Norwich University receives $100K grant from National Endowment for the Humanities

Norwich University has been awarded a $100,000 Humanities Connections Implementation Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to continue work on the Norwich Humanities Initiative, an interdisciplinary curriculum project which was launched in 2018 with the support of a $35,000 NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grant.

The Norwich Humanities Initiative enabled the implementation of a pilot curriculum, co-designed and team-taught by professors in the humanities and those in other disciplines including Geology, Business, Nursing, and Criminal Justice. It demonstrates the relevance of humanities-based approaches to global problems that cadets and civilian students will face upon graduation.

This innovative initiative allows undergraduates to encounter the human questions that informed Norwich Founder Alden Partridge’s vision of service over self that makes Norwich a unique place to work and study. Classes such as “Narrative Medicine,” “True Crime,” “Game Theory: The Art of Strategy” and the “Geoarchaeology of Lost Cities” provide opportunities for hands-on research and community engagement, promoting high-impact teaching and learning practices that enhance students’ personal and professional growth.

“As Norwich continues into its third century of service to the nation, this initiative encourages students and faculty to step outside of their disciplinary silos and to open up to the challenge, excitement, and unpredictability of working across disciplines towards a shared set of goals,” Associate Professor of English and Co-Director for the NHI Amy Woodbury Tease said. “Our students thrive when they are invited to ask questions about the world around them, and by inserting humanities-driven approaches to problem-solving and interdisciplinary collaboration, this initiative offers an inclusiveness that gives everyone a place at the table.”

The three-year $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities is a validation of the Norwich Humanities Initiative’s vision of institutionalizing a suite of team-taught humanities-centered general education courses as a component integral to a Norwich education.