August 25, 2016
Anthropologists Awarded Nearly $3 Million in NEH Grants
In its 50th anniversary year, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced $79 million in grants for 290 humanities projects and programs across the United States. The grants will support a wide range of efforts in the humanities, and include nearly $3 million in support of anthropological programs and pursuits.
This year, the NEH offered a new grant program titled Next Generation PhD. These grants support a transformation of how PhD candidates in the humanities study for their degrees and are prepared for a broader range of careers at the conclusion of their often years-long, intensely academic graduate school experiences. Among the Next Generation PhD grantees is AAA member Sarah Lyon at the University of Kentucky for her project "Careers Beyond the Academy," which aims to develop graduate programming that prepares students for multiple career outcomes.
Other recipients in anthropology include seven of AAA's Department Services Program members:
- University of Washington Outright: $179,256
[Institutes for College and University Teachers]
Project Director: Thaisa Way
Project Title: City/Nature: Urban Environmental Humanities
Project Description: A three-week institute for 25 college and university teachers on urban environmental humanities.
- Yale University Outright: $221,059
[Collaborative Research]
Project Directors: William Honeychurch, Chunag Amartuvshin, Joshua Wright
Project Title: Innovative Disruptions: The Archaeology of Nomadic Statehood in Eastern Mongolia
Project Description: Excavation, analysis and interpretation of archaeological sites in the Sukhbaatar region of eastern Mongolia.
- Northwestern University Outright: $60,000
[Exhibitions: Planning]
Project Director: Lisa Graziose
Project Title: Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Trans-Saharan Exchange
Project Description: Planning for a traveling exhibition and a catalog exploring the history and artifacts of the gold trade in West Africa and Africa’s global economy from the 8th through the 16th centuries.
- University of Kentucky Research Foundation Match: $25,000
[Next Generation Humanities PhD (Planning)]
Project Director: Sarah Lyon
Project Title: Careers Beyond the Academy
Project Description: Planning at the University of Kentucky (UK) around five topics: 1) integration of multiple career outcomes early on in students’ experience in graduate school; 2) revisions to curriculum and degree requirements in order to better prepare students for a diverse array of future occupations; 3) maximization of faculty buy-in for a transformed PhD and methods for supporting students beyond teaching-focused funding; 4) initiation of partnerships with non-academic institutions, and 5) development of an evaluation plan for future activities and implementation.
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Outright: $135,646
[Collaborative Research]
Match: $111,134
Project Director: Nicola Terrenato
Project Title: At the Roots of Roman Urbanism: The Gabii Project
Project Description: Archaeological excavation and analysis at the ancient city site of Gabii, near Rome.
- Kent State University Main Campus Outright: $174,711
[Institutes for College and University Teachers]
Project Director: Francoise Massardier-Kenney
Project Title: What is Gained in Translation: Learning How to Read Translated Texts
Project Description: A three-week institute for 30 faculty on literature in translation as a means of enhancing cross-cultural understanding.
- Bucknell University Outright: $200,000
[Collaborative Research]
Project Directors: Catherine Fourshey Rhonda Gonzalez, Christine Saidi
Project Title: Expressions and Transformations of Gender, Family, and Status in Eastern and Central Africa 500–1800 CE
Project Description: Collection, analysis, digital mapping, and interpretation of historical linguistic data relating to 55 societies across Bantu-speaking Africa, and co-authoring a book about social life and gender roles in precolonial Africa.
As well as a number of other institutions and individuals:
- Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums Outright: $400,000
[Exhibitions: Implementation]
Project Director: Matthew Robb
Project Title: City of Water, City of Fire: Art and Cosmos at Teotihuacan
Project Description: Implementation of a traveling exhibition, a catalog, and public programs about the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico.
- Stanford University Outright: $290,000
[Collaborative Research]
Project Director: Justin Leidwanger
Project Title: The Marzamemi Church Wreck
Project Description: Excavation and analysis at the underwater shipwreck site of Marzamemi in Sicily.
- Bernice P. Bishop Museum Outright: $49,581
[Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections]
Project Director: Charmaine Wong
Project Title: Developing a Master Preservation Plan for the World’s Largest Hawaiian and Pacific Archaeology Collections
Project Description: A planning project to improve storage and environmental conditions for a collection of more than one million archaeological artifacts from throughout the Pacific.
- President and Fellows of Harvard College Outright: $325,000
[Exhibitions: Implementation]
Project Director: Susanne Ebbinghaus
Project Title: Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings
Project Description: Implementation of a traveling exhibition, a catalog, and associated programs about the 3,000-year tradition of animal-shaped vessels in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean.
- Jared Farmer Outright: $50,400
[Public Scholar Program]
SUNY Research Foundation, Stony Brook
Project Title: The Latest Oldest Tree: Survival Stories for a Time of Extinction
Project Description: Research and writing leading to publication of a book on human relationships to long-lived trees.
- Davidson College Outright: $200,000
[Collaborative Research]
Project Directors: Darian Totten and Giovanni De Venuto
Project Title: Life on the Lagoon: Reconstructing the Biography of Human-Landscape Dynamics on the Salpi Lagoon, Italy
Project Description: Archaeological excavation and analysis at the lagoon site of Salpi in the Apulia region of Italy.
- Portland Art Museum Outright: $325,000
[Exhibitions: Implementation]
Project Director: Deana Dartt
Project Title: The Art of Resilience: A Continuum of Tlingit Arts
Project Description: Implementation of a traveling exhibition, a catalog, and associated programs about Tlingit art and culture.
- John Ghazvinian Outright: $50,400
[Public Scholar Program]
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar
Project Title: Children of the Revolution: Iran and America since 1600
Project Description: Completion of a book on a comprehensive history of U.S.-Iran relations from the seventeenth century to the present.
- Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Outright: $60,000
[Exhibitions: Planning]
Project Director: Anna Marley
Project Title: Marcando Historia/Making History in the Americas, 1840–1893
Project Description: Planning for a traveling exhibition and a catalog that explores how national identity was expressed through 19th-century history paintings in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil.
- Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities Outright: $235,000
[Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections]
Project Director: William Kelso
Project Title: Improving Conditions for the Jamestown Rediscovery Collection
Project Description: Improvement of environmental conditions and controls in storage and display areas, and conversion to LED lighting in the museum. The two million artifacts in the archaeological collection document one of the earliest colonial settlements in the New World.
Congratulations to all of this year's recipients.
