In 2015, the Miami University Humanities Center won a prestigious $500,000 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The NEH Challenge Grant recognized Miami's innovative approach to faculty-student collaboration, its emphasis on pressing social challenges, and its commitments to public engagement and research excellence. The award challenged Miami University to raise $1.5 million over the five years.
Thanks to you, we met the challenge in 2019, six months ahead of schedule. The result was a new $2 million endowment to sustain the Center’s existing work and support three new programs: Humanities Labs, a Faculty Research Collective, and the Research Apprenticeship Program.
Since 2015:
• More than 8,000 people have attended our lectures, symposia, readings, and other events.
• 1,000 Miami students have benefited from our special classes, workshops, and programs.
• 300 undergraduates have participated in our student research programs.
• 200 faculty members have joined our collaborative projects.
• The Humanities Center has grown into a vital interdisciplinary hub with 16 different programs for students, faculty, and community members.
Gifts to the 2015 NEH Challenge Endowment allowed us to create three new programs:
Our Humanities Labs now offer something most college courses cannot: an intense opportunityto work with a faculty team on experiments and hands-on projects that speak to a public audience.
Our Research Apprenticeship Program has put 60 undergraduates to work on faculty projects. Apprentices contribute to publication, develop close relationships with faculty, and gain valuable, practical experience.
The Humanities Research Collaborative has fostered a new faculty podcast on the sonic arts and humanities, “Phantom Power”; a stunning PBS documentary, “Metal Road (2017)”; and across-campus environmental humanities project entitled “Approaching Extinction.”
