The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced the winners of its latest round of grants, and several philosophy professors are among them.
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They and their projects are:
- David Ebrey (University of Barcelona)
Plato’s Inferences about the Soul
Research and writing leading to a book on Plato’s ideas about the soul.
$60,000 [Fellowships]
- Raymond Hain (Providence College)
Virtuous Citizens: Integrating Virtue and Leadership through the Saint Dominic Fellows Program at Providence College
The creation of a cohort of undergraduates at Providence College dedicated to intellectual, moral, and vocational development, rooted in Catholic and Western traditions.
$1,125,554 [Cooperative Agreements and Special Projects]
- Alexander Jech (University of Notre Dame)
The Paradox of Faith: A Philosophical-Literary Commentary on Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling
Research and writing leading to a book on Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard’s 1843 philosophical examination of the biblical story of Abraham preparing to sacrifice of his son, Isaac.
$60,000 [Fellowships]
- James Kreines (Claremont McKenna College)
Nothing Halfway: German Idealism from System-Critique to Hegel’s System, and Back
Research and writing leading to a book about the arguments for and against metaphysical systems in philosophy with a focus on German philosophy
$60,000 [Fellowships]
- Robert Pasnau (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Sources of the European Enlightenment in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Research and writing leading to a book on what made the Enlightenment transformative and what constrained its achievements.
$60,000 [Fellowships]
- John Stigall with Nathan Alexander (co-project director) (Howard University)
The Haynes Project: Exhibiting the Historical Significance of the Philosophical Views of American Mathematicians
A three-year project to create a digital repository, traveling exhibition, and teaching materials on the life and work of pioneering mathematician Euphemia Haynes.
$148,944 [Humanities Initiatives at Historically Black Colleges and Universities]
Several other projects by scholars in nearby fields (e.g., political science, classics) were about philosophy. (If I overlooked any projects from philosophy faculty that should be added to the above list, please let me know.)
Readers may recall that last year, many NEH grants were cancelled by Donald Trump’s administration. Most of those were reinstated following court rulings that blocked the administrations blanket cancellations.
In this current round of grants, the NEH distributed $75.1 million to 84 humanities projects. This is a significant increase in total funds over previous rounds of grants.
Whether there has been a shift in the kinds of projects funded is something I have not looked into in detail, but from a cursory look of the lot of them, there does seem to be an increase in projects about religion and projects about American history, political documents, and ideals. You can view the complete list of grants here.
While the overall funding might have rose, for NEH fellowships, “NEH received 706 applications at the April 2025 deadline and the budget allowed for 26 awards.” This is a 3.7% funding ratio. This is a reduction in submissions, awards given, and funding ratio compared to previous years. “In the last five competitions this program received an average of 1058 Applications per year. This program has a 7% Funding Ratio. NEH made an average of 73 Awards per year. Just thought that would be interesting to note.
If there are fewer awards, but more funding, I guess that means that on average, each of the awards was a substantially higher dollar amount than the ones in previous years?
There were massive awards (I think one of them being the biggest ever given by the NEH) given to various new civic centers, programs, and schools (UNC, UF). I am generally positive about these institutions, though one might be concerned about political cronyism involved. (The counter is that the status quo involved political cronyism of a more diffuse form, which has some truth to it.)
Fewer fellowship awards, each usually with 60k funding, so total fellowships funding decreased more than half. The increase in overall funding is devoted to non-fellowship stuff like what Mahmoud mentions.
Also:
Patricio Fernandez Ugarte, University of Texas at Austin
Agency in Ancient Philosophy
Research and writing leading to a book on the foundations of
action theory in ancient Greek philosophy.
$60,000 [Fellowships]
I was very pleased to see that they are funding a project on Plato!
You note that “Readers may recall that last year, many NEH grants were cancelled by Donald Trump’s administration. Most of those were reinstated following court rulings that blocked the administrations blanket cancellations.” I am unaware of grants being reinstated, since my team’s was not. If you have more information, I would be most grateful for it.
The claim that they were reinstated is misleading. (And imo the post should be updated to reflect this.) The court (Judge Colleen McMahon) ordered that the grants that were mass canceled be reinstated strictly speaking, but not that the money owed be paid. (Rather, that money was ordered to be set aside and not used for other purposes until a final ruling on the case.) The government (Trump administration/DOGE/NEH) has taken that to mean they don’t have to pay anything until the final ruling is made. The plaintiffs (Author’s Guild/ACLS) have argued that they’re not paying any future payments after that initial decision is violating the decision, since those grants are now technically in good standing. The government clearly disagrees. Everything’s a mess and last I checked the case was in discovery.