OSU COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES QUADRUPLES NEH FUNDING

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University has outpaced all other institutions nationally in the latest competition for funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the largest supporter of humanities programs in the United States.

Putting Ohio State over the top were a $500,000 Challenge Grant won by the College of Humanities and four $30,000 fellowships that went to Humanities faculty, for a grand total of $620,000. The University of Pennsylvania, with NEH grants of $530,000, was Ohio State's closest competitor.

These awards, announced in December, brought the College of Humanities' 1999 NEH funding to some $770,000, or nearly quadruple the amount it received in 1998.

The Challenge Grant, for which the College must raise $2 million in matching funds, will help create an endowment for and support the programs of the World Media and Culture Center (WMCC), the College's developing state-of-the-art facility for teaching and learning languages, cultures, and literatures.

Drawing on the College's national reputation in language research and instruction, the WMCC will be a resource for meeting Ohio's need to enhance global communication and intercultural understanding in the 21st century. Set to open its doors on the University's main campus in 2002, the WMCC will be the first center of its kind to combine leading-edge technology and professional staff with world-class language and culture instructors and researchers.

According to project director Diane Birckbichler, "We expect the World Media and Culture Center to attract those interested in learning and teaching foreign languages and cultures. For example, in addition to serving OSU students, faculty, and staff, we will help K-12 school teachers develop curriculum materials and maintain their language and culture skills.

"We will also provide a variety of services for the business community and government agencies as well as the general public. The NEH funding enables us to create an endowment to support these and related activities."

Birckbickler expects the center will meet a variety of needs in the area of foreign language and culture study in its Ameritech Individualized Language Learning Center, hypermedia development facilities, electronic learning spaces, videoconferencing center, and the Crane Café where students and other patrons can watch live foreign television broadcasts, while practicing their language skills.

"The WMCC will help make Ohio State a national leader in making the learning of foreign languages and cultures more effective and more accessible for American learners of all kinds everywhere," she said.

In the NEH's current round of funding, four College of Humanities faculty each received $30,000 fellowships to pursue their research:

- Nicholas Breyfogle [43210]*, assistant professor of history, "Religious Dissent and Russian Empire-Building in Transcaucasia, 1830-1900."

- Thomas Kasulis [43221]*, professor of comparative studies and East Asian languages and literatures, "A History of Japanese Philosophy: 1100-1960."

- Daniel Reff [43221]*, associate professor of comparative studies, "The Relevance of Early Christian Literature to Jesuit Missionaries in Colonial Latin America."

- Hugh Urban [43201]*, assistant professor of comparative studies, "The Extreme Orient: Imagining 'Tantrism' in the History of Indian Religions."

Professor Kasulis also received a $4,000 Summer Stipend in April 1999 for "A Historical Narrative of Japanese Philosophy, 650-1100 C.E." In July, a grant of $144,101 was awarded to history and women's studies professor Susan Hartmann [43206]* for "Women's Rights and Citizenship in American Thought, Culture, and Practice," a four-week national institute for 30 schoolteachers on women's citizenship and rights in the U.S.

According to Michael Hogan, interim dean of the College of Humanities, "These NEH awards recognize the importance of our colleagues' research -- and put it into a national context. Together with the three prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships won by our faculty members last spring, they serve as proof positive that Ohio State's College of Humanities is at the forefront of liberal arts research in our country today."

Created in 1965 by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, the National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency whose mission is to enrich American cultural life by promoting knowledge of human history, thought and culture throughout the nation.

The World Media and Culture Center will be housed in Hagerty Hall on the OSU Oval, which will be renovated by Wandel & Schnell, Architects, Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, and Leers Weinzapfel Associates Architects Inc., Boston, Massachusetts. To learn more about the World Media and Culture Center, those interested may call the College of Humanities at (614) 292-1882 or visit its website: http://wmcc.ohio-state.edu

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