Public Humanities Compendium
This is a working document created by the Center for the Humanities at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. This draft provides the framework for what will become a public
humanities compendium. We are aware that what is included in this version is by no means
exhaustive of the growing field of the public humanities. In sharing this draft, we hope that you
will share with us additions from your own work as well as your knowledge of other exemplary
work being done in this field.
Please contact Katy Petershack at hex@humanities.wisc.edu with your additions.
Thank you.
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
PUBLIC HUMANITIES COMPENDIUM—DRAFT 1.25.2011
Table of Contents
I. Executive Summary................................................................................................................. - 1 II. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ - 1 III. National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).................................................................. - 1 NEH Grants and Programs...................................................................................................... - 1 IV. Humanities Councils ............................................................................................................. - 2 Notable Humanities Council’s Public Programs .................................................................... - 2 V. Centers and Institutes for the Humanities .............................................................................. - 4 International Centers and Institutes ........................................................................................ - 4 National Centers and Institutes ............................................................................................... - 5 Regional Centers and Institutes .............................................................................................. - 5 University and College based Centers and Institutes .............................................................. - 5 VI. Museums and Libraries......................................................................................................... - 7 VII. Degree Programming .......................................................................................................... - 9 VIII. Non-Profit Organizations ................................................................................................... - 9 International ............................................................................................................................ - 9 National ................................................................................................................................. - 10 City........................................................................................................................................ - 10 IX. Governmental Programs ..................................................................................................... - 11 X. Online Humanities Projects ................................................................................................. - 11 Art: ........................................................................................................................................ - 11 English: ................................................................................................................................. - 11 Geography: ............................................................................................................................ - 12 History: ................................................................................................................................. - 12 Languages: ............................................................................................................................ - 13 Miscellaneous: ...................................................................................................................... - 13 XI. Festivals .............................................................................................................................. - 14 XII. Conferences ....................................................................................................................... - 14 XIII. Humanities Magazines ..................................................................................................... - 14 XIV. Public Humanities Journals ............................................................................................. - 14 XV. Public Humanities Directories and Research Guides........................................................ - 15 XVI. Public Arts Programs ....................................................................................................... - 15 XVII. Digital Humanities.......................................................................................................... - 16 XVIII. College and University based Programs ....................................................................... - 18 XIX. For-profit Organizations .................................................................................................. - 18 XX. Graduate and Post-Graduate Fellowships in the Public Humanities ................................ - 18 XXI. Public Humanities Working Groups ................................................................................ - 19 -
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
PUBLIC HUMANITIES COMPENDIUM—DRAFT 1.25.2011
I. Executive Summary
<<To be added in a later draft.>>
II. Introduction
The following is a compilation of different humanities-based programs, councils, organizations,
governmental initiatives, festivals, magazines and directories. This collection shows trends and
best-practices in humanities-based work and will help inform future humanities initiatives. All
entities listed have links to their main pages where more information can be found.
A particular focus has been paid to public humanities-based programs. Kathleen Woodward
(University of Washington) explains the public humanities as, “At universities across the US,
faculty and students are recovering the civic purpose and democratic impulse that characterized the
humanities from classic times until the mid-20th century. The Public Humanities, which includes
scholarship and teaching that bridges the university and life, operates through translation and
collaboration, and combines intellectual and committed work, are evident in programs, working
groups, conferences, and courses, most of which are housed at Humanities Centers and Institutes.
Some of these projects focus primarily on local communities, others have a global reach. What
they share is an interest in the reach of the humanities beyond the University and in the service of
better lives.”
III. National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
The NEH was created in 1965 and is an independent grant-making agency of the United States
government that supports research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.
During the 2010 fiscal year the NEH had a budget of $167.5 million and the 2011 proposed budget
is $161.3 million. Although the NEH is located in Washington, D.C., the programming takes place
in areas across the country.
National Endowment for the Humanities
NEH Grants and Programs
We the People: Encourages and enhances the teaching, studying, and understanding of American
history, culture, and democratic principles.
Challenge Grants: Preserve collections, expand education resources, and create programs to foster
research in the humanities.
Exhibitions Today: Exhibitions travel across the country and world.
Media Log: Funded programs for film, TV, and radio that support NEH’s commitment to diverse
and high quality programming.
Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops: Community college educators have the
opportunity to engage in intensive study and discussions about important topics in American
history.
Summer Seminars and Institutes for College and University Teachers: College and University
faculty gain deeper knowledge of current scholarship in the humanities.
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Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers: K-12 educators participate in seminars to
discuss scholarship in the humanities.
EDSITEment: Provides a collection of valuable online resources for teaching English, history, art
history, and foreign languages. The side also has lesson plans for classrooms and families to use.
U.S. Newspaper Program: Preserves on microfilm newspapers published in the U.S. from the 18th
century to today.
National Digital Newspaper Program: Provides an online digital resource of US newspapers from
the 18th century to today.
Prize-winning Books: A grouping of books written with NEH support that have won awards and
prizes.
We the People: Helps citizens explore significant events in American history and culture through
speaker’s bureau programs, community book discussions, and grant-funded projects.
