Ripon receives $150,000 NEH grant to strengthen humanities throughout the region

A project to strengthen the humanities at Ripon College through regional collaboration has received a $150,000 Humanities Initiatives for Colleges and Universities grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will fund a three-year effort to reimagine humanistic study for the 21st century and support a plan to bolster humanities education by connecting faculty and students with cultural institutions across the southern Fox Valley region.

“Developing a Diverse and Sustainable Place-Based Humanities Education through Regional Partnerships,” led by Ripon College Professor of History Brian Bockelman, is included in the NEH’s first round of funding for the year, totaling some $28.1 million in grants for 204 projects at museums, libraries, universities and historic sites in 39 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It is one of only two Humanities Initiatives grants awarded to Wisconsin colleges and universities in this cycle.

“The ultimate goal of this project is to build a robust, place-based eco-system of humanities education for our region,” Bockelman states. “Our conversations with Marian University were an initial step toward articulating a vision of geographic uniqueness and attracting students to programs that offer both a universal and a particular education. The proposed project will be the first sustained attempt to understand the place, quite literally, of Ripon in the landscape of American colleges and universities.”

The three-year initiative is expected to involve approximately 15 faculty members at Ripon and Marian, up to a dozen community partners at area arts and humanities organizations stretching from Baraboo to Oshkosh, and three distinguished visiting scholars from Princeton University, Stanford University, and Cornell University.

The focus on humanities education and establishing a regional network of collaborations among local places, people and organizations is aimed to improve the quality and content of humanities classes, grow humanities enrollments and develop a model for revitalizing the humanities at liberal arts colleges in predominantly rural environments.

“Institutions like Ripon and Marian are becoming ever more aware of their collective purpose as centers of higher education, culture and wellness for the surrounding area,” Bockelman adds. “This project will maximize the existing human resources across the region to sustain traditional humanistic disciplines and subjects, and it will also offer the chance to work together to develop new and more resilient approaches to the humanities of the future, making them more diverse and more grounded in the places and landscapes we — and our students — inhabit.”


Related Posts

Lillian Brown

Lillian Brown to appear in play in Sturgeon Bay July 17 through Aug. 18

Assistant Professor of Theatre Lillian Brown will appear in the play “Jeeves Saves the Day,” by Margaret Raether, July 17 through Aug. 18 in Sturgeon […]

Patrick Willoughby

Article by Patrick Willoughby, student collaborators published in journal

Associate Professor of Chemistry Patrick H. Willoughby and three of his students contributed to an article published in Chemistry: A European Journal. Contributors to “Nitrene […]

Rafael Francisco Salas

Rafael Francisco Salas has work in regional exhibit opening May 18

Rafael Francisco Salas, professor of art and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, will have work included in “TMA Contemporary,” the annual […]

ben grady

Associate Professor of Biology Benjamin Grady quoted in article published by Forbes

Associate Professor of Biology Benjamin Grady was quoted in an article published April 30 by Forbes Australia. “This miner might change the future of the […]

National Endowment for the Humanities

 


Related Areas of Study