Leaders from fellowship granting and funding entities gathered for a summit to discuss fellowships and fellowship programs on September 13 and 14, 2017 at the National Humanities Center. This meeting follows a similar gathering in Washington, D.C. in December of 2016 organized in response to growing concerns expressed by many in the humanities about expectations for assessment of research and accountability imposed through sometimes ill-fitting metrics.
Members of the Center’s 2017–18 Teacher Advisory Council gathered for a two-day orientation and planning meeting on September 7 and 8, 2017. Selected from schools in twelve states, the Teacher Advisory Council is a 14-member board that supports the Education Programs of the National Humanities Center for a one-year term of service. Chosen to represent multiple disciplines in the humanities, these teacher leaders accept an active role in the development, evaluation, and promotion of NHC materials and projects.
The National Humanities Center has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of a new program designed to improve teaching about the Vietnam War. The grant, totaling $158,283, will help fund a two-week, interdisciplinary institute for high school teachers to be held at the NHC next summer. The summer institute is one of several initiatives currently underway at the National Humanities Center to promote a deeper understanding of this complex period in Cold War-era history.
The National Humanities Center announces the appointment of Tania Munz as VP for Scholarly Programs, effective August 1, 2017. Munz comes to the Center having most recently served as VP for Research & Scholarship at the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, MO, where she oversaw the library's fellowship program and managed its collection of over half a million monograph volumes and more than 48,000 journal titles. She previously held research and teaching positions at Northwestern University & the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.
The staff and trustees of the National Humanities Center mourn the passing of their colleague Anthony E. Kaye on May 14 after a long illness. He had served as the Center’s vice president of scholarly programs since July 2016.
The National Humanities Center is pleased to announce the addition of three new members to its staff: Olympia Friday, Lynn Miller, and Julie Ungaro. “Olympia, Lynn, and Julie are not only seasoned professionals but warm and interesting people whose skills and knowledge are certain to make the Center an even stronger institution,” said Robert Newman, President and Director of the Center.
The National Humanities Center announces the appointment of 34 Fellows for the academic year 2017-18. These leading scholars will come from 14 states, Greece, and the United Kingdom. Chosen from 630 applicants, they represent humanistic scholarship in English language and literature; environmental studies; European languages and literature; history; history of science; medieval studies; music history and musicology; philosophy; religion; sociology; South Asian studies; and theater, dance, and performance studies.
The National Humanities Center will host the Triangle Digital Humanities Network Spring Colloquium on April 7, 2017. The event will bring together digital humanists from the Triangle area to make connections and to learn about digital research currently underway in local graduate programs. The event will feature brief research presentations by area digital humanities graduate students and information about ongoing collaborative digital projects being conducted by the Center.
The National Humanities Center has announced its program of spring 2017 professional development webinars for humanities teachers covering a wide range of topics including the cultural history of Islam in America, television and the presidency of John F. Kennedy, understanding the Black Lives Matter movement in its historical context, the poetry of Pulitzer Prize winner Rita Dove, and cultivating philosophical thinking with students.
The National Humanities Center has announced its schedule of public lectures, exhibitions, and other events which touch on a wide range of topics. Events include lectures on Shakespeare’s Othello, portrayals of slavery and freedom across the Atlantic world, the history of the industrial oyster, and Viking art.