IV. Humanities Councils
The 56 humanities councils located in United States and its territories support local humanities
programs and events. The state humanities councils are funded in part by the federal government
through the NEH. They also receive funding from private donations, foundations, corporations,
and, in some cases, state government.
List of all 56 Humanities Councils: http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/statecouncils.html
The following is a list of the more notable public humanities-based programming within
humanities councils. The majority of humanities councils offer grants, lectures on humanities
topics, literacy programs, teacher trainings, and events specific to the council’s location. Programs
below are listed alphabetically, followed by the associated states in parenthesis. For more
information on any programs or councils, please follow the links.
Humanities Council’s Notable Public Programs
Absent Narratives: (Minnesota) Absent Narratives include stories, art, music, and histories that are
left out of the standard curriculum or story of a place and people.
Arts of the Book Center: (Virginia) The Virginia Arts of the Book Center exists to promote the
values of the humanities through appreciation of the arts of the book, visual and verbal literacy,
creativity, and the fostering of traditional and contemporary skills. To this end we operate a
working studio and print shop to which community members may gain access and through which
they can gain training in the art and crafts of printing, printmaking, and book arts.
Authors in the Community: (Colorado) Well-known Colorado writers are brought to schools,
libraries and organizations to present workshops and readings.
California Documentary Project: (California) Funds projects that record and reveal contemporary
California Life.
California Story Fund: (California) Small grants given to individuals living in CA who share their
stories.
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Cultural Tours: (Florida) Led by scholars, local cultural and civic leaders, and long-time
community members, these tours look at community history and cultural identity. Sights include
Apalachicola, a port community; the Everglades, and Fernandina Beach.
Documents Compass: (Virginia) Documents Compass is a non-profit organization. It was formed
in 2007 by two Documentary Editors who recognized the need to provide tools for bringing their
works to the internet in a rapidly changing environment. They established this service provider to
create an intermediary between the scholar/editor and the publisher.
Faces of Addiction: A Humanities Perspective: (Wyoming) Scholars and professionals familiar
with addiction issues view various films and facilitate related discussions with the public on how
the media and society influence and portray our views and abilities to cope with and respond to
addiction.
Food for Thought: (Indiana, Mississippi, Vermont) An examination and celebration of the ways
food helps to define Indiana’s culture, considering food in the context of history, law, politics,
science, the arts, religion, ethnicity and our place in the world.
Humanities Camps: (Vermont) Since 1997, VHC has been running an exciting summer literacy
program for at-risk middle school students. These programs are week-long, thematic camps with
lots of reading, discussion, and humanities-related activities. Each summer, up to two hundred
children in Vermont public schools read, keep journals, and engage in creative activities around
interesting themes.
Humanitini: (Washington, D.C.) Humanitini connects young professionals in Washington, DC
professionally, intellectually, and socially. All events feature our signature drink, the Humanitini!
Project Civil Discourse: (Arizona) A statewide effort to create respectful dialogue and discourse on
public issues.
The Public Humanist: (Massachusetts) From firsthand accounts of Guantanamo Bay to
ruminations on what Thomas Jefferson meant by “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of
Independence, Mass Humanities’ group blog explores how the humanities can help us understand
and contribute to public policy conversations.
Public Humanities Scholars: (Pennsylvania) Public Humanities Scholars is a partnership between
PHC and the Pennsylvania State University's Institute for the Arts and Humanities. The program
brings great humanities programs to central Pennsylvania. To do that, nonprofit organizations are
matched with Penn State scholars so that they can plan and present high-quality projects in their
communities.
The Public Square: (Illinois) The Public Square fosters debate, dialogue, and exchange of ideas
about cultural, social, and political issues with an emphasis on social justice. By building bridges
between theory and practice, the Public Square encourages the use of ideas as tools to improve
people’s lives. These programs promote participatory democracy and create space for public
conversations.
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Rose Urban Rural Exchange: (Alaska) Builds understanding between urban and rural Alaska
through cross cultural exchanges in middle and high schools between students and teachers, also
supports rural Alaskan Native students transition to universities and urban settings.
Stories for Life: (Maine) This scholar-led reading and discussion program for probationers
provides participants an opportunity to reflect on their own lives. Probation officers work with the
scholar to co-facilitate the group sessions.
Stories from Freedom’s Frontier: (Kansas) Podcasts of modern-day Kansans and Missourians
share local stories of the Border War through historical documents and local lore. Each considers
the impact of the Missouri/Kansas Border War and the Civil War on their communities.
Super Teacher Program: (Alabama) Provides professional development to 4th-12th grade teachers,
school librarians, and administrators who want to learn more about a subject or theme in the
humanities.
Super Emerging Scholars: (Alabama) A week long workshop for high school students to develop
writing and critical thinking skills for secondary education and beyond.
V. Centers and Institutes for the Humanities
Although all humanities-based centers and institutes provide ranges of programming, most
missions remain the same: to promote inquiry in the humanities and to showcase humanities
programming. This typically includes: scholarship and research opportunities; speaker series;
discussions surrounding contemporary issues; interdisciplinary programming; community-based
programming; and literacy and reading campaigns. Centers are typically situated within
universities but provide programming both to the school and the community, helping to bridge the
gap between the two. For a complete list of members of the Consortium on Humanities Centers
and Institutes (CHCI) based in the U.S. and abroad click here and enter in desired search criteria.
