North Dakota Humanities Council

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in partnership with ALA and the National Constitution Center (NCC), is pleased to announce a large-scale tour for the traveling exhibition, “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War.” Online applications will be accepted through May 5 at www.ala.org/civilwarprograms.

Using the U.S. Constitution as its cohesive thread, “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War” offers a fresh and innovative perspective on the Civil War that brings into focus the constitutional crises at the heart of this great conflict. The exhibition identifies these crises—the secession of the Southern states, slavery and wartime civil liberties—and explores how Lincoln sought to meet these political and constitutional challenges.

Two hundred sites will be selected to host the 1,000 square foot exhibition for a period of six weeks each from September 2011 through May 2015. Each site will receive a $750 grant to support expenses related to exhibition programming. Participating institutions are expected to present at least two free public programs featuring a lecture or discussion by a qualified scholar on exhibition themes. Eligible institutions include but are not limited to public, research and special libraries; historical societies; museums; civic, community and heritage organizations; and institutions of higher learning.

Hardly anyone alive today is aware that the first U.S. troops sent to fight in WWII came from the Upper Midwest, or that the region's 34th "Red Bull" Division served the longest uninterrupted duty in U.S. military history—about 600 days. Even fewer know that because some 1,800 mostly Midwest soldiers were captured in one night in North Africa in February 1943, until the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 the most U.S. POWs in Nazi-German camps came, per capita, from the two Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, home to the 34th's headquarters at the time.

An exhibit which explores the experiences of Midwest prisoners of war (POWs) kept in Hitler's Third Reich, and the human context in which their experiences took place, is set to show in 21 communities across North Dakota from the 23rd of March to the 5th of April 2011. The exhibit is called "Behind Barbed Wire" and has been seen in over 20 states and by tens of thousands of people. The St. Paul-based, non-profit educational organization TRACES created this exhibit, housed in a converted school bus. For details, see www.TRACES.org.

This tour has been made possible by a generous grant from the North Dakota Humanities Council, and by ongoing mechanical support from Vander Haags, Inc. of Spencer, IA over the past 5 years.

This North Dakota tour will include something unique: the Mobile Veterans Center will accompany the BUS-eum as it tours North Dakota to the following cities: Mayville, Grafton, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Ellendale, Forman, and Wahpeton. It is a 38 foot bus converted into a mobile counseling service center. It comes equipped with everything needed to help Veterans who face a miriad of problems, from physical to mental to paperwork. It will park near the BUS-eum exhibit and be available to Veterans from all wars. For more information their website is www.vetcenter.va.gov

Barring unforeseen difficulties the BUS-eum will show in: Mayville, Grafton, Grand Forks, Rolette, Bottineau, Garrison, Minot, Williston, Watford City, Bowman, Beach, Dickinson, Glen Ullin, Beulah, Hazen, Bismarck, New Salem, Jamestown, Ellendale, Forman and Wahpeton. Many of those towns had armories during WWII, through which some of the POWs had passed before being captured in North Africa or Europe.

For a tour schedule of the exhibit in North Dakota visit: http://traces.org/NDSpring2011.htm.

Some of the hosts will feature programs by TRACES Executive Director, Dr. Michael Luick-Thrams, who researched and wrote his Ph.D. in Nazi history while living and studying in Berlin. The program topics he'll be presenting—depending on the venue—include: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany, German POWs in camps in the Midwest, German-American civilian internees (like those held at Bismarck's Fort Lincoln), and refugees from Nazi Germany in the Midwest.

"Behind Barbed Wire: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany, 1943-46" poses five primary questions:

why did some Midwest POWs survive certain conditions or experiences, while others did not,
what roles did art, free time and religion play in helping those men who did survive imprisonment by the Nazi regime,
why did some Germans or Austrians assist Midwest POWs, while others did not,
how did the liberated POWs later come to terms with their own experiences, and
how do countries once in armed conflict reconcile with each other: how do nations and the individuals who constitute a nation get beyond war?

As the opening panel of the exhibit reminds viewers, "The prisoner of war experience is one few men or women know directly. Being taken prisoner is, in itself, neither dishonorable nor heroic. Capture is largely an accident; often, it comes as a complete surprise and is frequently accompanied by injury. Usually, the confinement is painful; too often, it is fatal. In war, not everyone is lucky: some lose. Those taken captive are part of the unlucky ones."

