What is a Public Humanities Project?

Mass Humanities supports public humanities projects. Public humanities projects bring historical, cultural or ethical perspectives to bear on topics and issues of interest to our communities. These projects can take many different forms, but they have the following characteristics in common. They:

• Engage participants in thinking critically about fundamental questions of value, purpose, and meaning.
• Promote better understanding of ourselves and others, past and present.
• Are conducted in a spirit of open and informed inquiry.
• Involve partnerships between community organizations, cultural institutions, and scholars in the humanities.

The humanities are often defined as a set of academic disciplines because traditionally human knowledge has been organized and studied in this way. According to this definition the humanities include, but are not limited to, history; literature; philosophy and ethics; foreign languages and cultures; linguistics; jurisprudence (philosophy of law); archaeology; comparative religion; the theory and criticism of the arts; and those aspects of the social sciences (anthropology, economics, government, political science, sociology, psychology) which use historical and interpretive as opposed to quantitative methods.

Typically, a humanities scholar is an individual with an advanced degree (MA or PhD) in one of these academic disciplines who is actively working in that field. Occasionally, however, an individual without an advanced degree in the humanities may qualify as a humanities scholar by virtue of his or her special knowledge, experience or contribution to humanities discourse.

What is Not Eligible for Funding?

• applications from individuals. MFH can make grants only to non-profit organizations;
  
• capital improvements or operating expenses;
  
• preservation of objects or archival materials, unless directly related to a public program;
  
• scholarly research or writing in the humanities, unless directly related to a public program;
  
• projects that advocate a single point of view, ideology, or specific program of social action;
  
• projects aimed primarily at audiences outside Massachusetts;
  
• scholarships, fellowships, or travel to professional meetings;
  
• costs of refreshments or entertainment;
  
• indirect costs of institutions;
  
• profit-making projects.
  

NOTE: Theatrical performances, art exhibitions, or other presentations in the arts or media are eligible for funding only when they provide a focus or context for humanistic inquiry. Such proposals are generally stronger if they include an explicitly interpretive/contextualizing component, e.g., a lecture, a brochure, etc.

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