Our Initiatives

With more than $2 million in competitively awarded external funding, the Center for the Humanities is spearheading some of the most exciting — and impactful — humanities projects on campus.

Redefining Doctoral Education in the Humanities (RDE)

Drawing inspiration from the efforts led by the (Modern Language Association (ConnectedAcademics) and the American Historical Association (Career Diversity) to reimagine doctoral training, RDE focuses on the developing the best pedagogical practices for instilling capacities essential for success both within academia and in the world beyond.

Learn more about the RDE initiative

The Divided City: An Urban Humanities Initiative

With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center for the Humanities, in partnership with the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design, launched a four-year Urban Humanities Initiative on “The Divided City.” Our goal is to bring humanities scholars into productive interdisciplinary dialogue with architects, urban designers, landscape architects, legal scholars, sociologists, geographers, GIS cartographers, and others around one of the most persistent and vexing issues in urban studies: segregation.

Learn more about the Divided City

BECHS-Africa Fellowship Program

Washington University’s Center for the Humanities, in partnership with the University of Ghana, American University in Cairo and Stellenbosch University, with University of Ghana as the lead Institution, has received funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a three-year transnational program, aimed at enhancing research capacity for early career scholars in the humanities.

Learn more about BECHS-Africa

NEH Next Generation Humanities PhD Planning Grant

The Center for the Humanities, in collaboration with stakeholders both within and outside of the traditional humanities disciplines, is coordinating an NEH Next Generation Humanities PhD planning grant during AY 2016-17 in order to plan for a full reconceptualization of doctoral training in the humanities at our institution. We aim to present some initial recommendations to faculty and graduate students in Arts and Sciences during spring 2017 and to ultimately create a white paper and an action plan to share with the larger WU humanities community.

Learn more about the Next Generation Humanities PhD

NEH Seminars and Workshops

Between 2005 and 2011, the Center for the Humanities hosted a series of seminars and workshops for K-12 schoolteachers funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Learn more about past NEH Seminars & Workshops