next thirty-one years became, himself, a memorable fixture in Center life. Affable by nature, he took particular care to assure that the Center remained a welcoming and friendly environment for scholars, colleagues, trustees, and visitors. Beloved by Fellows and staff, one of the Center’s studies was dedicated to him upon his retirement in 2008.