NEH announces $14.6 million in awards and offers for 202 humanities projects

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced today $14.6 million in grants for 202 humanities projects, including the development of a documentary on Gertrude Bell, the English woman who played a decisive role in the history of Iraq and the modern Middle East.  

“The National Endowment for the Humanities is proud to fund the nation’s finest humanities projects,” said NEH Deputy Chairman Carole Watson. 

This funding will support a wide variety of projects, including research fellowships and awards for faculty, traveling exhibitions, the preservation of humanities collections at smaller institutions, and training programs to prepare libraries, museums, and archives to preserve and enhance access to their collections. Grants will also support humanities initiatives at historically black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities, and help institutions improve and secure long-term support for their humanities programs and resources. 

Among the grants announced are research fellowships to produce a biography on Ancel Keys, the American scientist who developed the K-rations for World War II combat soldiers and helped shape 20thcentury American eating habits, and a study of women’s activity as financial investors in Victorian Britain.  Funding will also support staff training and an assessment of the preservation needs of the Citadel Military College of South Carolina to preserve and protect the college’s institutional records and artifacts dating to its founding in 1842, and will enable the development of software that uses machine learning to automate descriptive metadata for spoken-word sound collections. Other grants will support an initiative at New York City College of Technology to develop new interdisciplinary courses and modules that link the humanities with technical majors, while an NEH challenge grant will help seed an endowment at the Society for American Music to promote new scholarship on American music and musical culture.

This award cycle, institutions and independent scholars in 43 states and the District of Columbia will receive NEH support. Complete state-by-state listings of grants are available here (45-page PDF).  

In this cycle, grants were awarded in the following categories:

• Awards for Faculty support advanced research in the humanities by teachers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.
• Bridging Cultures through Film Grants support the development and production of documentary films that examine international and transnational themes in the humanities.
• Challenge Grants strengthen the humanities by encouraging non-federal sources of support and helping institutions secure long-term improvements in and support for their humanities programs and resources. Recipients are required to match NEH funds on a three-to-one or, in some cases, two-to-one basis.
• Fellowships support college and university teachers and independent scholars pursuing advanced research.
• Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan is a joint activity of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JASFC) and the NEH. Awards support research on modern Japanese society and political economy, Japan’s international relations, and U.S.- Japan relations.
• Humanities Initiatives Grants are intended to strengthen and enrich humanities education and scholarship at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.
• NEH On the Road Grants extend the reach of museum exhibitions redesigned for travel to smaller-scale institutions in cities throughout America.
• Preservation and Access Research and Development Grants support projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources.
• Preservation Assistance Grants help institutions—particularly small and mid-sized institutions—improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections, including special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, decorative and fine arts, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, furniture, and historical objects.
• Preservation Education and Training Grants help the staff of cultural institutions obtain the knowledge and skills needed to serve as effective stewards of humanities collections. Grants also support educational programs that prepare the next generation of conservators and preservation professionals, as well as projects that introduce the staff of cultural institutions to recent improvements in preservation and access practices.