Pedagogical Initiative
View the recording of the Spring 2024 Humanities Plus Virtual Gala!
Now in its fifth year, the Humanities Plus Pedagogical Initiative has supported more than 50 scholars in adopting innovative and inclusive pedagogical approaches. The Initiative supports Humanities faculty in adopting innovative and inclusive pedagogical approaches with incentive grants, pedagogical consultations, and the support and insight of a deeply committed community of scholar-teachers.
Incentive grants in the form of research/professional development funds will be approximately $2,000. Humanities undergraduate courses of 3 credits or more (or attached to courses of 3 credits or more), including Interdisciplinary Honors Seminars originating in Humanities departments, are eligible. These funds are available for all instructors; recipients do not need to have a research account to receive them. Professional development funds can be used for purchasing research or pedagogy-related books and resources; expenses related to research, including Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research; registration and attendance at conferences related to your Rutgers disciplinary appointment; and other forms of professional development.
2024 Application Materials – Applications were Due March 22 2024; recipients will be notified in mid-late April
Humanities Plus Call for Proposals 2024
Humanities Plus Application 2024
Applications are invited for faculty interested in developing new pedagogical methodologies and initiatives to enliven student engagement with and broaden the scope of the Humanities at Rutgers. All undergraduate courses of 3 credits or more originating in Humanities departments, including Interdisciplinary Honors Seminars, are eligible. Completed applications with endorsement of UGD and Chair are due by March 8, 2024. Please send your completed application, including application form, to .
For More Information
Chair, Humanities Plus Steering Committee Professor Alessandro Vettori
SAS Director of Teaching, Learning and Assessment David Goldman
2023-2024 Award Recipients
Elementary Russian (Russian and East European Languages and Literatures) - Professor Cori Anderson
Food for Thought: Food Culture in the Spanish-Speaking World (Spanish & Portuguese) - Professor Yeon-soo Kim
Art and Activism (English—Writing Program) - Professor Nancy Martin
Advanced Conversation and Civilization (Italian) - Professor Carmela Scala
Seminar in Women's and Gender Studies (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) - Professor Kyla Schuller
Introduction to Logic (Philosophy) - Professor Alexander Skiles
Minds, Machines, Persons (Philosophy) - Professor Wes Skolits
Francophilia: Literature and Sexuality in Early Modern France (French) - Professor Jennifer Tamas
2022-2023 Award Recipients
Advanced French: Writing Styles (French) - Professor Ann-Catherine Aubert
Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States (Spanish & Portuguese) - Professor Joseph Casillas
Korea in Translations: Contemporary Korean Media (Asian Languages & Cultures) - Professor Young-Mee Cho & Professor Hee Chung Chung
Literature and Culture of Spain (Spanish & Portuguese) - Professor Dámaris Otero-Torres
Art and Medicine (Art History) - Professor Jenevieve DeLosSantos & Professor Susan Sidlauskas
Topics in Black Literature & Culture: "Black Translation" (English) - Professor Stéphane Robolin
One Mind, Two Languages (Spanish & Portuguese) - Professor Nuria Sagarra
Research in the Disciplines (English) - Profesor Elif Sendur
Spanish American Theater (Spanish & Portuguese) - Professor Camilla Stevens
2021-2022 Award Recipients
History and Asylum Law in the U.S. (History) — Professor Yesenia Barragan
Radial Modernism and Anti-Art, 1900–1932 (German Language and Literature) — Professor Nicola Behrmann
Thinking Through Puzzles (Interdisciplinary Honors Seminar, Philosophy) — Professor Justin Kalef
Contemporary German and European Cinema (German Language and Literature) — Professor Regina Karl
Tolstoy (Russian and East European Languages and Literatures) — Professor Chloë Kitzinger
Research in the Disciplines: Stories of War (Writing Program) — Professor Nancy Martin
Power and Nation Building in Spanish America (Spanish and Portuguese) —Professor Marcy Schwartz
Language Development (Linguistics) — Professor Kristen Syrett
How the French Invented the Female Gaze: Early Modern Fairy Tales (French) — Professor Jennifer Tamas
Rutgers Meets Japan: Revisiting Early U.S.-Japan Encounters (Asian Languages and Cultures) — Professor Haruko Wakabayashi
2020-2021 Award Recipients
Sports and Religion (Religion) — Professor Debra Ballentine
Introduction to Korean Culture (Asian Languages and Cultures) — Professor Jae Won Edward Chung
