[press release August 18, 1995 ]
The National Endowment for the Humanities (Education
Division) has awarded H-Net: Humanities On-Line $100,000 to
support operations in 1996. This is the fourth major grant NEH
has awarded H-Net in the last 18 months. It guarantees smooth
technical operation of 50 daily Internet newsletters that serve
30,000 subscribers from 62 countries around the world. The grant
will permit creation of new lists in humanities specialties. The
lists that now reach more than 1,000 subscribers are H-Women
(women's history), H-AmStdy (American Studies), H-Teach (teaching
college history), H-Asia (Asian studies), H-Film (scholarly
studies of cinema) and H-Rhetor (history of rhetoric and speech.)
All the lists are edited by teams of scholars, and all messages
have to be approved by an editor before they are sent out. H-Net
is controlled by its 130 editors. The come from 99 different
institutions in the USA and eight other countries. They elect
officers and an executive committee. Computer operations are
based at Michigan State and other universities.
According to Mark Kornbluh, the Michigan State professor who
will direct the grant on behalf of H-Net, "This new award
recognizes that H-Net has become the the main electronic forum
for scholars in history and the humanities. H-Net is leading the
way in creating new ways for teachers and researchers to use the
vast potential of the Internet. H-Net has enlarged the
'Republic of Letters' by enabling graduate students, professors
in smaller colleges, and researchers throughout the world to
overcome time and distance and join in daily discussions of the
critical issues in teaching, scholarship and research." Kornbluh
especially noted the value of the NEH grant in establishing a
book review program. Every month it will publish 100 full-length
reviews by scholars of important new books. The reviews will be
three times longer than reviews in paper journals, and will
appear within weeks after publication of the book, instead of the
average delay of 18 months that is typical for paper journals.
The grant will permit H-Net lists to remain free of charge for
another year, and will support a "World Wide Web" site containing
the best of its lists. The WWW site will be open to everyone on
the Internet, while the lists will be restricted to scholars who
submit applications. For further information, write
H-Net@uicvm.uic.edu or phone H-Net Executive Director Richard
Jensen at (615) 552-9923/ fax = 615-552-9394.