On March 11th, 233 humanities advocates gathered for our Annual Meeting at The LINE DC. It was inspiring to see so many passionate humanists joining together to promote the value of the humanities on campuses, in communities, and on Capitol Hill. We spent the morning digging into efforts to attract more undergraduate students to the humanities, hearing from six movers and shakers who shared innovative strategies they’ve used on their campuses.

In Columbus, Georgia, Columbus State University is helping communities connect with their culture and their surroundings. In Putnam County, Georgia, the University of Georgia is working with K-12 teachers and students to explore the region's rich literary history. On March 8, the scholars behind these and other publicly engaged humanities initiatives from across Georgia and the Southeast gathered for the Georgia Humanities Symposium in Athens.

Update, April 17, 2019: As of Wednesday, April 17, 2019, at 3 pm the Senate NEH Dear Colleague Letter was finalized and included a record number of signers at 44.

Earlier this month, nearly 200 humanities advocates gathered in Washington, D.C. to make the case for federally-funded humanities programs on Capitol Hill.

Update March 25, 2019: As of Monday, March 25 at 10 am, there are 151 signers on the NEH Dear Colleague Letter. That's 22 up from Friday morning, thank you for all of your advocacy! We are just 16 signers away from surpassing last year's total of 166 signers. Check the list to see if your Member has signed on. If they haven't, there is still time for them to do so.

For over 50 years, the NEH has gathered K-12 teachers—over 90,000 to date—from across the country together every summer for intensive workshops which immerse them in diverse subjects and introduce engaging teaching methods. Through our NEH for All initiative, we’re conducting research that demonstrates how these NEH workshops help keep effective teachers engaged in the profession despite the many challenges that have made teacher retention a national issue.

Last Monday, the Trump administration released the broad outlines of its FY 2020 budget request. Today, the administration released more detailed budget documents.

In advance of our annual meeting, we’ve published major updates to NEHforAll.org. The site now hosts dozens of new profiles that highlight humanities programs from Hawai’i to Maine. New features, including interactive maps and pop-out facts and figures, highlight the geographic range of the NEH’s impact and data we have collected in recent months.

For the first time since 2015, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies requested public witness testimonies on the impact of NEH and NEA funding. We were pleased to see this request for testimony and also to advance Jessica Unger, emergency programs coordinator at the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, as a public witness to testify on behalf of the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was accepted, and this morning had the opportunity to testify on the many ways the NEH has supported efforts to save cultural heritage in the face of disaster.

As the debate on immigration policy continues, NEH’s Common Heritage program is capturing stories of how Americans came to this country and made a home for themselves—whether they came from Germany or Korea, 200 years ago or 20, seeking opportunity or refuge.