What is the Humanities Council? The West Virginia Humanities Council is the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. We fund hundreds of programs each year in history and other fields of the humanities in communities across West Virginia at schools and colleges, libraries, museums, senior centers and other locations statewide.
What has the Humanities Council done lately? In the last year, the West Virginia Humanities Council awarded 51 grants and 11 fellowships, and supported more than 350 programs and events in 47 counties. We welcomed our first five West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship pairs, active in eight counties, and e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia continued to carry the West Virginia story across the state, the country and worldwide.
Humanities Council grants and programs served tens of thousands of West Virginians through lectures, programs and events, the West Virginia Book Festival, scholarly research and travel, documentaries, publications and our online encyclopedia e-WV.
Grant Awards Statewide
| Berkeley | West Virginia Council of Teachers of English, WVELA19, A West Virginia For All: Creating Diverse and Inclusive ELA Classrooms, conference |
| Braxton | Elizabeth Anderson, Public Library Association 2018 Conference, conference travel |
| Cabell | Clio Foundation, Listening to West Virginia, mobile application |
| Cabell | Heritage Farm Foundation, Stories of Appalachia, storytelling |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corp., African Americans in West Virginia Oral History Project |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corp., The Amicus Curiae Lecture Series on Constitutional Democracy |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corp., Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month Reading, reading and discussion |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corp., The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum: Integrating the Study of Black History into School Curricula, teacher institute |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corp., Movable: Narratives of Recovery and Place, interactive website |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corp., Who Is My Neighbor?, cultural programming and discussions |
| Cabell | David Trowbridge, Organization of American Historians, conference travel |
| Fayette | City of Smithers, The Battle of Shakespeare's Sexes, public program and discussion series |
| Gilmer | Glenville State College, We, too, are Appalachia: An Exploration of Identity and Place, exhibit, kiosks, and readings/discussions |
| Greenbrier | Carnegie Hall, Inc., Carnegie Hall Preservation Project, exhibit and archive project |
| Greenbrier | Greenbrier Historical Society, Native American Heritage Gathering, history event |
| Hampshire | Capon Bridge Ruritan Club, Focus on History, Capon Bridge Founders Day, history programming |
| Hardy | Cougar Vision Alliance, Rural American Social and Cultural History of 1800s, presentations and lecture |
| Hardy | Hardy County Schools, Hardy Portal Project, audiovisual lectures and discussions |
| Harrison | Mike Costello, Common Links: The Women Keeping West Virginia's Sausage Making Traditions Alive, fellowship |
| Jefferson | Contemporary American Theater Festival, Inc., 2018 Humanities at the Festival, humanities programming |
| Jefferson | Contemporary American Theater Festival, Inc., CATF in Context with Sara Bellamy, humanities programming |
| Jefferson | Harpers Ferry Park Association, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park 75th Anniversary Commemoration, monthly speaker series and anniversary event |
| Jefferson | E. M. Perego, Laughing in the Face of Death: Humor from Algeria's "Dark Decade," 1991-2002, fellowship |
| Jefferson | Shepherd University Foundation, Teaching about Congress and the Constitution in Four Periods of American History, teacher Institute |
| Jefferson | Shepherd University Foundation, Who Are My People? The Search for Kinship: The Stories of Karen Zacharias, writer-in-residence program |
| Kanawha | Festiv-ALL Charleston, 2018 Appalachian Authors' Roundtable, readings and discussion |
| Kanawha | Darla Spencer, Woodland Mounds in West Virginia: The Adena Culture, fellowship |
| Kanawha | Step by Step, Inc., Mountain Magic, author and storyteller presentations |
| Kanawha | Step by Step, Inc., 200 Years of Frankenstein, public lecture and workshops |
| Kanawha | Thanks! Plain and Simple, Inc., Rosie the Riveter Oral History Interviews |
| Kanawha | West Virginia State University Research and Development Corp., The Color of Law, A History of Race and Real Estate with Richard Rothstein, lecture and discussion |
| Kanawha | West Virginia State University Research and Development Corp., Humans, Being: A Podcast Discussing the Humanities at an HBCU in the Heart of Appalachia |
| Kanawha | West Virginia State University Research and Development Corp., The Lost Art of Russian Tango, presentations and lecture |
| Marion | Brian Wright, Rock ‘n’ Roll Comes to Small Town West Virginia: Teenage Dance Bands of the 1960s, fellowship |
| Marion | Fairmont State University, Diversity in Appalachia Lecture Series, lecture series |
| Marion | Fairmont State University, Diversity in Appalachia Part II: Search for Identity, lecture series |
| Marion | Fairmont State University, Kestrel Symposium for "Loved Labors Lost," public lectures and discussions |
| Mercer | Bluefield State College Research and Development Corp., Windows on the World – Burkina Faso, China, India, Italy, Morocco, and Uganda, lecture series |
| Mercer | Mount Zion Baptist Church, History Alive and Understood, Chautaugqua-style presentations |
