EvCC receives $90,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
Press Release
Release Date: Dec. 21, 2017
Contacts: Steven Tobias, EvCC English Instructor, 425-388-9964, ext. 7355; stobias@everettcc.edu
EvCC receives $90,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
Humanities speaker series begins Jan. 16
EVERETT, Wash. – Everett Community College is receiving a $90,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop humanities curriculum, foster discussion about collective memory and bring a series of speakers to campus.
The speakers’ series begins at 2 p.m. Jan. 16 with a presentation by U.S. Army Col. John Nelson, who teaches literature, film and cultural criticism at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Nelson has served for 35 years on active duty, including six deployments. He will speak about how veterans’ recent memories have been translated into film. The event is at EvCC’s Baker Hall, room 120, and is free and open to the public.
EvCC was one of a handful of community colleges in the nation to receive a NEH grant this year. The two-year grant will primarily be used to help faculty develop humanities-related course content.
The project focuses on the theme of collective memory, and participants will explore how art, film, literature, history, philosophy and new media influence the public’s remembrance of past events, especially those involving shared trauma and national identity.
“At this moment, when people are engaged in intense conversations about public sculpture, U.S. history and national identity, it’s vital that we prepare our students to think critically about how we remember and actively engage with the past,” explained Steven Tobias, the NEH project’s director and a member of EvCC’s faculty. “As the novelist William Faulkner famously observed, ‘The past is not dead…it's not even past.’”
During its first year, the project will include units about Northwest Indian history, U.S. slavery and the Holocaust and will explore how remembering and forgetting aspects of these events influence our understanding in the present.
The project will then explore how recent events, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the recent global immigration crisis and terrorism, are currently being depicted in popular culture and incorporated into the national narrative.
Although the project will focus on a set of core topics, participating faculty will be encouraged to pursue any issue related to how culture impacts the manner in which groups remember their pasts and use representations of history to understand the present, Tobias said.
The project is intended to help generate additional programs or grant-driven work at EvCC and will support faculty members’ individual research or creative endeavors.
For more information, contact NEH Project Director Steven Tobias at stobias@everettcc.edu.
About the National Endowment for the Humanities
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this press release do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About Everett Community College
Everett Community College educates more than 19,000 students every year at seven locations throughout Snohomish County, with most students and faculty at the main campus in north Everett. Students come to EvCC to affordably start their four-year degrees, earn certificates, train for a new job, experience hands-on training in professional and technical programs, learn English, develop basic skills, finish high school, train for a promotion, or to learn just for fun. For more information, visit EverettCC.edu