GSLIS will serve as a key intellectual and infrastructural partner for a new grant awarded to the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The $3 million grant will fund the first two years of an extensive consortium of fifteen humanities institutes. IPRH, a division of the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, provides fellowships and hosts conferences, lectures, films, art exhibitions, and reading groups.
Titled "Humanities Without Walls," the funded initiative is led by Dianne Harris, director of IPRH and professor of landscape architecture, architecture, art history, and history. The grant will fund cross-institutional teams focused on "The Global Midwest," research that rethinks or reveals the Midwest as a key site shaping global economies and cultures. The grant also will fund summer workshops for pre-doctoral humanities students pursuing careers outside the academy beginning in 2015.
Besides the University of Illinois, the consortium will include the following institutions: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Wisconsin. In addition to GSLIS, the Chicago Humanities Festival will serve as a key partner for the consortium.
Listen to an interview with Dianne Harris on WILL-AM radio for more information about the grant.