As the exhibit's first didactic text explains, "There were three main waves of Midwest POWs: those captured in North Africa in 1943, those pilots shot out of the sky during the air war over Europe, and those soldiers captured at the Battle of the Bulge, near the war's end. Each wave of Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany had its own experiences. All of the men who survived them, however, left a provocative legacy for those alive today—one involving the very nature of war itself: how does armed conflict between groups of people play out, face-to-face, when the guns are lowered; how 'should' humans treat each other and, ultimately, live together?"

Michael Luick-Thrams, Ex. Dir., and
Irving Kellman, BUS driver and docent

TRACES Center for History and Culture
1729 Hague Ave., Suite 2
Saint Paul/Minnesota 55104 U.S.A.
land 651.646.0400 or 0790 fax 651.646.8070

Email address: BUSeumtour@yahoo.com Web site: www.TRACES.org

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was and never will be" - Thomas Jefferson

Dear Thoughtful and Informed Citizen,

Do you envision a society where citizens are equipped with engaged critical thinking, daring imaginations, empathetic reflection on the diversity of human experience, and an understanding of the complexity of the world we live in? If you do, then you envision a society that is only made possible by the collective wisdom of the humanities. Without a firm grasp of history, a philosophical understanding of justice and freedom, and the cultural awareness of literature, we cannot sustain our democracy across the many divisions of modern society and deal responsibly with the problems we currently face as members of an interdependent world.

Just as we need an infrastructure of roads and bridges to develop our booming oil industry, we need an infrastructure of ideas to develop the next generation of engaged citizens and state leaders. That’s why the ND Humanities Council invests in the our states greatest resource, the people of North Dakota, by creating and sustaining public humanities programs that provide a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better vision for the future.

But as Congress grapples with the budget, our work is being threatened: the House Appropriations Committee this week recommended that the National Endowment for the Humanities’s budget be cut drastically.

If you believe that democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens, please contact Rick Berg and tell him to support education for a democratic citizenship by funding the National Endowment for the Humanities and the ND Humanities Council.

Click on this link to register your support for the ND Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The future of our democracy is at stake.

Please also consider sending this email on to your own network! This is our moment. Let’s make it count!

Thanks in advance for your support,

Brenna Daugherty
Executive Director
ND Humanities Council

Contact Our Congressmen:

KENT CONRAD

Washington:
530 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-3403
(202) 224-2043

JOHN HOEVEN

G11 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC, 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2551

http://www.congressweb.com/cweb2/index.cfm/siteid/FSHC

White House Announces 2010 National Humanities Medals

Three Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, the founder of the Library of America series, and the former president of the American Council of Learned Societies are among this year's recipients

WASHINGTON (March 1, 2011) — President Barack Obama today announced the ten winners of the 2010 National Humanities Medals, awarded for outstanding achievements in history, literature, education, and cultural policy. The medalists are: authors Wendell E. Berry, Joyce Carol Oates, and Philip Roth; historians Bernard Bailyn and Gordon S. Wood; literary scholars Daniel Aaron, Roberto González Echevarría, and Arnold Rampersad; cultural historian Jacques Barzun; and legal historian and higher education policy expert Stanley Nider Katz. The medals will be presented at a White House ceremony on Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans' access to important resources in the humanities.

The official citations honoring the medalists are:

Daniel Aaron for his contributions to American literature and culture. As the founding president of the Library of America, he helped preserve our nation's heritage by publishing America's most significant writing in authoritative editions.
Bernard Bailyn for illuminating the nation's early history and pioneering the field of Atlantic history. Bailyn, who spent his career at Harvard, has won two Pulitzer Prizes, the first for The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution; and the second for Voyagers to the West.
Jacques Barzun for his distinguished career as a scholar, educator, and public intellectual. One of the founders of the field of cultural history, Barzun taught at Columbia University for five decades and has written and edited more than thirty books.
Wendell E. Berry for his achievements as a poet, novelist, farmer, and conservationist. The author of more than forty books, Berry has spent his career exploring our relationship with the land and the community.
Roberto González Echevarría for his contributions to Spanish and Latin American literary criticism. His path-breaking Myth and Archive: A Theory of Latin American Narrative is the most cited scholarly work in Hispanic literature. González Echevarría teaches at Yale University.
Stanley Nider Katz for a career devoted to fostering public support for the humanities. As director of the American Council of Learned Societies for more than a decade, he expanded the organization's programs and helped forge ties between libraries, museums, and foundations.
Joyce Carol Oates for her contributions to American letters. The author of more than fifty novels, as well as short stories, poetry, and non-fiction, Oates has been honored with the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Short Story.
Arnold Rampersad for his work as a biographer and literary critic. His award-winning books have profiled W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Jackie Robinson, and Ralph Ellison. He has also edited critical editions of the works of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes.
Philip Roth for his contributions to American letters. Roth is the author of twenty-four novels, including Portnoy's Complaint and American Pastoral, which won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize. His criticism has appeared in American Poetry Review and The New York Times Book Review.
Gordon S. Wood for scholarship that provides insight into the founding of the nation and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. Wood is author and editor of eighteen books, including The Radicalism of the American Revolution, for which he earned a Pulitzer Prize.

