13 SoCal institutions awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grants

Southland institutions have received thousands of dollars in government grants for humanities projects, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced Tuesday.

Thirteen projects in Los Angeles and Orange County are among the recipients of $28.1 million in total grants for 204 humanities efforts across the country. Most of the local grants went to universities, but the Academy Foundation received $300,000 for a permanent exhibition on Jewish founders of the film industry and the history of Los Angeles neighborhood movie houses.

“The range, diversity, and creativity of these new projects speak to the wealth of humanities ideas and deep engagement of humanities practitioners across our country,” NEH Chair Shelly Lowe said. “From Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Hilo, Hawaii, NEH funding reaches thousands of towns and communities, supporting local organizations, fostering creative projects, and providing access to high-quality humanities for all Americans.”

Many of the projects use emerging digital tools and technologies to further humanities research and increase accessibility of public programs, cultural and archival materials, and educational resources for large audiences.

The following grants were announced for Southland institutions:

• Academy Foundation: $300,000 for production of two digital tours and mobile apps, onsite kiosks, and online resources augmenting a new permanent exhibition on Jewish founders of the film industry and highlighting the history of Los Angeles neighborhood movie houses;
• Azusa Pacific University: $149,910 for a three-year curricular development project to create and pilot three new ethnic studies certificate programs and their academic service-learning components;
• Cal State Fullerton: $60,000 for research and writing leading to a book about the Latin American art canon, and the important role played by Brazilian artists and critics in creating this canon, from the 1970s to the present;
• UC Irvine: $60,000 for research and writing leading to a book about the ways Latino media activists challenged the stereotypical depictions of their community and pushed for their employment in film, television, cable, and radio industries in the United States from the 1980s to the 2000;
• Cal State Long Beach: $15,000 for research and preparation of an edited volume and other textual materials for an art exhibition focused on contemporary Latin American women artists who incorporate scientific practices into the making of their art;
• USC: $99,966 for prototyping of a multiformat digital project on the history of Los Angeles’ Chinatown;
• USC: $60,000 for research leading to a book on laborers’ use of the Thirteenth Amendment to seek relief from coercive work conditions in the American West (1862-1877);
• USC: $60,000 for research and writing of a book examining the role of legal categories and law in the development of Victorian novels;
• USC: $60,000 for research and writing leading to a global history of maritime prize law (1498-1916);
• UCLA: $349,826 for a project to research and compile data on methods for integrating sustainability into conservation programs as part of a multi-year project to build theoretical frameworks into pedagogical models;
• UCLA: $124,688 for a one-year project to design and implement a graduate certificate program in cultural heritage studies;
• UCLA: $60,000 for research, writing, and data visualization leading to a website exploring 3D architectural reconstructions of the Lady Chapel of Saint-German-des-Prés;
• Cal State Los Angeles: $60,000 for research and writing leading to a book about the political and legal institutions that have governed migrant labor in the United States from the end of the 19th century until Tuesday.

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