{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/primehumanitiesendowment","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"slug":"prime.humanitiesendowment","excerpt":"From the NIH to the NSF, federal funding cuts are permeating across academia. Humanities professors discuss the implications of the loss of NEH grants.","headline":"Not Enough for the Humanities","author":"Eghosa Otokiti","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.humanitiesendowment/fowlerfilephoto-8b6f557cedd541d161b6e006feb5b5df.jpg","covercred":"DAILY BRUIN FILE PHOTO AND LEYDI CRIS COBO CORDON. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN WHARTON.","coveralt":"An image of the front entrance of the Fowler Museum, which also houses the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.","articleType":"article","updated":"","content":[{"type":"text","value":"May 20 through May 22, 2025, should have been the culmination of months of work from Lyssa Stapleton and her team."},{"type":"text","value":"Over those three days, the Waystation Initiative of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology planned to host representatives from indigenous communities for a conference titled \"Creating Connections: Advancing Restitution and Stewardship of Cultural Heritage through Community Collaboration.\" Stapleton, the Waystation Initiative director, organized the event using funds from her National Endowment for the Humanities grant."},{"type":"text","value":"A researcher in the field of cultural heritage, Stapleton received the grant to develop practices for returning cultural objects, which the conference would help facilitate. With the help of her team, Stapleton scheduled the conference at the same time as a separate Fowler Museum event, the voluntary return of items belonging to the Larrakia Aboriginal group."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"Practically speaking, it's not like anything I did was going to get that grant back.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"The grant had been a long time coming. After two other grants from the NEH, the initiative secured the nearly $350,000 grant three years after its first attempt. The product of years of perseverance was about to come to fruition. However, during a routine meeting with fellow professors, she received an email. It was April 2, the day after her grant money had been released."},{"type":"text","value":"Her grant had been terminated."},{"type":"text","value":"\"Practically speaking, it's not like anything I did was going to get that grant back,\" Stapleton said. \"Writing an NEH proposal is so much work. It takes months. So, to have it really, very arbitrarily ... taken away, I was pissed.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Established in 1965, the NEH funds a wide array of projects, from research and exhibits to museums and libraries across the United States. The government agency distributes grants to people, organizations or institutions  – either directly or through state branches – that study the humanities and humanistic social sciences. During the first week of April, the NEH sent termination notices to more than a thousand of its grant recipients."},{"type":"text","value":"In an <a href=\"https://www.neh.gov/news/update-neh-funding-priorities-and-agencys-recent-implementation-trump-administration-executive\">April 24 press release</a>, the NEH said it was shifting its focus to comply with executive orders from the Trump administration, including those targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. These cuts come amid a <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/tag/federal-funding-cuts\">pattern of uncertainty</a> across grant-giving federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes for Health. At UCLA, humanities professors are uncovering how to navigate a new landscape as they deal with the challenges of losing an important source of funding for scholarship in their fields."},{"type":"text","value":"The NEH played a significant role in Laurie Kain Hart's academic career."},{"type":"text","value":"She received a grant in 1995 to do field research on the Greek Civil War, which she said was the most important independent research she has conducted. Now chair of the anthropology department, Hart said the grant enabled her to take a leap of faith that ended up being the basis of much of her career’s work. For Hart, the NEH’s narrowing is a cause for concern."},{"type":"text","value":"\"(This) is just one of those instances of limiting the terrain of our understanding, knowledge (and) imagination in ways that are antithetical to good scholarship,\" she said."},{"type":"text","value":"Furthermore, Hart said grants from institutions such as the NEH also provide the funds professors need for undergraduate and graduate student researcher stipends. There are sections of NEH grants specifically designated to paying for student research, internships and other opportunities. For example, art history professor Glenn Wharton was awarded a $250,000 grant in 2021 that provided funding for graduate students to learn – through internships with community-based organizations – how to properly care for different cultural heritage items."},{"type":"text","value":"Different areas of study rely on the NEH to fill in a lack of financial investment from other sources. In light of budget cuts, Hart said UCLA may struggle to replace the funding, and private foundations may be hesitant to support projects the Trump administration is opposed to. This, in turn, will impede the process of acquiring funding in the future, beyond current NEH grants."},{"type":"text","value":"\"You have to think about it as seed money,\" Hart said. \"It allows people to leverage that grant to get more grants that bring in even larger numbers of people.\""},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"It makes me feel like the sphere of the imagination is contracted.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Stable sources of funding are also important because they allow researchers such as Hart to explore careers in often-overlooked niches. Even though subjects such as sociocultural anthropology – the field Hart specializes in – are considered a social science, they can struggle to find funding. The NEH's broad definition, which includes humanistic social sciences, plays an important role in providing financial support, Hart added."