The Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society received a $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation last month to support a two-year research project on the current state and prospects of the humanities.
Launched in 2012, the Neubauer Collegium aims to “deepen knowledge about the world and our place in it” through collaborations with professors from nearly four dozen departments across the University in nearly 150 projects.
The project supported by the grant, titled “The Future of the Humanities,” is set to begin immediately. It will work to define core principles and qualities of work in the humanities and collaborate with NORC, a quantitative survey and data institute at UChicago. The project will culminate in a report with recommendations for administrators, instructors, and institutions involved in the humanities.
This research comes as the University’s Division of the Arts & Humanities faces a major restructuring amid significant budget cuts across the University. This past summer, the division announced it had been considering consolidating its 15 departments into eight under the guidance of several faculty working groups. No formal plans have been published yet.
The grant is intended to “respond to mounting pressures facing the humanities, from assaults on academic freedom to the erasure of vital histories,” the MacArthur Foundation wrote in a press release on January 20. It is part of a larger $10 million in funds distributed to various organizations across the country, such as the Feminist Press and the forthcoming National Juneteenth Museum. The Neubauer Collegium is the only higher education-affiliated institution among the grantees.
“I’m deeply gratified we will have an opportunity to convene such a critical conversation at the Neubauer Collegium, and I am hopeful about our ability to imagine forward-thinking ideas for the future of the humanities,” said Neubauer Collegium Roman Family Director Tara Zahra in a January 20 press release.