Below is a list of centers and institutes with notable public humanities programming. Centers and
institutes are listed alphabetically with international centers first followed by national centers,
regional centers, and then university and college-based centers. For additional information please
follow the links.
International Centers and Institutes
Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute: (Glasgow, Scotland, UK) A
research and teaching institute and the University of Glasgow in Scotland. The Institute undertakes
innovative research in information, communication, and technology in the fields of cultural
heritage and the arts and humanities sectors. The Glasgow Story, one of the institute’s digital
humanities projects, tells the story of Glasgow as told by some of Scotland's best writers, and
illustrated with thousands of images from the collections of the city's world-famous libraries,
museums and universities.
The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics (The Americas) A collaborative,
multilingual, and interdisciplinary consortium of institutions, artists, scholars, and activists
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throughout the Americas. Working at the intersection of scholarship, artistic expression, and
politics, the organization explores embodied practice—performance—as a vehicle for the creation
of new meaning and the transmission of cultural values, memory, and identity. In particular, look
at their archives, digital video library and courses. A list of their core projects is here.
National Centers and Institutes
The Library of Congress: (Washington, D.C.) The nation's oldest federal cultural institution
serving as the research arm of Congress houses The Center for the Book which in the past 26 years
has establish affiliate centers in all 50 states. These Center for the Book affiliates carry out the
national Center's mission in their local areas, sponsor programs that highlight their area's literary
heritage and calls attention to the importance of books, reading, literacy and libraries.
National Humanities Center: (Research Triangle Park, NC) The National Humanities Center is
the only major independent American institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities.
Their program, On the Human, is an online community of humanists and scientists dedicated to
improving our understanding of persons and the quasi-persons who surround us.
Regional Centers and Institutes
Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities: (Rutgers--Camden) The Center’s Invincible
Cities Project began in 1977 as Camilo José Vergara documented the transformation of urban
landscapes across the United States. He is trained as a sociologist but he reaches into the
disciplines of architecture, photography, urban planning, history, and anthropology for tools to
present the gradual erosion of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century architectural grandeur
in urban neighborhoods, their subsequent neglect and abandonment, and scattered efforts at
rehabilitation. His next project is the creation of the Visual Encyclopedia of the American Ghetto.
University and College based Centers and Institutes
Arts of Citizenship Program (University of Michigan) Institute for Philosophy in Public Life:
The mission of the Institute for Philosophy in Public Life is to bridge the gap between academic
philosophy and the general public. It was founded to cultivate statewide, national, and international
discussions between philosophy professionals and others who have an interest in the subject
regardless of experience or credentials. The Institute was conceived on the premise that anyone can
do philosophy, that the subject area easily relates to everyone's daily lives, and that any lack of
understanding is largely a problem of translating between academics and non-academics.
The Center of the American West: (University of CO - Boulder) Urban/Rural Divorce: The
Urban/Rural Divorce in the West is a program that outlines the delicate relationship held between
the growing cities and the retracting country sides of the American West. It does so in very human
terms - in the form of a troubled marriage on trial.
Center for Community Arts Partnerships: (Columbia College Chicago) Community Schools
works with and in public schools by bringing faculty, instructors, and students from the university
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to teach, mentor, and tutor students. Urban Missions stands as an international model
demonstrating how an urban college can collaborate with community-based arts organizations to
develop an array of sustainable, high-quality arts programming.
Center for Documentary Studies: (Duke) Literacy through Photography is an innovative arts and
education program developed twenty years ago by artist Wendy Ewald at the Center for
Documentary Studies in conjunction with the Durham Public Schools, challenges children to
explore the world by photographing scenes from their lives and using their own images as catalysts
for verbal and written expression.
Center for Public Humanities: (Messiah College) The Humanities Symposium is a yearly event
that engages individuals in a week-long campus-wide conversation around a common theme with a
keynote speaker. History Day is a regional competition where students present their work on a
variety of topics and using various media (essays, oral presentations, video documentaries, and
dramatic performances), with finalists chosen to continue to the state History Day finals at Penn
State University.
Colorado Center for Public Humanities: (University of Colorado- Denver) Global Cities is a
three-part series exploring the development of contemporary cities around the world, as well as the
common challenges that these cities face. The series focuses, in particular, on the conditions
affecting the lives of urban youth in places as varied as Rio de Janeiro, Monrovia, and New
Orleans. As a collaborative project joining an urban university and an urban high school, the series
seeks to enhance the curriculum at Montbello High School, while giving students an exciting
opportunity to experience life on a college campus.
Center for the Humanities: (University of WI- Madison) Humanities Exposed Program is a
public scholarship program that partners UW-Madison graduate students and the Madison
community in collaborative humanities-based projects. The Great World Texts program brings
classic world texts to high school and college classes across Wisconsin.
Institute for Service Learning: (University of WI- Milwaukee) The Cultures and Communities
Program promotes multicultural awareness and civic engagement by sponsoring undergraduate
classes, community partnership grants, faculty research, and special events.
