College of Arts and Sciences
January 28, 2025
University of Portland students who deeply engage in the humanities—the art, language, and history that define a society’s cultures, values, and beliefs—are poised to take their studies to a whole new level.
Buoyed by a program-enriching, $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation, UP has embarked on a multi-year journey to put humanities practices to use—not only for its students, but throughout the greater Portland community.
The three-year project, titled “Building a Civic Humanities Incubator,” was funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Higher Learning program in the “Cultures of U.S. Democracy” category of their 2024 Open Call for Concepts. The Incubator promises to build on the University’s robust engaged humanities program by developing courses and high-impact experiences that connect students and faculty to civic concerns in Portland.
As a result of the largest humanities award in school history, UP students will take interdisciplinary courses exploring topics like polarization and conversation across difference alongside North Portland residents as part of a new “Neighborhood Humanities” curriculum. Instead of writing traditional essays, students and residents might collaborate to co-create life-writing projects, exhibits, or toolkits for the public that showcase alternate ways of understanding the city’s civic culture.
That is one example the project directors, Dr. Jen McDaneld and Dr. Molly Hiro, proposed to secure the University’s first Mellon Foundation award. The UP English professors and co-founders of the Public Research Fellows are teaming up to develop an Engaged Humanities Hub on campus that they hope will make a measurable difference far beyond The Bluff.
“One of the most exciting things about this project is its potential to build a lasting infrastructure that connects the practices of the humanities classroom to our local communities,” Dr. McDaneld said. “We think the Incubator can position UP as a leader in the burgeoning field of the civic humanities, creating connections across campus and community to build a healthier democratic culture in our city.”
The Mellon Foundation selected UP as one of 30 colleges and universities in the nation to receive funding for humanities-grounded research and curricular projects through the Higher Learning program's 2024 Open Call. The award builds on significant momentum McDaneld and Hiro have created for engaged humanities at UP through recent awards like a $150,000 gift from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2024.
In addition to creating the Neighborhood Humanities curriculum, they will put the Mellon funds to use on long-term projects like a Civic Residency and Internship program that will bring community partners onto campus to work on aspirational projects alongside student interns.
“Our students want more professional development opportunities, and this Mellon Foundation support will tap into that for us,” Dr. Hiro said. “It will connect our students with professionals who will take time away from their jobs to work on cool projects they don’t currently have the bandwidth for.”
In the grant proposal, McDaneld and Hiro touted how the Civic Humanities Incubator project aligns with key themes in University’s Strategic Plan: Hope, Renewal, Transformation.
“We aspire to be the University of, for, and with Portland,” said University President Dr. Robert D. Kelly. “This generous funding from the Mellon Foundation, combined with the excellent guidance of Dr. Hiro and Dr. McDaneld, will only serve to enhance the excellent experiential learning opportunities we offer to students. I am excited to see the fruitful outcomes—both for our students and for our Portland community—that will flow from this exciting work.”
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