Who says the humanities are threatened or dying?
Plenty of people, actually (and with good reason). But thanks to a hefty couple of grants coming from the New York-based Mellon Foundation, humanities-related departments at John Hopkins University and the Community College of Baltimore County are getting a boost.
Hopkins yesterday announced the private foundation has awarded $980,000 to the community college system and $745,000 to Hopkins “to support collaborations between the two institutions on humanities curriculum and pedagogy.”
With the money, the schools are creating the Humanities for All initiative, which will aim to enrich humanities courses, help recruit and retain more students and forge new ties between students and faculty at both institutions.
One of the tangibles of the initiative is the new Mellon Scholars program, which will connect CCBC students with Hopkins faculty and grad students through a 10-week summer program on the Hopkins Homewood campus. It was also create a new lecture series that will bring Hopkins faculty to speak at the community college.
The program is geared toward CCBC honors students and is designed, in part, to help bring more of them to Hopkins, as well as help them transfer into other undergrad programs.
“Creating academic and experiential opportunities that deepen engagement in the humanities and position students for transfer success—whether at Johns Hopkins or other four-year institutions—is critical to ensuring students can reach their full potential,” said Hopkins President Ronald Daniels in a statement.
The summer research program at Hopkins will start in a matter of weeks, and the lecture series and other offerings at CCBC will begin in the fall.