Humanities Institute: (University of Texas at Austin) The Community Sabbatical Research Leave
Program enables directors and staff members of Central Texas 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations
to apply to the University for paid flexible leave in order to pursue a question or problem related to
their organization and its constituency.
Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities: (Ohio State University) Ways of
Knowing Water is an ongoing collaboration between the Institute, the Colleges of Arts and
Humanities and OSU Extension. The project draws on the arts and humanities to connect residents
of central Ohio more closely to their local watersheds, and to develop innovative modes of
enhancing environmental awareness. Public Space raises questions about what it means to work in
a public university today. This series will expose graduate students to skills, strategies and
opportunities for engaging with constituencies and institutions beyond the academic environment.
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John Nicholas Brown enter for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage: (Brown University)
The Public Humanities Clinic provides advice and facilitates connections between people,
including colleagues, consultants, public humanities students, and scholars, to foster excellence in
humanities-based programs, exhibits, and community initiatives.
Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public and Community Service: (Syracuse University)
Literacy Initiatives provides real-world experience for SU students and assists in addressing
literacy issues in our community.
The Netter Center for Community Partnerships: (University of Pennsylvania ) The Arts
Education and Communities Program serves as an umbrella for a variety of initiatives-most of
which are centered on the West Philadelphia area-that employ the arts in a variety of creative and
constructive ways: fostering communication between educational institutions and their
communities; engendering community engagement, educational enhancement, and social change;
and increasing arts and culture participation.
Portland Center for Public Humanities: (Portland State University) The Humanities
Sustainability Research Project facilitates public and campus-wide reflection on the conflicting
notions of what sustainability means, how it attaches to our values, histories, and imagination, and
how it signifies ethically, ideologically, and culturally.
Simpson Center for the Humanities: (University of Washington) Human Rights Public Culture
is a collaborative research, teaching, and public engagement project involving faculty, staff, and
students at three campuses: UW Bothell, UW Seattle, and The Evergreen State College.
Approaching Washington State as a nexus, the project foregrounds both the human rights of state
residents and the human rights energies produced here in support of international human rights.
American Music Partnership of Seattle (AMPS): AMPS emphasizes and promotes the role of
music in local communities and lives, stretches the capacity of all three of the participating
organizations, and provides each organization with a reliable network for music resources. It
creates an institutional link between different modes of music education—radio programming,
exhibitions, scholarship, and performance—that facilitates their integration and enhances their
impact. Now Urbanism: The University of Washington's 2010-2011 John E. Sawyer Seminar
Series and is aimed at generating an engaging and interdisciplinary conversation about the present
moment and prospective futures of the urban age.
The Virginia Center for Digital History: (University of Virginia) Virtual Jamestown Archive is a
digital research, teaching and learning project that explores the legacy of the Jamestown settlement
and “the Virginia Experiment.” Valley of the Shadows is a digital archive of primary sources that
documents the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania,
during the era of the American Civil War. Here you explore thousands of original documents that
allow you to see what life was like during the Civil War for the men and women of Augusta and
Franklin.
VI. Museums and Libraries
Most museums and libraries across the country offer public programming ranging from lecture
series, interactions with exhibits, programs for teachers and students, and discussion groups.
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Below is a collection of particularly notable public humanities based programs from museums
across the country. The museum housing individual programs is listed first, and the programs
appear italicized in the text that follows. Click on the links for additional information about the
institutions and programs.
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum: (St. Michaels, MD) At the Museum's Breene M. Kerr
Center for Chesapeake Studies, scholars undertake original research and collect oral histories
from individuals closely involved with the Bay's rich maritime heritage. The Center presents the
perspectives of history, economics, folklore, archeology, and environmental studies to a broad and
diverse regional audience.
The Brooklyn Museum: (New York, NY) In 2000, the Brooklyn Museum started the Museum
Apprentice Program in which the museum hires high school students who meet and work with
museum curators to give tours in the museum's galleries, assist with the museum's weekend family
programs, participate in talks, serve as a teen advisory board to the museum, and help plan teen
events.
Chicago Cultural Center: (Chicago, IL) The building is home to free music, dance and theater
events, films, lectures, art exhibitions and family events. One event, The Café Society, brings
together a group to discuss a pre-selected current event or issue.
Museum of Modern Art: (New York, NY) The museum houses a number of programs for both
the general public and community organizations. Their Community Based Program helps harness
and shape creativity at organizations throughout the city.
National Heritage Museum: (Boston, MA) The museum presents history by telling stories that
are rich in content, using compelling narrative, and supporting this by dynamic displays and
interactive hands-on activities. The program Using Primary Resources to Reconstruct the Past is
a blog created which helps educators incorporate the museum and its artifacts into their lesson
plans.
National Museum of African American History and Culture: (Washington, D.C.) Although the
museum is currently under construction it still has a number of programs in progress. The
StoryCorps Griot Project is a year-long initiative funded by the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting to gather and preserve the life stories of African-American families through the
creation of recordings made by community members.
