An associate English professor received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Public Knowledge program for her pilot project focused on collecting and organizing historical information earlier this year.

The Mellon Foundation is a private institution that awards grants to community projects centered around the arts and humanities. Awardee Tanya Clement, the director of UT’s Initiative for Digital Humanities, will use the funds to “form a model for training humanities students to do digital information work in local communities,” according to a College of Liberal Arts press release. Over 18 months, graduate students will work in community archives, cultural organizations and libraries in need of information work as part of “Mobilize, Articulate, Connect, Sustain: MACS-imizing Responsible Information Work in the Humanities.”

“I started the MACS program because I saw a need for Ph.D. or other graduate students in the humanities to apply their advanced skills in the community,” Clement said.

The program emphasizes presenting information in a culturally sensitive manner, something humanities students excel at, Clement said. Samantha Pinto, director of the Humanities Institute, said cultural heritage and community organizations need help with this.

“Working with cultural heritage organizations and community organizations is something that many of us in the humanities who are focused on social justice want to do, but don’t know how to do,” Pinto said. “We have outsized senses of our own capabilities and what we know versus what the cultural heritage organization actually already knows … to me, this is really trying to say ‘Hey, this is what we’re good at.’” 

Clement said some students already began training and working with organizations in January. The Humanities Institute announced that applications will reopen in early July for next year’s program.

“My previous Mellon project has less to do with the internal workings at UT … whereas this project is about program development at UT,” Clement said. “Specifically, it is meant to create a pilot at UT that we can share more broadly with other places. I think (the project) adheres to UT’s motto … so it’s one of the things I’m particularly excited about with this grant.”