The Arkansas Humanities Council has awarded a $6,305 grant to UCA’s Humanities and World Cultures Institute under the direction of Interim Director Donald Jones, Associate Professor of History. The grant will enable UCA to better meet the needs of high school students and teachers and establish a model that can grow each year to attract a wider radius of participant high schools.
The main objective will be for humanities faculty to help prepare students to compete in UCA’s Humanities Fair, held in November during National Arts and Humanities month. This year, teachers and students, both locally and by videoconference, will be encouraged by UCA Philosophy Professor Jacob Held to think philosophically when they interpret this year’s selection of “The Tipping Point,” by Malcom Gladwell. “The Tipping Point,” which touches on issues of social action, public policy, fundamental values and commitment, and ethical, social interaction, does so in an accessible and not overly trivial way, so that high-school students will be able to address these issues and contemplate their place in the world without feeling overwhelmed.
By developing their own ideas for projects inspired by the book — which could be fiction or nonfiction writing, video or Power Point presentations, podcasts, skits, or poems — they will show their ability to think like humanities scholars. The projects that the students develop and submit will be judged by a committee of UCA scholars and high school teachers and then presented by the students at the Fair.
A second objective of the annual fair will be to convey the importance to all citizens of a post-secondary humanities education. Students will be invited to experience the intellectual excitement of “My First Day at UCA” by attending selected humanities courses in session and listening to professors delivering introductory lectures to courses in history, philosophy, literature, anthropology, and gender and area studies.