Humanities in Action Mellon Grant 

A four-year, one-million-dollar grant has been awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to focus on three main areas of curricular, pedagogical, and programmatic change related to the humanities:

(1) curricular development, in the form of new 'gateway' courses

(2) the expansion of community-engaged learning opportunities

(3) new initiatives to discuss the contribution of the humanities to students’ post-graduate lives and to increase collaboration around purposeful career pathways.

The grant is based on the idea that humanistic education is now at a crossroads. Faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences are making exciting and innovative changes in their methodologies and pedagogy at the same time that the cultural conversation in America often emphasizes the importance of science and downplays the significance of humanistic fields.

The Humanities in Action grant supports Grinnell faculty in developing new courses and bringing humanistic study outside the classroom and into the wider community.

In the process, we hope to change the conversation around humanistic education among Grinnell students while strengthening humanistic education at the College.