The Newberry Library: (Chicago, IL) An independent research library concentrating in the
humanities with an active educational and cultural presence in Chicago. The Newberry Library
Seminar Program offers adults a series of non-credit, adult education classes that encourage
conversation on subjects in the humanities, and the on-going use of the Newberry's vast resources.
Noguchi: (New York, NY) This museum is devoted to the preservation, documentation,
presentation, and interpretation of the work of Isamu Noguchi. The museum offers a Community
Program where they partner with community-based organizations to offer workshops that meet the
needs of each group of participants. They offer a similar School Program.
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Wing Luke Asian Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience: (Seattle, WA) This is
the nation’s only museum devoted to the Asian Pacific American experience. One of their
programs, Chinatown Discovery Tours, takes the public around Chinatown as they learn more
about the culture and area. Another program, YouthCAN, is a community-based leadership
program for Asian Pacific American youth that works to connect youth with and to take pride in
their heritage.
Queens Museum of Art: (New York, NY) The New New Yorkers Program designs and
implements educational classes to meet the needs of immigrant adult communities in Queens.
Courses are cost-free, in a variety of languages and emphasize the arts, technology and English
language acquisition.
VII. Degree Programming
The following are degrees from colleges and universities across the United States in the public
humanities and other closely related fields. Please click on the links to find out more information
about particular degrees.
Brown University MA in Public Humanities
Yale University MA in Public Humanities
Michigan State University Digital Humanities Specialization
VIII. Non-Profit Organizations
The missions of the non-profit organizations listed below all vary greatly, but all have roots within
the public humanities. Organizations are listed alphabetically with international organizations
listed first, followed by national and then state and city wide programs.
International
Art in All of Us: (New York, New York; International) AiA promotes tolerance and cultural
exchange throughout all the 192 UN member countries, through art and creativity activities.
Cultural Agents: (Cambridge, MA; International) The mission of Cultural Agents is to promote
the arts and humanities as social resources. The organization fosters creativity and scholarship
which measurably contribute to the education and development of communities worldwide.
Identifying creative agents of change, reflecting on best practices, and inspiring their replication,
Cultural Agents shows that creativity sustains healthy democracies by developing the moral
imagination and resourcefulness in citizens.
Facing History and Ourselves: (Brookline, MA; International) An international and professional
development organization with a commitment to cultivating a more humane and informed
citizenry through the engagement of students of diverse backgrounds.
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National
826 National: (San Francisco, CA; National) A nonprofit organization which supports students
ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills and helps teachers inspire their students
to write.
Americans for the Arts: (Washington D.C.; New York, New York; National) Dedicated to
representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to
participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.
Family Read: (National) A written curriculum and a learned approach to reading as a family
activity.
Literature and Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care: (National) A reading and
discussion program for health care professionals that has worked with over 2000 health care
professionals in 25 states.
Museum on Main Street: (National) A partnership between state humanities councils, rural
museums in the U.S. and the Smithsonian Institution that brings exhibits to rural museums.
National Humanities Alliance: (Washington, D.C.; National) The National Humanities Center is
the only major independent American institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities.
City
After-School Playwriting Program: (Washington, D.C.) The Young Playwrights’
Theater teaches students to express themselves clearly and creatively through the art of
playwriting. Through interactive in-school and after-school programs, YPT activates student
learning and inspires students to understand the power of language and realize their potential as
both individuals and artists. By publicly presenting and discussing student-written work, YPT
promotes community dialogue and respect for young artists.
Creative Time: (New York, New York) Commissions, produces and presents some of the most
important, ground-breaking, challenging and exceptional art of our times; art that infiltrates the
public realm and engages millions of people in New York City and across the globe.
The Caribbean Cultural Center and African Diaspora Institute: (New York, New York) A
non-profit cultural organization based in New York City dedicated to promoting and promulgating
the cultures of people of African Descent brought before and after the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Through concerts, gallery tours, workshops, performances, conferences, professional development
sessions, spiritual gatherings, and teaching artists residencies, we support teachers, and students
across New York to learn and grow through the arts.
Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA): (San Jose, CA) An inclusive
contemporary arts space grounded in the Chicano/Latino experience that incubates new visual,
literary and performance art in order to engage people in civic dialogue and community
transformation
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MY HERO: (Laguna Beach, CA) The MY HERO Project was founded in 1995 by Karen Pritzker,
Jeanne Meyers, and Rita Stern as a response to the lack of positive role models in the media for
children. This not-for-profit website was built on the belief that people of all ages from around the
world would participate by sharing stories, art, and short films that illuminate heroes from all
walks of life.
San Francisco WritersCorps: (San Francisco, CA) WritersCorps places professional writers in
community settings to teach creative writing to youth.
Streetside Stories: (San Francisco, CA) Through the power of storytelling, Streetside Stories
cultivates young people’s voices to develop literacy and arts skills, fosters educational equity,
values diversity, and builds community.
Youth Speaks: (San Francisco, CA) Creates safe spaces to empower the next generation of
leaders, self-defined artists, and visionary activists through written and oral literacies. We
challenge youth to find, develop, publicly present, and apply their voices as creators of social
change.
IX. Federal Programs
Federal programs in the humanities include initiatives, projects, and committees.
