A new National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant catalyzes a year of discussion and planning at Washington State University aimed at creating a national model for connecting graduate education in the humanities to rural and underserved populations.
Funded by the NEH’s NextGen Ph.D. program, the grant will bring together more than 20 faculty, staff, graduate students, and recent graduate alumni from across WSU to consider how graduate education in the humanities can better support the university’s land-grant mission of improving access, inclusivity, and democratic engagement, said Todd Butler, chair of the English department and principal investigator for the grant.
The interdisciplinary initiative, titled Reimagining the 21st-Century Land Grant Ph.D., is supported by traditional stakeholders in graduate education along with new partners who will help extend the university’s reach and commitment to the humanities.