The UNM Departments of American Studies, English, History and Linguistics, along with 28 other colleges and universities have been chosen by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to rethink and transform the training and education for the “next generation” of humanities Ph.D.s.

UNM received $25,000 to support and expand efforts that are already underway. Each of the grants requires the institution to raise matching funds as a sign of their commitment.

“The University of New Mexico is the nation’s only Very High Research, Hispanic-Serving Institution, the flagship university of a multicultural, border state,” said Dr. Melissa Bokovoy, chair of UNM’s Department of History. “In our state, humanities scholarship plays a crucial role in opening possibilities for understanding, across lines of national, ethnic, racial, cultural, and gender difference. As we explained to the NEH, many of our humanities faculty and Ph.D.s serve private and public entities on institutional advisory boards and legislative commissions, curate museum exhibitions and provide expert support on such issues as Native American language preservation and recovery, toxic fuel spills and restoration of historic buildings and plazas.

"We have an existing record of supporting our doctoral students in the humanities to pursue intellectual work in higher education administration, cultural institutions, non-profit organizations, government and public policy and the private sector.”

The UNM initiative titled, “LoboHUB(Humanities Unbound): Planning for the Next Generation of Humanities Scholars at UNM” will bring together the humanities  disciplines, Graduate Studies, alumni networks and professional communities in order to discuss how to transform existing doctoral programs into education models that prepare humanities scholars for careers in many different professions—both inside and outside academia.

In the announcement of the grant recipients, NEH Chairman William D. Adams stated, “The academic-focused future we’re accustomed to training graduate students for is disappearing,” If graduate programs wish to make a case for the continuation of graduate education in the humanities, they’re going to have to think about the professional futures of their students in entirely different ways.”