DECORAH, Iowa - Luther College has been awarded a $100,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a series of academic offerings that will provide students and faculty with greater opportunities for collaborative research in the humanities and a deeper understanding of the liberal arts curriculum.
"Receiving a grant from the Mellon Foundation is a significant honor for Luther College," said President Paula Carlson. "This project will further enhance opportunities for Luther students to develop the close intellectual relationships with faculty central to a residential liberal arts college and gain deeper appreciation for the meaning and value of liberal arts study."
The proposed project focuses on preserving the liberal arts through collaborative research, multidisciplinary dialogue and enhanced writing. Specifically, the grant will fund:
- Competitive summer research grants to support collaborative projects initiated by student/faculty teams
- Development of new interdisciplinary January Term directed-studies courses
- Faculty development workshops exploring models of collaborative research and multi-disciplinary inquiry
- Dissemination of the results from these collaborative research projects to demonstrate the importance of academic rigor and help the larger college community better understand the meaning, value and possibilities of a liberal arts education
Implementation of the grant will begin in 2015.
"Liberal arts is central to the mission of Luther College, and we continue to strive for new ways to help students, faculty and staff better understand and articulate the meaning and value of a liberal arts education," said Terry Sparkes, Luther associate dean and co-director of the Mellon grant. "At its best, the liberal arts brings disciplines together in dialogue, exploring the intersections among the humanities, social sciences and sciences to develop new and deeper insights into the world around us."
According to Jeff Wilkerson, Luther associate dean and Mellon grant co-director, "Part of this work includes an effort to help both students and faculty envision something they might have seen as primarily disciplinary?collaborative research?as part of the fabric of the liberal arts."
Thanks to the Mellon grant, the college will increase summer research opportunities for students in the humanities, help current and incoming students better understand the importance of a liberal arts education and assist students in developing the skills necessary to publish written work.
A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,400, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the bachelor of arts degree in 60 majors and preprofessional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college's website: www.luther.edu.
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