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"A solemn photograph of UCLA history Professor Robin Derby standing on the balcony of a campus building.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.humanitiesendowment/prime.humanities.pics.LC_9-6e88adc5859f512e9766a52967fe8b35.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Furthermore, Robin Derby, a history professor, said researchers in certain subfields may have a harder time finding private collections with similar interests, which will further impact their ability to secure new avenues of funding. With her NEH grant, Derby was able to write \"Bêtes Noires,\" a book on the spiritual beliefs of Haitians and Dominicans living in a border community."},{"type":"text","value":"\"Personally, it makes me feel like the sphere of the imagination is contracted by this (funding reduction),\" Hart said. \"People are not as free to think of projects, to pursue projects, to experiment with projects that are funded by this organization.\""},{"type":"text","value":"In 2023, Wharton was awarded a grant of just under $350,000 to research sustainable practices for the energy-intensive work of caring for cultural heritage. He hoped to share this knowledge beyond his department through articles and developing models. However, his grant was among those terminated. Thus, he began a process of laying off staff – including a graduate researcher – and preparing to return the recently dispersed funds to the federal government."},{"type":"text","value":"\"It was very difficult because these grants, they're not for personal gain,\" Wharton said. \"They were for educating our students and developing models that we could communicate to the field.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Noticing a shift in federal behavior, Stapleton had a rising sense that her grant was in jeopardy. She was worried heightened customs enforcement might hassle international visitors for the conference, and a Smithsonian event several of the Waystation conference guests were also attending was canceled a few days before it began. Attendees began asking her if what happened with the Smithsonian would happen with her event. When her grant was canceled prematurely, she was not surprised."},{"type":"text","value":"Organizations across the country are fighting to protect grants such as the one Stapleton lost. UC San Francisco Professor Neeta Thakur and five UC Berkeley faculty and researchers sued the Trump administration to block the mass termination of more than 10 types of federal grants awarded to the UC, including NEH funding. Ultimately, a judge for the case issued a preliminary injunction June 23, preventing the federal government from withholding any funding to the UC until a verdict is made on whether the cuts are lawful."},{"type":"text","value":"While simultaneously hearing two cases from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Authors Guild, a judge issued a preliminary injunction July 25 that pauses the grant termination for the roughly 1,400 affected NEH grant recipients until a verdict is reached. Because of the complexity of federal funding, Wharton's team was still working through the process of sending money back when the Thakur injunction was made. Furthermore, Stapleton said she did not get her funding back until July even though the injunction from the Thakur case was made in June."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of Professor Glenn Wharton, a UCLA faculty member impacted by recent funding cuts.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.humanitiesendowment/wharton_courtesy_resized-d66b61f87dcd50e0140dc8c014b7eb32.png\",\"credit\":\"Courtesy of Glenn Wharton\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Wharton said the return of the funds stirred up mixed emotions. Though he was glad to return to his research, a lot of work was lost, people had been let go, and it was going to take a lot of effort to restart, he added. As funding cuts continue to be challenged in court, Wharton said the grants may be rescinded once more. For Stapleton, this uncertainty leads to a feeling of hesitancy."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"The NEH is only one small part of a much bigger landscape.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"I feel like I can't plan anything that I can't execute in the next couple months,\" she said."},{"type":"text","value":"The lack of stability of NEH grants also causes problems outside academia. Derby said rural arts programs, theater troops and museums will be adversely impacted. And, it’s not just the NEH. From the Departments of Energy, Education and Defense to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museums and Library Services, many sources of funding are changing the rules – without notice."},{"type":"text","value":"\"The NEH is only one small part of a much bigger landscape,\" Hart said. \"If it was the only thing affected, I'd probably be a whole lot less worried, but it's just one part of everything that's going on, and we're in the middle of a really serious turn to a fascist regime.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Beyond funding cuts, Wharton said he’s also concerned about the broader federal landscape. While fears of losing grant money leads to a feeling of uncertainty, he added that other actions such as separating families through deportations are on another level. In spite of it all, he said he finds hope in seeing others stand together to defend democracy."},{"type":"text","value":"Ultimately, in the face of funding uncertainty, Stapleton still plans on executing the Waystation's goals. Keeping cultural heritage separate from the people it belongs to is a key component of violence such as colonialism, she said, so returning it is too important to not do – NEH funded or not."},{"type":"text","value":"\"It's going to take longer when I have to write more grants,\" Stapleton said. \"It's going to happen in a different order than we envisioned, but we're going to proceed.\""}]}},"pageContext":{"term":"summer25","slug":"prime.humanitiesendowment"}},"staticQueryHashes":[]}