The Big Read: National Endowment for the Arts created this project to restore reading to the
center of American culture. Communities read and discuss one of 31 selections of literature. The
program provides educational resources and additional information of each book. Each community
had a kick-off event to launch the program a as well as activities devoted to the literature selection.
The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities: Created in 1982, this committee
advises the White House on cultural issues. Its major focus areas are the arts and humanities
education, cultural exchange, and creative economy.
X. Online Humanities Projects
<<Intro language will be added in a later draft.>>
Art:
Art and Life in Africa Online--University of Iowa
Going to the Movies--Northeast Historic Film
Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students--CityLore
Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music--Johns Hopkins University
Marian Anderson Collection of Photographs, 1898-1992--University of Pennsylvania
Public Art in the Bronx--Lehman College Art Gallery
English:
Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities--Rutgers University
Center for the Liberal Arts--University of Virginia
Decameron Web: Teaching a Classic with Hypertext--Brown University
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H-Net: Humanities Online--Michigan State University
Humanities Exhibits Interactive--Texas Humanities Council
Making American Literatures--National Writing Project
Online Poetry Classroom-- Academy of American Poets
Poets in Person
Roja Muthiah Research Library in Madras, India--University of Chicago
Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum--Indiana University
To Kill a Mockingbird: Then and Now--Prince William County Public Schools
Women Writers Project--Brown University
Writings of Henry D. Thoreau--Northern Illinois University
Geography:
Classical Atlas Project--University of North Carolina
India and China in Comparative and Global Perspective--California State Polytechnic University,
Pomona
Mapping Margery Kempe--College of the Holy Cross
NubiaNet--Education Development Center
Southwest Crossroads: Cultures and Histories of the American Southwest--School for Advanced
Research on the Human Experience (SAR), Santa Fe, New Mexico
History:
Aegean Dendrochronology Project--Cornell University
Albert Einstein Papers Project--Boston University
American Centuries-- Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
American Heritage Virtual Archive Project--University of California
The American Jury: Bulwark of Democracy-- Constitutional Rights Foundation
American Wars in Asia Project--University of Montana
Asian Studies Development Project--East-West Center
CANTUS: Database of Gregorian Chant--University of Western Ontario
California Heritage Digital Access Project--University of California
De Humanis Corpora Fabrica: Andreas Vesalius--Northwestern University
Do History--Harvard University
EarthWorks: Digital Explorations of the Ancient Ohio Valley
Exploring Amistad--Mystic Seaport Museum
Frederick Douglass Papers--Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis
Great Plains Chautauqua Society
Griffith in Context: A Multimedia Exploration Analysis of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation-Georgia Tech
Hawthorne in Salem--North Shore Community College
Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village
History and Politics Out Loud--Michigan State University
History Matters--George Mason University
History of Cartography--University of Wisconsin
Jamestown Rediscovery Project
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution--George Mason University
Lincoln Legal Papers Project--Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
The Lost Museum--CUNY, Graduate Center
Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project--University of California, Los Angeles
Margaret Sanger Papers--New York University
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project--Stanford University
Multimedia Project on Amiens Cathedral--Columbia University
Mysteries of Catalhoyuk--Science Museum of Minnesota
New Deal Network--Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
Oberlin History as American History--Oberlin College
Papers of George Washington--University of Virginia
Papers of James Madison--University of Virginia
Papers of Jefferson Davis--Rice University Press
Papers of Ulysses S. Grant--Ulysses S. Grant Association, Mississippi State University
Perseus Project: A Digital Library on Ancient Greece and Rome--Tufts University
Pompeii Forum Project: Urban History and Design--University of Virginia
Post Wall Germany: Integrating Post-Unification German Culture into the High School Classroom
(in German)--University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Race and Place: An African American Community the Jim Crow South--University of Virginia
RiverWeb: Mississippi River Basin History and Culture--University of Illinois
Samuel Gompers Papers--University of Maryland
Thomas Edison Papers--Rutgers University
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1880-1930--SUNY, Binghamton
Women's History Workshop--Assumption College
Languages:
ARTFL: American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language--University of
Chicago
CULTRA (French language and culture)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology
FLTeach: Foreign Language Teaching Forum--SUNY, Cortland
Integration of WWW Resources in French Language and Instruction--Portland State University
Oral Language Archive--Carnegie Mellon University
RELICS: Renaissance Liturgical Imprints--University of Michigan
Miscellaneous:
Building Community in the American Tradition--Institute for the Study of Civic Values
Center for Civic Education
Children in Urban America--Marquette University
Choices for the 21st Century Program--Brown University
Darwin and Darwinism: Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Learning--Baruch College, CUNY
Invention and Design Project--University of Virginia
Learning from Londontown (Maryland)--The Key School
Learning with ISLA (Information System for Los Angeles)--University of Southern California
MUSA: Music of the United States of America--University of Michigan
New Media Classroom--CUNY, Graduate Center
Please Touch Museum
Prehistoric Puzzles--Indiana University
Project Muse--Johns Hopkins University Press
Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP)--University of Cincinnati
TEI: The Text Encoding Initiative--University of Illinois, Chicago
Teaching in the Age of the Internet--Maryland State Archives
VRoma: A Virtual Community for the Teaching of Classics--Miami University, Ohio
Vergil Project--University of Pennsylvania
Web de Anza Project--University of Oregon
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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XI. Festivals
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Chicago Humanities Festival: Creates opportunities for the public to enjoy and explore the
humanities. The festival brings together humanists from around the world, showcase different
cultures and their contributions to the humanities, encourage teachers and students of the
humanities, and draw international attention to the humanities.
