UC Irvine Strategic Plan: School of Humanities

School of Humanities

Strategic Plan
May 7, 2007

Mission

Established 40 years ago, the School of Humanities quickly achieved national and international recognition. As an “instant university,” UC Irvine provided the opportunity for the founding faculty to construct the humanities as a space for dialogue between the established disciplines and emerging fields of study. The departments of the School teach critical methods of interpretation and reading of texts (where text can have the broad meaning of document, literary work, visual or cultural representation, and can be delivered in any one of a number of languages.) Our research mission, which feeds graduate teaching directly and undergraduate teaching indirectly, consists in questioning the methods, premises and limits of our disciplines as well as transmitting inherited knowledge and recovering unexamined materials. New fields of study have emerged as a result of questioning the boundaries of the knowledge system and its values. One of the defining characteristics of the School is the School-wide strength in Critical Theory that augments disciplinary reputations and prestige. Several departments and groups are associated with Critical Theory, the Critical Theory Emphasis, and the Critical Theory Institute.

General Planning Horizon and Assumptions

In formulating our strategic plan, we seek to balance the needs of strong (not necessarily large) departments and to develop the significant School-wide momentum in cross-disciplinary research and curricula. We envision two modes of distributing FTE: continuing the more traditional distribution to departments on the basis of reputation and enrollment, and the successful innovation of supporting School-wide clusters of FTE focused on research and teaching strengths that cross disciplinary boundaries (including School boundaries). Long-term growth in the School is projected to involve 1) moderate growth of the outstanding, large and complex departments; 2) targeted support of several key emerging research and curricular foci across units, including cross school collaboration; 3) maintenance of quality in areas of shrinking enrollments (some of which boast strong, but small graduate programs). The School will continue to monitor the size of the faculty in these areas where some downsizing has already occurred.

Additional FTE in categories 1 and 2 will support undergraduate enrollment growth and a small number of new Masters programs and graduate emphases. Assuming average growth rate on the general campus at roughly 20%, the School of Humanities anticipates receiving 39-40 faculty FTE through 2015. Some of this growth will be needed to support the undergraduate growth anticipated to cap in approximately 2010-11. This assumption is based on the need to provide breadth requirements for the general undergraduate population in addition to supporting the needs of the undergraduate majors in Humanities, some of which are growing rapidly. In addition, with its highly ranked departments and programs, the School of Humanities anticipates participating in the campus goal to increase graduate to undergraduate enrollment through strategic growth of our Ph.D. programs and development of a few new Master’s programs. More moderate growth would be anticipated beyond 2010-11 as the graduate population continues to grow. Ideally the School should receive approximately 17 faculty FTE in the current allocation (2007-08, 2008-09), with 15 faculty FTE in the following allocation (2009-10, 2010-11) and 8 faculty FTE in the allocations that follow.

While it appears the School has a large number of unfilled FTE, the statistics are misleading, since we have undertaken an ambitious recruitment cycle in 2006-07. At last count we will have at least 17 new faculty joining the School in July, including a Distinguished Professor. Some of these positions included significant administrative responsibilities (Chair of Spanish and Portuguese, Director of Composition, Campus Writing Coordinator), making their successful recruitment more crucial and satisfying. In those few cases of failed searches (due to the absence of excellent candidates or a candidate declining our offer), we have suspended the search to carry over into next year’s recruitments. Finally, some FTE were purposely left vacant this year so as to spread out recruiting efforts over a two year cycle.

Structure

Like other schools of humanities nationally and within the UC system, our School is comprised of multiple units of varied sizes, including 12 departments and 3 programs that house faculty lines. (See comparative data at the end of this section.) Strong disciplines with stellar rankings (English, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Spanish and Portuguese, French and Italian, Creative Writing) coexist with new and emerging programs that have the potential to grow in both reputation and student enrollments (Film and Media Studies, Literary Journalism, Art History, Women’s Studies).

The large number of departments in Humanities should not eclipse the fact that faculty throughout the School teach courses in programs other than their own. A number of small departments have on-going commitments to provide faculty for honors sections of the Humanities Core Course. Faculty in the Department of French and Italian and Comparative Literature routinely teach in the Humanities Honors Program, Film program, European Studies and Global Cultures majors, in addition to great involvement in Critical Theory. A faculty member with a joint appointment in Biological Sciences and Humanities supports curriculum in bio-ethics, and Women’s Studies faculty participate in teaching science, technology, and environmental studies across campus. Our new Culture and Theory Ph.D. program by design draws on faculty from multiple academic units, relying heavily on ethnic and Women’s Studies programs and departments in both Humanities and Social Sciences.

We do not anticipate the disestablishment of any existing departments or programs now in the School, nor do we anticipate the creation of additional departments. It will be for the next dean and the faculty to decide if small departments and programs could better thrive if organized under a divisional umbrella (without losing their disciplinary autonomy).

