Statement on Cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities

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The Simpson Center for the Humanities stands in support of the enduring and essential value of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Simpson Center for the Humanities stands in support of the enduring and essential value of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Alongside our colleagues at the American Council of Learned Societies, the Council of Graduate Schools, The Phi Beta Kappa Society, and other affiliated organizations, we are deeply concerned by the cuts, initially reported in The New York Times and subsequently confirmed by individuals and institutions around the country, that have resulted in the layoffs of 80% of the NEH staff and the outright cancellations of active grants and fellowship funding. These devastating cuts have hit University of Washington scholars whose work across a wide range of disciplines and topics contributes directly to our knowledge of the human experience and to the public good. NEH grants for these projects at the UW have been cancelled:

  • A scholarly book on The Culture of Construction in Sixteenth-Century Rome by Ann Huppert (Architecture)
  • A translation project titled In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union by Sasha Senderovich (Jackson School for International Studies and Slavic Languages & Literatures)
  • A Spanish-language digital project using multi-language linked data to enhance LGBTQ+ resource discoverability, led by Marika Cifor (Information School)
  • An exhibit on Coast Salish weaving at the Burke Museum, led by Katie Bunn-Marcuse (Art History)

In addition, our state humanities councils are under direct threat. Upwards of $10 million in cultural funding in Washington alone is at stake. We stand in solidarity with Humanities Washington, directed by Julie Ziegler, and in admiration of its truly outstanding educational and cultural programs.

Read the Joint Statement on Cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities from The American Council of Learned Societies, the Council of Graduate Schools, and The Phi Beta Kappa Society. Follow updates from the National Humanities Alliance here.