National Book Festival: Held once a year on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the festival
brings together authors, illustrators, and poets for readings and book signings. In addition to the
National Book Festival, there are state book festivals across the country. For a full list please click
here.
XII. Conferences
While many public humanities related conferences exist, below are examples of reoccurring
conferences. Please click on the links for additional information.
4th Annual Conference on the Public Humanities: The upcoming conference will be held on
March 25, 2011 and is hosted by the Center for the Humanities at the University of WisconsinMadison. This year’s Keynote speakers include Michael Bérubé and Julie Ellison.
XIII. Humanities Magazines
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Kentucky Humanities: Kentucky Humanities
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities: Louisiana Cultural Vistas Magazine
Michigan State University’s Magazine: The Engaged Scholar
NEA: neatoday
NEH: Humanities
North Dakota Humanities Council: On Second Thought
Smithsonian: Smithsonian
XIV. Public Humanities Journals
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Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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The Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship: The Journal of Community
Engagement and Scholarship (JCES) is a peer-reviewed international journal through which
faculty, staff, students, and community partners disseminate scholarly works. JCES integrates
teaching, research, and community engagement in all disciplines, addressing critical problems
identified through a community-participatory process.
The Journal of Public Scholarship in Higher Education: A publication from Missouri Campus
Compact at Missouri State University.
The Teaching Artist Journal: A print quarterly (also available online) that serves as a voice,
forum, and resource for teaching artists and all those working at the intersection of art and
learning. Each issue includes a wide variety of writing about the most innovative and powerful
work being done by teaching artists across the US and around the world.
XV. Public Humanities Directories and Research Guides
Resource Guide for Public Humanities (Brown University Library)
XVI. Public Arts Programs
Public art programs creatively foster community development and transform communities.
Although not all public art programs are public humanities related, the following selection provide
great examples and best practices for future programming in the public humanities. Please follow
the links for additional information.
Project Row Houses: (Houston, TX) A neighborhood-based nonprofit art and cultural
organization in Houston’s Northern Third Ward and one of the city’s oldest African-American
communities. PRH began in 1993 as a result of discussions among African-American artists who
wanted to establish a positive, creative presence in their own community. Artist and community
activist Rick Lowe spearheaded the pursuit of this vision when he discovered the abandoned one
and a half block site of 22 shotgun-style houses in Houston’s Third Ward.
Projects for Public Spaces: (New York, NY) A nonprofit planning, design and educational
organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger
communities. Our pioneering placemaking approach helps citizens transform their public spaces
into vital places that highlight local assets, spur rejuvenation and serve common needs.
The Heidelberg Project: (Detroit, MI) A community organization designed to improve lives and
neighborhoods through art.
Intersection for the Arts: (San Francisco, CA) The oldest alternative non-profit art space in the
city with a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theater,
music and the visual arts, and also in nurturing and supporting the Bay Area's cultural community
through service, technical support, and mentorship programs. Intersection provides a place where
provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists, and audiences can intersect one another.
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC): SPARC is an arts center that produces,
preserves and conducts educational programs about community based public art works. SPARC
espouses public art as an organizing tool for addressing contemporary issues, fostering crosscultural understanding and promoting civic dialogue.
XVII. Digital Humanities
Below is a list of notable programs, projects, organizations, centers, and institutes with a digital
humanities focus. Please click on the links for additional information.
The Office of Digital Humanities: An office within the National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH). The primary mission is to help coordinate the NEH's efforts in the area of digital
scholarship. Library of all NEH funded digital humanities projects.
The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations: Promotes and supports digital research and
teaching across all arts and humanities disciplines, acting as a community-based advisory force,
and supporting excellence in research, publication, collaboration and training. Digital Research
Tools wiki (DiRT) collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars
(particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively.
Arts-Humanities.net: A hub for research and teaching in the digital arts and humanities. The aim
is to support and advance the use and understanding of digital tools and methods for research and
teaching in the arts and humanities by providing: information on projects creating and using digital
content, tools and methods to answer research questions; information on tools and methods for
creating and using digital resources; a listing of expert centers engaged in research and teaching
using digital tools, methods and content; and a library documenting lessons learned through case
studies, briefing papers, and a bibliography
centerNet: Since its inception in April 2007, centerNet has over 200 members worldwide and has
formed regional affiliates in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and the United Kingdom and
Ireland. Initiatives include developing cooperative opportunities for centers, advocacy for center
funding and initiatives, and creating exchange and research opportunities for scholars and students.
Click here for a list of members.
Center for History and New Media: (George Mason University) Since 1994 the Center has used
digital media and computer technology to democratize history—to incorporate multiple voices,
reach diverse audiences, and encourage popular participation in presenting and preserving the past.