Several of the Humanities units are interdisciplinary by nature (African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Latin American Studies, and Women’s Studies), with faculty throughout our school and the campus affiliated with their programs. The Center for Asian Studies is a collaborative research effort with faculty from both Social Sciences and Humanities. The Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture includes faculty from Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. And faculty are active participants in programs such as ACE; the Center in Law, Society, and Culture; Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies; the Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality; and the Critical Theory Institute, to name a few. The Department of Classics is part of a Tri-Campus graduate program and the undergraduate major of Humanities and Arts provides students with a broad exposure to a range of disciplinary and methodological opportunities in the two schools. Approval of the law school at UCI has stimulated a number of proposed collaborations involving law and humanities.

The structure of the educational mission of the School is described under Educational Programs.

Structural comparison to other institutions. The departments listed below represent "typical" humanities departments that exist at these universities. They are the humanities departments found within the Arts and Humanities Divisions of their Colleges of Letters and Science plus a few departments found in the Divisions of Social Science. Similar comparisons with other public and private universities are available.

UCB	UCSB	Wisconsin	UCI
Art History Classics Comparative Literature East Asian Lang & Cult English French German Italian Studies Near Eastern Studies Philosophy Rhetoric Scandinavian Slavic Lang & Lit South & Southeast Asian Spanish & Portuguese	Classics Comparative Literature East Asian Lang & Cult Cultural Studies English ESL Film & Media Studies French & Italian German, Slavic, & Semitic History History of Art & Arch Latin American & Iberian Linguistics Medieval Studies Philosophy Religious Studies	African Lang & Lit Art History Classics Comparative Literature East Asian Lang & Lit English French & Italian German Hebrew & Semitic Studies History Lang & Cult of Asia Linguistics Philosophy Scandinavian Studies Slavic Languages & Lit Spanish & Portuguese Women's Studies Program	Academic English African Amer Studies Art History Asian Amer Studies Classics Comparative Lit East Asian Lang & Lit English Film & Media Studies French & Italian German History Philosophy Spanish & Portuguese Women's Studies Spanish & Portugese
+Social Science Division African American Studies Gender and Women's Stud History	+Social Science Division Asian American Studies Black Studies Communication Women's Studies	+Social Science Division Afro-American Studies Communication Arts Jour & Mass Comm

Research Agenda

Departmental: For many years, the School has housed departments and programs highly ranked according to national measures such as the NRC and U.S. News and World Report. Strengths in English and Comparative Literature have characterized the School from its beginnings and continue to attract a group of excellent graduate students. The Programs in Writing (MFA in Fiction and Poetry) are among the very best in the nation. The Philosophy Department, with strengths in the history of philosophy and ethics, ranks in the top 20 and is planning to develop the area of philosophy, law, and human rights in collaboration with the new Law School. The History Department has assumed a significant leadership role nationally with its model program in World History, has added significantly to its faculty, and is expected to continue its upward trajectory.

Strong existing interdisciplinary graduate programs: Visual Studies is a burgeoning area of research. Art History and Film and Media Studies provide the foundation for this research and the graduate program, but faculty from other disciplines such as German, Asian American Studies, and Comparative Literature contribute as well. The Visual Studies program has been strikingly successful in establishing as its base the study of a variety of visual artifacts in different media, mostly in Euro-America and Asia. As the program advances, it will benefit from a broadening of the base along three axes – deepening the historical reach, broadening the geographical base, and diversifying the coverage of media. Culture and Theory is a new interdisciplinary Ph.D. and promises to bring in a set of graduate students interested in issues of race, gender, sexuality, and critical theory within diasporic, global, and transnational contexts. New faculty associated with this program are anticipated to reside in Women’s Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Latino Studies, and the School of the Arts. Graduate emphases continue to attract students from multiple departments and deserve continued strong support. An emphasis in translation studies, currently housed in Comparative Literature, will likely expand to a School-wide emphasis given the vibrancy and visibility of the ICWT.

Emerging interdisciplinary areas for development: The transnational and trans-regional focus of the innovative program in World History characterizes significant research and curricular interests in the School at large. The study of cultural phenomena across national boundaries, both historical and geographical where “nations” did/do not exit, or in a period like the present when the nation is transitioning into some other form, is a special strength of the School of Humanities at UCI. Four areas in particular are generating significant faculty interest. (1) Religious Studies – In contemporary critical theory, religious and theological issues are becoming an increasingly urgent ground for reflection on contemporary global politics in a cultural continuum as well as conceptions of modernity. The addition of Distinguished Professor Jack Miles will boost the program. (2) Women’s Studies – This unit has demonstrated excellence in the area of feminist transnational cultural studies. Their research and teaching focus on the networks of inequalities and connections arising from new forms of globalization and from older histories of colonialism and racism. (3) Studies of the Americas – In the past fifteen years scholars in a variety of disciplines and fields have shifted their focus of study toward a hemispheric consideration of cultural and historical relations in the Americas. Scholars have increasingly sought a more comprehensive understanding of cultural contacts and contexts under which the production of art, literature, and other texts emerge. (4) Law and Culture – This study has emerged as one of the most significant areas of legal scholarship. Recent years have witnessed an explosion of social and political events that provoke questions at the nexus of law and culture.

