MTSU leads all other universities in the state of Tennessee in higher education humanities projects highlighted by the National Humanities Alliance, according to its website.
The nonprofit foundation, which brings a higher profile to education, research, preservation and public programs in the humanities, recently created a new website which documents 10 years of publicly engaged humanities work in U.S. higher education. You can visit it here.
MTSU’s six NHA endeavors include:
- “African-American Oral History Project,” a series of interviews recording events, values and intellectual perspectives in the lives of African-Americans and examining the importance of race and racial identity in America. It is a partnership with the Library of Congress.
- “The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson and America: 1801-1861,” two weeklong history workshops at The Hermitage for high school teachers, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ “Landmarks of American History” program.
- “Travellers Rest, Occupied Nashville and the Civil War and Emancipation in the Upper South,” two weeklong history workshops at Travellers Rest for teachers.
- “Religious Pluralism in Middle Tennessee: An NEH Bridging Cultures Project,” an interdisciplinary program for community college faculty members to study and discuss religion and civil society in the South.
- “Middle Tennessee Oral History Project,” an ongoing project of the Albert Gore Research Center to record the memories of people who live in or have roots in the region on topics including MTSU, African-American community leadership in Murfreesboro, veterans, state and local politics, women’s organizations, farming and farm organizations, planning and economic development, and medical history.
- “Southern Places,” a collaboration of MTSU’s Center for Historic Preservation and the James E. Walker Library that features a database with images and property histories from the center’s work in preserving churches, schools, cemeteries and other historic sites.
The NHA website also profiles the Center for Historic Preservation, which specializes in teaching, research and public service related to the preservation of historic sites. You can read that profile here.
“The Center for Historic Preservation has established reciprocal partnerships with communities large and small across Tennessee, and these community-grounded partnerships pave the way for our many innovative student-centered projects highlighted by the National Humanities Center,” said Dr. Carroll Van West, the center’s director and the Tennessee State Historian.
“We look forward to bringing more communities and student projects to the attention of this national leader in the field.”
For more information, contact the CHP at 615-898-2947 or [email protected] or the College of Liberal Arts at 615-898-2534 or [email protected].