History Matters is a site that offers a range of resources, including 1000 primary documents in text,
image, and audio; an annotated guide to 850 of the best U.S. History websites; guides to using
various kinds of online primary sources, such as oral history and maps; and moderated discussions
about teaching.
DARIAH: Enhances and supports digitally-enabled research across the humanities and arts.
DARIAH aims to develop and maintain an infrastructure in support of ICT-based research
practices. Click here for a list of events.
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Digital Humanities Blog Carnival: A forum for showing, discussing, and developing some of the
best work in the field of the digital humanities. Pieces of life in the digital humanities are gathered
on a monthly basis allowing the blog to educate professors, students, and the public about the
digital humanities. Additionally, through the discussions that inevitably will follow, DHBC will
collectively contribute to the ongoing practice of defining the digital humanities.
Digital Humanities Now: A real-time, crowd sourced publication. It takes the pulse of the digital
humanities community and tries to discern what articles, blog posts, projects, tools, collections,
and announcements are worthy of greater attention.
Digital Mappaemundi: A project targeted at the challenges of studying medieval maps and
geographic texts, with broader application to any source material combining images and text.
Currently, the project focuses on developing an open-source user interface library to support the
annotation of images and texts and to enable scholars to create on-line networks of source material
germane to their research and teaching.
Electronic Enlightenment: A digital reconstruction of the extraordinary web of correspondence
that marked the birth of the modern world. EE presents the idea of "enlightenment" in a richer and
broader social context than any other resource in print or online.
HASTAC: A consortium of humanist, artists, social scientists, scientists, and engineers committed
to new forms of collaboration across communities and disciplines fostered by creative uses of
technology.
Humanist: An international online seminar on humanities computing and the digital humanities
which provides a forum for discussion of intellectual, scholarly, pedagogical, and social issues and
for exchange of information among participants.
On the Human: An online community of humanists and scientists dedicated to improving our
understanding of persons and the quasi-persons who surround us. As persons are biological,
psychological, historical, moral, and autobiographical beings, we employ modes of inquiry from
the sciences and humanities. Contributors explore issues in metaphysics and biology, ethics and
neuroscience, experimental philosophy and evolutionary psychology.
Project Bamboo: An 18-month planning and community design program where through a series
of conversations and workshops, those involved are mapping out the scholarly practices and
common technology challenges across and among disciplines to discover where a coordinated,
cross-disciplinary development effort can best foster academic innovation.
Soundings Project: A joint collaboration between the National Humanities Center (NHC), the
Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), and the Libraries of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). The project seeks to preserve the original physical as well as digital
media at archival standards and provide access to the digitized episodes of the radio program via
the Internet.
Conferences for Digital Humanities, Digital Archives, Digital Libraries, and Digital
Museums: An open Google calendar that lists meetings, symposia, seminars, institutes, and
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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conferences aimed at professionals and students who are doing digital work in the humanities, in
archives, in libraries, or in museums. Anyone can add events.
XVIII. College and University based Programs
Below is a selection of public humanities based programs at colleges and universities across the
county. The following examples are not run by centers and institutes.
Imagining America: (Syracuse University) IA supports colleges and universities to animate and
strengthen the public and civic purposes of humanities, arts, and design through mutually
beneficial campus-community partnerships that advance democratic scholarship and practice.
The Odyssey Project: (University of Wisconsin-Madison) College-level introduction to the
humanities is provided through text-based seminars led by professors at top-tier colleges and
universities to help adults with low incomes more actively shape their own lives and the lives of
their families and communities.
Prison Creative Arts Project: (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor) The Project is committed to
original work in the arts in Michigan’s correctional facilities, juvenile facilities, urban high
schools, and communities across the state. .
Scripps College Academy: A free year-round college-readiness program for high-achieving
young women in the greater Los Angeles area. SCA helps students who may lack the resources
necessary to prepare for success in top colleges and universities. Through mentorship from Scripps
College faculty and staff, participants develop the confidence and skills to be well-prepared
college applicants, successful college students, and professionals who create positive, lasting
change.
XIX. For-profit Organizations
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Google Books Project: description will be added in a later draft.
The nGram Viewer See how often phrases have occurred in the world's books over the years.
Google Books has scanned over 10% of all books ever published, and now you can graph the
occurrence of phrases up to five words in length from 1400 through the present day right in your
browser. The viewer currently supports six languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew,
and Russian.
XX. Graduate and Post-Graduate Fellowships in the Public Humanities
Public Humanities Graduate Fellowship: (University of WI-Madison, Center for the
Humanities) The Fellowship creates conditions under which humanists can reach larger and more
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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diverse audiences; influence public discussions of contemporary issues; and make scholarship in
the humanities more accessible.
XXI. Public Humanities Working Groups
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CHCI Working Group on the Public Humanities
Imagining America Collaboratory: The research topics for this collaboratory include: how can
we assess our public humanities centers both for our own growth and so that other colleagues are
able to appreciate our mission and accomplishments? What are the range of projects and courses
that public humanities centers across the U.S. have found to be most effective? How can public
humanities centers across campuses support each other?
Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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