Triton College receives $100K grant to diversify Humanities curriculum

A recently awarded grant from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) will help support Triton College in the creation of new courses that better reflect the diversity of Triton's students and community. The $100,000 Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges Grant will allow the development of five new courses within Triton's Social Science and English departments that will speak to changing global realities. The newly designed courses will afford students more options to earn the human diversity credit outlined in their degree requirements.

"We're not just creating a curriculum that's more reflective of global reality, we're creating teaching methods that are more appropriate and helpful for our students," said Triton College history and humanities professor Dr. Elizabeth Collins, one of the co-directors on the grant.

Dr. Collins is developing a non-western humanities course as well as a world mythology class.

"In world mythology we'll cover every continent. It will have Native American mythology and classical Greek and Roman mythology, as well as cover Hindu traditions and Australian Aboriginal stories," Dr. Collins said.

A Latin American studies course will be created by Social Science Department faculty member and grant co-director Maxi Armas.

"Students will study the history and challenges of immigration through a theoretical lens," Armas said. "Every student has a perspective and they deserve to have the opportunity to share them."