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NEH, Hodson Trust Grants Support Study of American Themes at St. John's College
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rosemary Harty, Director of Communications (443-716-4011)
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (December 3)—The National Endowment for the Humanities has made a $1 million challenge grant through its "We the People" initiative to St. John's College to support the study of works and ideas in American history, events, and culture. Today, The Hodson Trust announced that it will fully meet the NEH's challenge by making a $3 million grant to St. John's.
"We the People" is an NEH program that aims to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture through libraries, schools, colleges, universities, and cultural institutions. St. John's, where all students read the founding documents of the United States, will use the two grants to fund initiatives related to the principles underlying American democracy, among them: liberty, justice, equality, rule of law, and civic responsibility. The college will strengthen its library collection by acquiring additional titles in political science, history, and related literature, and offer lectures by prominent scholars on American themes. Faculty study groups will focus on themes in American history and literature, and the college will offer educational programs, such as lectures and community seminars, that will be open to the public.
The NEH grant requires a 3-to-1 match, and The Hodson Trust, which supports four Maryland colleges, chose to meet the challenge in full.
"We stand for liberal education, which is an education in freedom," says St. John's President Christopher Nelson. "Those arts and the study of documents and books that form the foundations of our American democracy are critical for the exercise of responsible citizenship in this country. The generosity of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Hodson Trust ensures that these foundations will receive the dedicated attention they deserve for the benefit of our faculty, students, and members of our community."
Most of the college's "We the People" activities will be concentrated in four areas: faculty study groups; preceptorials (eight-week, small-group seminars that focus on a single work, several works by one author, or a theme); lectures; and outreach programs.
Themes in American history and culture are explored as early as freshman year at St. John's, when readings from Ancient Greece raise questions about the shape of democracy, the limits of justice, the role of religion in politics, and the duties of a citizen. When these themes resurface in American readings in junior and senior years, students are well prepared to discuss works that directly address American history and culture. These works include the Articles of Confederation; the Declaration of Independence; the Constitution; Hamilton, Jay and Madison's The Federalist Papers; Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Supreme Court opinions; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; and selected speeches by Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
St. John's is now planning outreach activities that will give community members an opportunity to read and discuss works related to "We the People" themes in community seminars. The additional funding will support free lectures by notable figures in public life through college programs such as the Great Issues series, which in the past has included lectures by speakers such as Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Over the years, significant improvements to the campus were funded or partially funded by The Hodson Trust, including the construction of Gilliam Hall, improvements to Greenfield Library, and the renovation and expansion of Mellon Hall. In addition, dozens of students each year benefit from internships and scholarships funded by the Trust.