The Contemporary American (American Studies) — Professor Angus K. Gillespie
Disrupting Inequality: Social Technologies for the 21st Century (English, Comparative Literature) — Professor Lauren Goodlad
Topics in Media Theory: Sound Studies (English) — Professor Carter Mathes
Current Moral and Social Issues (Philosophy) — Professor Trip McCrossin
Religion and the Arts (Religion) — Professor Dugan McGinley
French Gastronomy and Global Food Culture (French) — Professor Ana Pairet
Advanced Translation (Spanish and Portuguese) — Professors Laura Ramírez-Polo and Miguel Jiménez-Crespo
Law and History (History) — Professors Julia Stephens and Judith Surkis
Dante and Medieval Culture (Italian) — Professor Alessandro Vettori
2019-2020 Award Recipients
Europe, Africa, and America (History)
Professor Cooper reconceptualizes a course not taught in many years with the addition of resources in new media, including digital mapping and audiovisual materials. This exposure to a broad geography while showing interconnections globally will prepare students for a 1-credit winter study abroad trip to Benin.
Marx, Nietzsche, Freud (German, Russian and East European Languages and Literatures)
Professor Rennie introduces polling technology (iClicker or Top Hat) to a large lecture course that already includes regular group work. This enables him to gauge whether all students understand the material, as well as to involve those who may feel less authorized to participate in a large lecture course.
Accidents and Disasters in the US and the World (History)
Professor Pietruska scales up without sacrificing collaboration among students or their close engagement with the course material. This is made possible by the adoption of Active Learning pedagogy and technologies in an Active Learning-dedicated classroom
Feminist Practices (Women’s and Gender Studies)
Professors Rajan and Nachescu reorganize their course around podcasting. Students build from listening to podcasts, to creating them in groups, to conducting their own research project and creating a podcast about that project. This allows students to develop their mastery of a new medium while reflecting on its possibilities and limitations as a tool of feminist practices.
Religions of the Western World (Religion)
Professor Fruchtman incorporates Just-in-Time Teaching techniques into a content-rich 200-level course. This teaching strategy asks students to submit “warm-up” exercises shortly before class. By reviewing and incorporating those exercises into the day’s class presentation, Professor Fruchtman ensures student engagement and assesses students’ comprehension of the day’s material.
Writing for Media (School of Communciation and Information)
Professor Kremen designs a new template for a multi-section writing course that will be taught by several instructors. Working with Rutgers’ Cyberlearning Innovation and Research Center, she also incorporates artificial-intelligence software to automatically generate online grammar assessments tailored to each student’s needs.
Elementary Korean (Asian Languages and Cultures)
Professors Cho and Chun repurpose class time through flipped learning: moving rote aspects of language pedagogy online in a format that encourages self-paced lectures and self-assessment. This frees instructors to devote class time to interactive practices and activities that encourage creative engagement.
Global East Asia (Asian Languages and Cultures)
Professor Schalow and his teaching assistants shift from interdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity through increased reliance on active learning techniques appropriate to a very large lecture course. Likewise, projects demanding greater individual engagement will replace the current short paper assignments.
Masterpieces of Greek and Roman Art (Classics)
Professor Peruzzi transforms a standard lecture course with Project-Based Learning. In lieu of a final paper and exam, students will create educational materials targeted at a broader public.
History Workshop (History)
Professor Townsend involves undergraduates in an ongoing research project on understudied Lenape legends found in manuscripts in the Smithsonian. Students will integrate this archival work with information gained through exchange with young people in Lenape descent communities, now known as the Delaware, who live in Oklahoma.
American Folklore (American Studies)
Professor Kennedy creates opportunities for her students to practice in the field what they learn in the classroom. Using fieldwork equipment kits, students apply their classroom instruction in ethnographic methodology by conducting interviews, engaging in cultural encounters, and producing documentation of the artists and communities selected to be a part of the New Jersey Folk Festival.
