Professor Ruth Mostern, chair of the Interdisciplinary Humanities graduate group, is in Washington, D.C., today and tomorrow (March 16 to 17) to advocate for the humanities.
Mostern is attending the annual meeting of the National Humanities Alliance today, and she will join several peers tomorrow to meet with members of Congress about the importance of federal funding for humanities programs at both the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and National Science Foundation (NSF).
“I have spent my entire career advocating for the humanities and educating others on the value of interdisciplinary collaboration, but I have never had the opportunity to do so at the national level,” the founding faculty member said. “This trip gives me the ability to go straight to the source and help members of Congress understand the value of the humanities by highlighting some of the important research UC Merced has done.”
As interim director of the UC Merced Center for the Humanities and the Spatial Analysis and Research Center, Mostern is well versed in the breadth of research conducted in the field. She is a specialist in spatial and environmental history, focusing on imperial China and the world, and currently holds grants from both the NEH and NSF.
