The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded Monmouth College a $149,965 grant to fund a three-year history project about west central Illinois.
According to a release, the grant to Monmouth College is part of a larger $33.8 million in grants the NEH announced for 260 humanities projects across the country. Part of the grant’s funding will help Monmouth students conduct research with faculty members and interviews with community members who have moved to Monmouth from other nations.
Chair of the English department, English professor David Wright, the project’s director, was one of four Monmouth faculty involved with the NEH proposal, ‘Resituating the Humanities in Place-Based Learning.’ The rest of the project team that submitted the proposal included two other department chairs, Anne Mamary from philosophy and religious studies and Bob Simmons from classics, and history professor Valerie Deisinger.
“This place-based curricula project will be unique by moving beyond the study of a particular place to examine the ways in which both displacement and replacement are affected by and in turn shape a sense of place,” Wright said. “We seek to more deeply explore how both humanities scholarship and teaching can take seriously our responsibilities to the places and communities we inhabit. We’re very excited to see the humanities at Monmouth College receive such direct support. It’s an exciting time ahead.”
Within the NEH’s Human Initiatives grants, $4.1 million was awarded to 28 applicants. According to the release, the goal of Human Initiatives Grants is to strengthen the teaching and study of the humanities in higher education through the development or enhancement of humanities programs, courses and resources.
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