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ACLS Names Inaugural Community College Faculty Fellows

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the 2019 Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellows. This is the first year of this program, which supports research projects from humanities and social science faculty who teach at two-year colleges. The program is made possible by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Continue reading ACLS Names Inaugural Community College Faculty Fellows

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SPECIAL REPORT: From AAA&S: Humanities in the Community College

SPECIAL REPORT

Dear CCHA Members:
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has just released its “Humanities Education in Community Colleges Pilot Study” and the results are very encouraging as we compare the relationships between humanities education, numbers of students, and two-year colleges. Here are some major highlights and talking points:
  • About 2.8 million students took a humanities course for credit at a community college in the fall of 2015 (the year for which data were collected). They accounted for approximately 40 percent of all community college students taking courses for credit that term.
  • Over 1.7 million students took at least one course in English, and approximately 700,000 students took a history course. About 300,000 enrolled in courses in languages other than English. More than 255,000 community college students took a philosophy course. Additionally, between 400,000 and 450,000 students took a course in another humanities discipline or a survey course in the humanities.
  • About 70,000 faculty members taught at least one college-level humanities course for credit at community colleges, accounting for approximately 20 percent of all community college faculty.
  • The student-faculty ratio in the humanities is “substantially higher” than the ratio for community colleges generally. The student-faculty ratio for courses in the humanities was 40 to one, compared to 20 to one for all community college courses. Philosophy has the highest student-faculty ratio among the humanities disciplines examined, with about 50 students for each faculty member. The lowest ratio among the humanities disciplines, at 26 students per faculty member, was in foreign languages.
  • High school students in dual enrollment programs made up about 10 percent of humanities students at community colleges.
  • The study found regional differences in humanities course taking. About 35 percent of community college students are in the South, but they make up only 24 percent of those taking foreign languages. But they make up 45 percent of community college students studying history. Community college students in the West are less likely to be studying the humanities than are other community college students, but they are more likely to be studying languages other than English.
We like to think that everyone in CCHA is an ambassador for the humanities. I hope you will take the time to study the information in the report and make every effort to reach out to your administrators and local media to help create a clearer picture of the humanities in community colleges.
Thanks,
Andrew Rusnak
CCHA Executive Director
*A copy of this report is available for download HERE.
Protect the NEH

2019 Humanities Advocacy Day with the National Humanities Alliance

It is that time of year again, and, unfortunately, funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the humanities as a whole is never guaranteed. To that end, members of CCHA are invited to meet in Washington, DC, to take part in the Annual meeting of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA) on Monday, March 11th, followed by trips to Capitol Hill to advocate for the humanities on Tuesday, March 12th. More information can be found at the link to the NHA announcement HERE. If you cannot make it in person, we will b e sending out information on how you you can advocate digitally. Please do join us in advocating for this important cause and to help protect the humanities.

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CCHA Joins MLA in Planning for $1M Mellon Grant for CC Faculty

This past summer, Executive Director Rusnak and Deputy Executive Director Campbell were invited to join a group faculty from four-year institutions and “access-oriented institutions” (identified by the Modern Language Association as “community colleges and other colleges that prioritize access over selectivity in admissions”) to design a grant-funded program that will offer doctoral students and instructors who work at access-oriented institutions the opportunity to participate in regional week-long seminars focused on Reading-Writing Pedagogy. It is a pleasure to announce that Mellon has funded this program, and further information is now available through the MLA’s news site. Additionally, we would like to congratulate our colleagues at the planning retreat and thank Paula Krebs, Executive Director of the MLA, for her excellent leadership on this endeavor.

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Fully-Funded CAORC Seminar for CC Faculty: Pakistan (Deadline: 2/18)

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) will be hosting a seminar in Lahore, Pakistan, that is aimed toward community college faculty. “Religion and Culture in the Postcolonial City” will take place from June 8 – 22. The deadline for applications is February 18th. More information is available below.

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CFP: Culturally Responsive Teaching Conference (Deadline: 1/31)

The 5th Annual Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning Conference has extended their deadline for proposals to January 31, 2019. This is an excellent conference and an excellent opportunity, so please do consider getting involved! The conference will be held in Linthicum Heights (just outside of Baltimore, MD) this year on March 21st and 22nd. Further information can also be found at www.CRT-CC.org. Please also see the CFP flier in addition to the conference flier below.

Continue reading CFP: Culturally Responsive Teaching Conference (Deadline: 1/31)

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CCHA’s 2019 Lit Mag Competition is Now Open! (Deadline: 6/10)

It’s that time of year again, and the Literary Magazine Competition has been announced and opened for magazines published between June 2018 and May 2019. The contest information and entry form can be found at the link below. Good luck to all of this year’s participants!

Continue reading CCHA’s 2019 Lit Mag Competition is Now Open! (Deadline: 6/10)

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CFP: Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) by 10/22

Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) is now accepting proposals for a two-week, fully-funded, community college faculty seminar in Senegal in January.

Deadline: October 22nd

Link: https://www.caorc.org/faculty-development-2019-senegal

Flier as PDF: Click Here

CAORC-WARC Faculty Development Seminar Announcement-1

CAORC-WARC Faculty Development Seminar Announcement-1

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Teagle Foundation Grant Funding Opportunities (Soft Deadline: 12/1/18)

Teagle Grant Funding Opportunities

The Teagle Foundation has launched two new funding initiatives: Education for American Civic Life and Pathways to the Liberal Arts. Along with its ongoing support for Liberal Arts and the Professions, the Teagle Foundation will review grant requests for all three initiatives on a rolling basis. To be considered for a grant, please review the Teagle Foundation’s application guidelines and submit a brief 3-5 page concept paper to proposals@teagle.org. While concept papers are reviewed on a rolling basis, priority consideration will be given to those submitted by December 1, 2018. If you have questions about the RFPs, please contact Loni Bordoloi Pazich (bordoloi@teagle.org) or Desiree Vazquez Barlatt (desireev@teagle.org).

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Opportunity: Call for Reviewers for ACLS Fellowship Applications

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is introducing a new fellowship program this year—the Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowships—to support the research ambitions of community college faculty in the humanities and related social sciences. The program, which has its first application deadline on September 26, 2018, will offer up to 26 fellowships of $40,000 to community college faculty working on a diverse range of research projects. You can find out more about the program here: http://www.acls.org/programs/community-college-faculty/.

Like all ACLS fellowship programs, this program will use a peer review process to evaluate applications and select fellows. ACLS is currently looking for community college faculty in all fields of the humanities and related social sciences to serve as reviewers for the program’s inaugural competition or in a future year. Serving as a reviewer would involve evaluating 25-30 applications in the reviewer’s discipline using an online portal. Reviewers will have approximately six weeks this fall to score the applications and enter very brief comments. The honorarium for service is $200.

If you or any of your colleagues might be interested in serving as a reviewer next fall or in a future year, please email ACLS program officer Rachel Bernard (rbernard@acls.org) no later than July 18 with the following information: name(s), email address, institution, faculty rank/title, department, and discipline. You may also enter multiple names on this spreadsheet, and email the spreadsheet to rbernard@acls.org.

Thanks so much for your help, and please feel free to forward this post to your colleagues.