reports.nationalhumanitiescenter.orgNational Humanities Center Annual Reports

2020–2021 Annual Report Previous Reports MESSAGEFEATURES NUMBERS FELLOWS FINANCIALS SUPPORTERS STAFF & TRUSTEES Download Report MESSAGEFEATURES NUMBERS FELLOWS FINANCIALS SUPPORTERS STAFF & TRUSTEES Message from the President & Director A Look Back at 2020–21 Discussing the unusual challenges of operating in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, NHC President and Director Robert D. Newman notes …the determination of our staff and Fellows to care for each other and to make the most of the fellowship year was inspiring.” Watch this video for an overview of the Center and its work throughout 2020–21. Forging a (Safe) Community A hallmark of the NHC fellowship experience is the intellectual community that emerges when gifted scholars are given the chance to work alongside one another, share meals, and form seminars and writing groups based on their shared interests. Fellows form lasting personal and professional connections, gain fresh perspectives, and find themselves energized by new ideas. Approximately half of this year’s Fellows spent the year working remotely Nurturing that community during the COVID-19 pandemic was a major objective for the year, a goal made even more challenging by the fact that approximately half of this year’s Fellows spent the year working remotely, interacting with their colleagues exclusively through digital means. Despite these challenges, Fellows’ enthusiasm and determination to make the most of their fellowship coupled with the ingenuity and commitment of NHC staff contributed significantly to a sense of bonhomie and an environment of scholarly productivity. Like classes before, their shared passion and collective intellectual generosity produced an enduring sense of community—a testament to their resilience, dedication, and their support for one another. Giving Teachers Vital Support The events of the past year have presented significant challenges for teachers—disruptions in school schedules; students with families strained psychologically, financially, and logistically, as well as their own anxieties about the immediate and lasting impacts of the pandemic. All of this has been in addition to the difficult task of keeping students engaged in a digital classroom setting. The Center’s new offerings inspire teachers to think more expansively In the midst of this, the Center’s education programs were more vitally needed than ever. Over 5,000 educators subscribed to the Center’s new Humanities in Class Digital Library —an Open Education Resource Commons site—where teachers can access high quality teaching materials from the Center and over 40 content partners designed to satisfy curricular standards and students’ interests. The Center’s new offerings such as its Medieval Africa and Africans course,” created in partnership with the Medieval Academy of America, address gaps in subject knowledge and inspire teachers to think more expansively about ways to help their students make connections and see the world through a historically-accurate lens. In addition to primary source materials, lesson plans, media-based tutorials, and scholarly essays, the Center offers popular webinars and online courses that allow teachers at all levels to directly interact with experts and expand their subject knowledge on a wide variety of topics. Highlighting the Value of the Humanities Through its public programs and digital initiatives, the Center makes scholarly insights available to audiences within and beyond the academic world. With the ongoing pandemic, nearly all of these activities were digitally-based in 2020–21, including a continuation of our virtual book talks, which were presented in three distinct series on the topics of racial injustice , American democracy , and conflict and resolution . In addition, the Center hosted two Scholar-to-Scholar” discussions featuring 2020–21 Fellows discussing the price of injustice and the relationship between teachers and students . The NHC seeks to facilitate conversations about important contemporary issues The biggest event of the year, however, was the Center’s virtual In Our Image” conference , exploring the critical intersection between artificial intelligence and the humanities. This multidisciplinary event examined issues involving artificial intelligence in a series of presentations, conversations, webinars, film screenings, and an art exhibition. With contributions from leading humanists, software developers, artists, and writers, the conference’s robust conversations led to a series of podcast episodes created by graduate student attendees and a teaching resource for teachers. Finally, in 2020 the Center launched an initiative in partnership with medical schools in different regions of the U.S., training students to gather personal accounts of the COVID-19 crisis from frontline healthcare workers. By curating, archiving, and sharing these narratives, the NHC seeks to facilitate conversations about important contemporary issues in healthcare. Selections from this growing oral history collection will be made available for public consumption in 2022 as part of an online exhibit Charting Crisis: Collective Storytelling in an Age of COVID-19.” By the Numbers Fellows from fifteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia, as well as Canada, China, and Uganda Scholarly Works (including chapters, articles, and essays) produced in full or in part by 2020–21 Fellows subscribers and registrants for NHC educational resources 24K Downloads and Streams of NHC digital resources for public audiences 37 College and University Sponsors including Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University 42 Live, Interactive Webinars 17,303 registrations from 49 states and 47,410 professional development hours earned 1.1M+ Social Media Impressions across Center social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn Leadership Knowledge The Fellows Thirty-two scholars from institutions across the United States as well as Canada, China, and Uganda spent the year as Fellows of the National Humanities Center in 2020–21 working on projects from a wide range of humanities disciplines. Marcus Anthony Allen North Carolina A&T State University Melissa Bailes Tulane University Emily Baragwanath University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Brandi C. Brimmer Spelman College Ryan E. Emanuel North Carolina State University Fernando Esquivel-Suárez Spelman College Bryna Goodman University of Oregon Alexis Pauline Gumbs Independent Scholar Rivi Handler-Spitz Macalester College Janny HC Leung The University of Hong Kong Jordynn Jack University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Michael Johnston Purdue University Tong King Lee The University of Hong Kong Adriane Lentz-Smith Duke University Keith D. Miller Arizona State University Gregg Mitman University of Wisconsin–Madison Christoper Moore The Pennsylvania State University Georgia Mouroutsou King’s University College at Western University Canada Martin Munro Florida State University Joan Neuberger University of Texas at Austin James Ocita Makerere University, Uganda Eli Park Sorensen The Chinese University of Hong Kong Helmut Puff University of Michigan Mrinalini Rajagopalan University of Pittsburgh Gabriel N. Rosenberg Duke University Crystal R. Sanders The Pennsylvania State University Mitra Sharafi University of Wisconsin–Madison Lester Tomé Smith College Aarthi Vadde Duke University Rachel Watson Howard University Saundra Weddle Drury University Molly Worthen University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Resident Associates In addition to Fellows, the Center was pleased to welcome these scholars who were also in residence during the 2020–21 academic year. Kathlene Baldanza The Pennsylvania State University Neşe Özgen Duke University Robert S. Schine Middlebury College Robert Weddle Drury University Books by Fellows Recently published books that have...