“AMERICAN CITIES AND PUBLIC SPACES“

The Program at a Glance

The Community College Humanities Association, in collaboration with the Office of Scholarly Programs at the Library of Congress, is offering to twelve selected community college humanities faculty from across the nation the opportunity to conduct systematic, guided research at the Library of Congress on individual research projects within the general topic of “American Cities and Public Spaces.” The project will consist of two extended stays in the summer of 2005 (June 6-18 and Aug 8-13), a weekend in the Fall of 2005 (Oct 13-15), a week in January 2006 (January 16-21) and a final period in the summer of 2006 (June 1-10).

Participants will have grant support for a total of twenty-eight research days at the Library of Congress over a thirteen-month period. This combined summer/academic year format of periodic sessions is designed to make this unparalleled research opportunity, in the form of a scholarly learning community, accessible to community college scholars, whose institutional settings often make the conduct of sustained academic research particularly difficult. This format will enable participants to infuse new scholarship into their classroom work throughout the academic year as they pursue guided research at the Library, and to bring pedagogical and curricular questions back to the recurring sessions of the Institute.

Stipend and Commitment

               In return for full participation in all sessions of the Institute, each participant will receive lodging for thirty-six nights in Washington, D.C. at the Capitol Hill Suites Hotel adjacent to the Library of Congress; reimbursement for travel expenses to and from Washington, D.C. for the four periods of residency, up to but not exceeding $1,200; and a cash stipend of $500 upon successful completion of the project.

               We’ve structured this Institute to facilitate sustained research throughout the thirteen-month duration of the project. Institute fellows will be in residence in Washington for two extended periods in the summer of 2005 (June 5 through June 18, and August 7 through August 13), a weekend in the Fall of 2005 (October 13- 15), a week in January 2006  (January 15 through January 21), and a final period of residency in June 2006 (June 1 through June 10). Fellows must commit themselves to full-time participation during these periods of residency at the Library of Congress, according to the following summary schedule:

Sunday, June 5  - Saturday, June 18, 2005

Sunday, August 7 - Saturday, August 13, 2005

Thursday, Oct 13 - Saturday Oct 15, 2005

Sunday, January 15 - Saturday, January 21, 2006

Thursday, June 1 - Saturday, June 10, 2006

The Institute will be directed by George Scheper (Humanities, Community College of Baltimore County-Essex), a very experienced project organizer who has previously directed seven NEH national Institutes sponsored by CCHA. Four distinguished visiting senior scholars in the fields of urban history and urban cultural studies will serve as Institute faculty, offering periodic morning seminars on selected topics as outlined in the Institute schedule. The faculty of visiting senior scholars are: Thomas Bender (history, NYU); Clement Price (history, Rutgers); M. Christine Boyer (architecture, Princeton); and Witold Rybczynski (urbanism, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania). Additionally, the Office of Scholarly Programs, and other staff from the Library of Congress will serve as on-site research consultants to the participants for their individual research projects within the general Institute topic.

The topic “American Cities and Public Spaces,” deals with issues of overwhelming importance, as exponential urbanization has become a global phenomenon. Paradoxically, however, this urbanization can occur simultaneously with the abandonment of “cities” in their traditional cultural sense as centers of economic and political power, social status, and cultural vitality. But because cities, as Lewis Mumford suggested, remain the irreplaceable cultural centers of civilizations, then historical and cross-cultural study of cities in comparative contexts is central to humanities courses in history, literature, art and architecture, theatre, music, and philosophy, as well as to courses in urban studies, urban planning and other social sciences.