National Endowment for the Humanities Awards Benson Center $3 Million Endowment Grant

The Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado Boulder has received a $3 million Endowments for Advancing the Humanities Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities—one of only five awards made nationally from a pool of 81 applications. Matched by $3 million in private philanthropic commitments, the award will establish an endowment to support an innovative academic program at CU Boulder integrating the study of the Western tradition with American history, government, and civics. This endowment will advance CU Boulder's educational mission by creating a permanent source of funding that expands undergraduate curricular and co-curricular opportunities, strengthens faculty recruitment and retention, deepens K-12 partnerships, and bolsters public engagement.

The Benson Center aims to connect interested students and interested faculty with the deep importance of the Western tradition for understanding our link to the past and the world today. Support from the National Endowment for the Humanities will be transformative for this goal and the Center.

— Taylor Jaworski, Interim Director of the Benson Center

Endowment income will support humanities faculty who will broaden the Benson Center's course offerings and help develop a multidisciplinary curriculum focused on the Western tradition and American history, government, and civics. This curriculum will introduce CU Boulder students to texts, events, people, and ideas that have profoundly shaped America and the Western world—from the classical and biblical traditions through the American Founding to the modern age. It will deepen students' understanding of both the past and present and equip them with the historical literacy, analytical skills, and civic understanding necessary for thoughtful citizenship.

I am excited to collaborate with faculty and staff across CU Boulder to develop an innovative academic program focused on the Western tradition and American civics. This program will build on CU Boulder's existing academic strengths and foster a vibrant and multidisciplinary intellectual community dedicated to the study of the Western tradition and its ongoing influence on our world today. I believe the program will deepen countless students' understanding of texts, events, people, and ideas that have profoundly shaped the modern world.

— Joseph Porter, Principal Investigator

This transformative award marks a significant milestone in the Benson Center's mission to expand humanistic study of the Western tradition at CU Boulder. The Benson Center is deeply grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for its support, as well as to the many alumni, donors, and friends whose longstanding dedication, stewardship, and generosity have made this award possible. The Benson Center looks forward to developing a distinctive academic program at CU Boulder that will inspire humanistic and civic education for decades to come.