The creation of a publicly accessible digital archive with nearly 5,000 oral history interviews, conducted by the Chicago journalist Studs Terkel, is one of 177 projects awarded a grant this week by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The grants, totaling $34 million, support projects in 43 states and Washington, D.C., and include both populist and modestly funded projects like the digitization of the Terkel interviews (for which the Chicago public media station WTTW was given a $60,000 grant) to more arcane and pricey, like Indiana University’s plan to create online and print publications about the works of the 13th-century philosopher Richard Rufus (which won a $310,060 grant). The grants were announced just as the endowment’s new chairman, William Adams, known as Bro, took up his post.
Other projects include the preparation of Volumes 42 through 46 of “The Papers of Benjamin Franklin” – which covers his hopes to publicize the ideals of American democracy – at Yale University; the production of a documentary film, “Tell Them We Are Rising,” about the history and contributions of historically black colleges and universities, by Firelight Media; and the University of California, Santa Cruz’s exploration of the interactions between Jews, Christians and Muslims in Mediterranean countries during medieval times.