July 28, 2015

National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Will Support K-12 Summer Institute on Central Asia

The Center for Slavic and East European Studies in partnership with the Department of History at The Ohio State University has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant in the category of Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers. The NEH today announced $36.6 million in grants to fund more than 200 humanities projects by individual scholars and institutions in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

The $186,630 grant awarded to Ohio State will fund a three-week summer institute, Central Asia in World History, in 2016. The summer institute will enable a group of 25 K-12 teachers to learn more about Central Asia, its history and its culture, and ways to incorporate additional content about the region into their teaching. Scott Levi, associate professor in the Department of History, will oversee the planning of the summer institute that will include sessions with Central Asia experts from the across the country, cooking demonstrations, cultural outings to art museums, as well as musical performances with traditional instruments.

In Professor Levi's words: "This NEH grant gives us the opportunity to identify 25 dedicated and enthusiastic teachers from across the country, bring them to the OSU campus, and give them a unique opportunity to study Central Asian history with some of the best scholars in the field. Over an intensive three-week program, these teachers will develop an understanding of the many ways that Central Asian peoples have helped shape world history, and they’ll use this experience as they design new course plans for use in their own classes. Through this grant, we stand to make a positive impact on the educations of tens of thousands of students across the country, and on our nation's understanding of an increasingly important geopolitical region."

The NEH grants support a wide variety of projects including traveling exhibitions, the creation of new digital research tools, the preparation and publication of scholarly editions, professional development opportunities for teachers and college faculty, the preservation of cultural collections, collaborative humanities research, and the production and development of films, television, and radio programs.

The Center for Slavic and European Studies is one of five area studies centers at Ohio State, and is funded through a Department of Education Title VI grant and supported by the College of Arts of Sciences and the Office of International Affairs.