The NEH provides essential funding for research in the humanities.
Every year, a coalition of humanities advocates gather in D.C. for Humanities Advocacy Day, organized by the National Humanities Alliance. Meeting with members of congress and their staff, the goal of the day is to advocate for continued federal support and funding for the humanities. This year, Habiba Ibrahim (English) and Michelle Liu (English) joined deans Todd Butler and Courtney Meehan of Washington State University as the delegates for Washington State. They met with the offices of Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray as well as Representatives Dan Newhouse (District 4), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (District 5), Derek Kilmer (District 6), and Pramila Jayapal (District 7).
Ibrahim and Lui shared specific stories to make the case for the humanities and were received with broad bipartisan consensus in the value of the humanities. Ibrahim and Lui shared stories of students from rural areas who come to the UW Seattle for their undergraduate educations who returned to their small towns after graduation. These anecdotes were couched as examples of how support of the humanities in the Seattle area was producing a healthy ecosystem of strong humanities-style thinking of civic mindedness all throughout the state. They also drew on reports predicting that Humanities majors will be of particular importance in the rise of Artificial Intelligence, as the skills fostered in the humanities will be those that are not replicable by AI.
During their visit, the Washington State delegates outlined the projects that were possible thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) such as the Peninsula Community College receiving $550,000 of NEH grants to fund staffing, curriculum development, and Salish language program development as part of its American Indian Indigenous Studies Connection program as well as the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle serving as an NEH Landmark institution that develops curriculum for K-12 teachers to help students connect learning both in and out of the classroom. The NEH has provided essential funding for research in the humanities and has recently supported projects by UW faculty Jennifer Bean (Cinema & Media Studies) and Joshua L. Reid (History). The Simpson Center is proud to be the home of an endowment, made possible by a NEH Challenge grant, for the Digital Humanities Summer Fellowships.