| Mingo | Mingo-Pike Branch of American Association of University Women, Helen’s Legacy – Phase 1, archival project |
| Monongalia | Cari Carpenter, Little Writer: Selected Writings of Ora Eddleman Reed, fellowship |
| Monongalia | Tania de Miguel Magro, Study and Critical edition of Salas Barbadillo's Fiestas de la boda de la incasable malcasada, fellowship |
| Monongalia | Jessica Eichlin, West Virginia Association of Museums Conference, conference travel |
| Monongalia | Cynthia Gorman, After the Raid: Immigration, Border Control and Community Life in Moorefield, West Virginia, fellowship |
| Monongalia | Joseph Hodge, In the Aftermath of Empire: Colonial Experts, Post-Colonial Careering and the Decolonization of Development, 1950-1990, fellowship |
| Monongalia | Mccabe Keliher, Association for Asian Studies Conference, conference travel |
| Monongalia | Adam Komisaruk, A Public of One: Sexual Privatism in British Romantic Writing, fellowship |
| Monongalia | Autumn Mayle, Consortium on the Revolutionary Era Conference, conference travel |
| Monongalia | Elisabeth Orr, Finding the Forgotten: Cemeteries in Coal Company Towns of the New River Gorge, 1880-1930, fellowship |
| Monongalia | Mark Tauger, Documents on the Environmental and Agricultural History of the 1931-1933 Soviet Famine, fellowship |
| Monongalia | West Virginia Land Trust, Interpretation of Camp Bartow Historic Site, kiosk, markers, visitor guide, and living history presentations |
| Monongalia | West Virginia University Research Corporation, Quality of Life Speakers Series |
| Monongalia | West Virginia University Research Corporation, WATER: A Cross-Disciplinary Exhibit & Humanities Program Exploring Life’s Critical Resource |
| Ohio | WALS Foundation, Reuther-Pollack Labor History Symposium II |
| Preston | Arthurdale Heritage, Arthurdale Heritage Plat Map and Blueprint Survey, Indexing, and Storage Upgrades, archive project |
| Randolph | Davis & Elkins College, Humanities at Augusta: Traditional Arts & Folklore in Cultural Context, humanities programming |
| Randolph | West Virginia Railroad Museum, The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia, exhibit |
| Randolph | West Virginia Railroad Museum, The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, exhibit |
| Tucker | Friends of Blackwater, Interpretative Project on HG Davis’s Railroad Coal and Coke Industry Phase 2, interpretive signs |
| Upshur | Jessie van Eerden, Nonfiction Now 2018, conference travel |
| Upshur | West Virginia Wesleyan College, 2nd Pearl S. Buck Living Gateway Conference |
| Upshur | West Virginia Wesleyan College MFA Program, WV Wesleyan College MFA Residency Visiting Writers Series |
Other Council-Funded Programs
Eleven fellowships were awarded to researchers in Shepherdstown, Fairmont and elsewhere.
In 2018 the Humanities Council awarded 51 grants in 20 counties throughout the state.
Minigrants supported Frankenstein programming at West Liberty University and the Kanawha County Public Library in recognition of the 200th anniversary of its publication.
Council grants supported exhibits in Glenville, Richwood, Elkins, and elsewhere.
A Humanities Council media grant supported a film documenting the history of the Charleston Ballet and its founder Andre Van Damme.
The second biennial Pearl S. Buck Living Gateway Conference took place at West Virginia Wesleyan with the support of a Council grant.
Humanities Council grants funded programming and lectures on diversity in Appalachia at Glenville State College and Fairmont State University.
The Council funded a labor history symposium at the First State Capitol in Wheeling.
Council funds helped support the Augusta Heritage Center’s “Old-Time Week” at Davis & Elkins College, featuring traditional dance and music performances, jam sessions, and instructional showcases.
A study of West Virginia’s teenage dance bands of the 1960s is being supported by a Humanities Council Fellowship.
Audio documentaries about integration in Mount Hope were made possible by a Humanities Council media grant.
Humanities Council funds supported an archive and indexing project at Arthurdale Heritage in Preston County.
The Humanities Council hosted Jon Peede, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, for a two-day West Virginia visit.
A Council fellowship is supporting research of the cultural traditions of sausage making in West Virginia.
West Virginia Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Eric Eyre, John Hackworth, and Eric Newhouse participated in public forums at Marshall University, Shepherd University, and West Virginia University for the Humanities Council’s “Path to the Pulitzer: Journalism and the Informed Citizen” series.
Authors Dennis Lehane, Debbie Macomber, John Scalzi, and others appeared at the Humanities Council-sponsored West Virginia Book Festival.
Our popular Little Lectures featured presentations by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon, folklorist Rosemary Hathaway and other thought-provoking speakers.
Harvard historian Joyce Chaplin delivered a program on food history at the University of Charleston.
“This Week in West Virginia History,” originating from e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia, airs twice daily on West Virginia Public Radio and appears as a weekly column in many newspapers.
The West Virginia Humanities Council board of directors is drawn from all parts of West Virginia. Click to see our list of board members and their locations.
Visit e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia
View the 2018 West Virginia Folklife Program Activities Report here.
View our 2017 Activities Report here.
