The Foundation for The New Humanities
Our Plan:
Having launched the national edition on the NHR in June 2002, our
plan is to establish a nonprofit foundation that will receive a
percentage of the royalties earned from the sales of The New
Humanities Reader. Beginning in July 2004, we will have a sense
of just how much revenue the textbook will generate for the foundation
and we will, at that time, be in a position to accept proposals
to fund projects in "the new humanities." We are interested
in projects that involve:
- curricular reform
- community-building
- action-oriented research
- the creative use of technology
- and all other pedagogical innovations that might be seen as
advancing both the study and the experience of the human dimension
of all knowledge.
Once we have completed the legal process of creating this nonprofit
organization, we'll post a full description of the grant application
process here.
Why Are We Doing This?
When we started working on the pilot for The New Humanities
Reader, we arranged for the royalties generated from the sales
of the custom-published version of the reader to be returned to
the Rutgers Writing Program. This new "revenue stream"
enabled us to begin supporting our teachers and our program in ways
we never thought would be possible: we've been able to provide assistance
for travel to national conferences; we've purchased equipment our
teachers need for innovating in the classroom and on the web; we've
underwritten a program for awarding prizes that recognize outstanding
work in the classroom; and we've been able to use our funds to leverage
additional support elsewhere in the university for our curricular
initiatives.
So what we discovered is that, used in the right way, a little
money can make a big difference. Creating a foundation gives us
an opportunity to help others who share our interest in making certain
that the humanities become a vibrant resource for responding to
the social, economic, environmental, and spiritual challenges that
will define life in the twenty-first century.
Who Will Be Eligible?
As we conceive The Foundation for The New Humanities, it
will provide small grants to support projects that set out to extend,
explore, or enact work on redefining what the humanities can be
in the twenty-first century. Some such projects may involve teaching
students how to write in the university; other projects may have
nothing to do with undergraduates or the university. In other words,
we wish to support those who share our concern that the humanities
have been reduced to little more than a distribution requirement.
Our goal is to provide support to those who share our hope that
the humanities can be revitalized to provide new ways of thinking
about and new ways of responding to the world's problems and its
possibilities.
If you have ideas about this project, suggestions, or comments,
please don't hesitate to contact us.
Richard E. Miller and Kurt
Spellmeyer
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