The medals, first awarded as the Charles Frankel Prize in 1989, will be presented during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. After the ceremony, the medalists and their families and friends will join the President and First Lady Michelle Obama for a reception in their honor.

Since 1996, when the first National Humanities Medal was given, 125 individuals have been honored, inclusive of this year's awardees. Nine organizations also received medals. Previous medalists include Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, novelist John Updike, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, sociologist Robert Coles, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. A complete list of previous honorees is available at: http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/nationalmedals.html

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
Landmarks of American History and Culture: Workshops for
Schoolteachers

$1,200 Stipend! and No-cost Graduate SIUE Tuition Waiver (university fees still apply for waiver)

I am pleased to announce this opportunity for K-12 teachers, administrators and librarians:

Application Postmark Deadline: March 1, 2011

Below is the web link with the description and application process for the National Endowment for the Humanities Workshop for Schoolteachers Summer 2011

Join us June 20-24 or July 18-22, 2011 for a one week Teacher's Workshop
Abraham Lincoln and the Forging of Modern America

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture: Workshops for School teachers Abraham Lincoln and the Forging of Modern America

http://www.siue.edu/education/neh

Click Here to download more information

In 2011, The North Dakota Humanities Council (NDHC) is required to complete a five-year self-assessment to fulfill a legislative requirement that councils have a plan of work approved by NEH. This self-assessment is a formal opportunity for NDHC to analyze its present work and to lay out its plans for the future.

NDHC plans to fulfill this internal analysis by examining the Council’s role in the state, its audiences, the ways it develops and achieves its mission to promote and support the humanities, and the means by which it organizes its resources.

Because NDHC leadership recognizes that a healthy organization, however, represents a balanced and intertwined web of systems and operations, the Council plans to enter into a formal strategic planning process where the Council’s self assessment will not take place in isolation, but will be used as one component of an integrated process where the Council will clarify and refine its purpose, decide where it wants to be in the future, and develop a road map to determine how it’s going to get there.

Finally, this strategic planning process will produce a written document that not only offers concrete and immediate results in shaping the Council’s future, but will also provide a prelude to developing strong relationships with funders from all sectors.

Who is involved?

The NDHC – both board and staff - will conduct the real work of strategic planning in collaboration with staff, focus groups, community groups, and peers.

The Council has also retained the services of Deana DeFoe, President, Five Fold, LLC, as an outside consultant to assist in facilitating the strategic planning process. Deana’s work during the strategic planning process will take on several different roles including facilitator, trainer, and at-times a subject matter expert.

What is the scope of our planning?
NDHC will focus strategic planning organization-wide and will establish mission, vision and values; goals and strategies; and action plans and budgets for the entire organization.

What is the time span of the plan?
During this strategic planning process, planners will focus planning on situational analyses, goals and strategies, with a five-year time span in mind. Additionally, planners will also focus detailed action planning (specifically who is doing what by when) over the next 12-months. Annual action plans will be monitored and updated/adjusted as needed at least 4 times per year. For more information on Strategic Planning Committee meeting dates see the NDHC calendar of events.

What is the role of the Strategic Planning Committee?
The NDHC Strategic Planning Committee will lead the strategic planning process and will:
• Conduct environmental scanning of the Council’s services and people served by the Council
• Conduct an internal analysis or management “audit”
• Schedule planning meetings
• Write and distribute meeting minutes
• Provide ideas about specific services and approaches when identifying strategies
• Review draft and write the final version of the plan
• Submit written plan to the board of directors for approval
• Monitor the implementation of the plan, recommending adjustments, as needed

Who can be contacted with questions about the strategic planning process?

Jay Basquiat, the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee can be reached via
email at jaythefarmer@yahoo.com or by phone at (701) 226-1172.

Brenna Daugherty, Executive Director, NDHC, can be reached at
daugherty@ndhumanities.org or by phone at (701) 226-2840.

Deana DeFoe, President, Five Fold, LLC, can be reached at deana@fivefoldllc.com
or by phone at (701) 212-7818.

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