Professors receive NEH grant to develop residential summer institute

Two professors at Arizona State University have been named recipients of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant totaling $174,862 to support the development of a residential summer institute.

William Hedberg (principal investigator) and Robert Tuck (co-principal investigator), both associate professors in ASU's School of International Letters and Cultures, will work together to produce "Translation and Traveling Texts: East Asian National Literatures in an Age Without Borders," a two-week residential summer institute for 25 higher education faculty members and graduate students at ASU to explore issues of translation and cultural contact in East Asian literatures, from the 17th century to the present day. The institute will take place at ASU in June 2024. 

The grant is the culmination of work that resulted from an Institute for Humanities Research (IHR) Research Strategy Grant awarded to Hedberg in 2022. The criteria for the strategy grant involved applying for two external grants, including one NEH competitive grant, within the year of the application. 

Hedberg, a scholar of early modern Japan with a special interest in the country's literary and cultural connections to China and East Asia, was awarded the initial IHR Strategy Grant for his current book project, “Civilization Remapped: Travel, Cartography, and the Invention of East Asia.” The book builds on his earlier work on transnational Japanese literary studies, but extends its focus to a wider array of fiction, drama, maps, geographical treatises and illustrated gazetteers.

“We are thrilled to see Professor Hedberg awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities grant for his summer institute, as part of the original IHR (Research) Strategy Grant,” said IHR Director Ron Broglio. “Grant funds from the NEH will advance endeavors for educators and scholars at ASU, and we look forward to the contributions these projects will make through exemplary humanities research.”

The IHR is hosting "Creating a Summer Institute with Your Expertise” from 12 to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7. A roundtable of ASU faculty who have also received this grant will walk participants through the process of applying and the lessons they learned from leading a summer institute.

Information regarding the NEH Institutes for Higher Education Faculty Grant is available at https://www.neh.gov/grants/education/institutes-higher-education-faculty.