Diversity: In addition to the new program in Culture and Theory that focuses on issues of race and gender, the School includes numerous faculty strongly committed to research in diversity – race, ethnicity, gender, immigration, and post-colonial studies, among others. Related areas where expansion is considered a priority: Both the Program in African American Studies and the Department of History have expressed a desire to increase their studies of slavery. The Studies of the Americas, with a variety of language backgrounds, cultural influences, and social conditions in the hemisphere necessarily highlights the study of diversity, as does Religious Studies on a more global level.

Centers: Since 1998, the creation of interdisciplinary research centers support and focus collaborative research in the School and beyond. Indicative of the transnational and trans-regional focus of much faculty research in the humanities are the International Center for Writing and Translation, the Dr. Samuel B. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture, the Center for Asian Studies (shared with Social Sciences), and those in various stages of planning and development, including Middle East and African Studies and Religious Studies. Through the centers the impact of our research on global processes and movements translates to our local diasporic communities.

Faculty

Measures of quality and impact: Many departments have received high national rankings. The program in Literary Criticism and Theory is ranked second in the nation. English, Comparative Literature, Creative Writing, French, Spanish, German, and Philosophy have ranked in the top 20. It is expected that History’s rankings will rise in the new NRC rankings. The School boasts the presence of two Distinguished Professors – Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (English and Comparative Literature) and Jack Miles (English and Religious Studies). Ngugi recently won the California Book Awards Gold Medal for Fiction and Miles is a MacArthur fellow and former Pulitzer Prize winner. Mike Davis (History) is a MacArthur fellow as well. Barry Siegel, also a Pulitzer Prize winning author, heads our new and rapidly growing Literary Journalism program. Members of the faculty who are fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences are Ken Pomeranz (History) and J. Hillis Miller (Comparative Literature. Our Chancellors Professors include Steve Mailloux (English), Margot Norris (English), Ken Pomeranz (History), Gabriele Schwab (Comparative Literature), and Brook Thomas (English) and our current Chancellor’s Fellows are Heidi Tinsman (History) and Linda Vo (Asian American Studies). Three of our faculty are currently conducting research with support from National Endowment of the Humanities fellowships – Steven Topic and Qitao Guo (History) and Margery Miles (Art History).

Diversity: Aside from its importance as a research focus, the School of Humanities has one of the best records in diversity on the general campus. The statistics provided by OIR beginning in 2002 show the School starting with a female/male balance of 42.2/57.8. The percentage of females to males has steadily risen, with the 2006 balance being 47.2/52.8. In ethnic diversity the School has some departments with excellent records compared to national averages of non-tenured faculty availability. For example – in Comparative Literature the department has 75% Caucasian and 25% minority. The national average is 81% Caucasian and 19% minority for that discipline. German is 83.3% Caucasian and 16.7% minority compared to 95% and 5% nationally. History is 73.3% Caucasian to 26.7% minority compared to 83% and 17% nationally. Some of our departments could certainly improve their records, and the School equity advisors and the dean work closely with the recruiting departments to assure wide advertising of available positions and balance in the short-list of candidates.

New faculty: Based on the research and educational agenda set forth in this strategic plan, the School provides the following request for faculty to be recruited during the next two-year cycle. This request does not repeat the recruitments that were approved and initiated during 2006-07 and will be continuing through the next academic year. In the interest of clarity, the ranking can be found on the form provided; the narrative explains the clusters of FTE we are requesting. In addition to the requests described below, the Humanities faculty have participated in strong diversity and interdisciplinary proposals generated through the current process.

The complexity, enrollments, and quality of the units in the School of Humanities warrant the allocation of 15-17 FTE related specifically to the School’s strategic plan. During the last allocation cycle, our two large, well-ranked departments, English and History, were awarded excellence FTEs. English’s request at this cycle focuses on strong areas of the department, American literature, modern British literature, and Literary Journalism. The number one position in our requested allocation was already mortgaged by the School for the English Department to hire a tenured Associate Professor in American literature, with a focus on African American literature (two excellent candidates emerged for one position). Diversity and excellence were both served by this appointment. We request two junior positions in Literary Journalism to meet both enrollment pressures AND support the establishment of a new BA/MA program that the English Department plans to mount with an additional faculty member. This is a stellar program, one of its kind in the country and gaining much visibility and reputation. Modern British literature is popular on both the undergraduate and graduate levels, with many graduate students choosing to focus on twentieth-century literary topics. One FTE is requested in this area.

Another cluster of FTEs support a key interdisciplinary area, Visual Studies, and the two departments that contribute to this graduate program, Art History and Film and Media Studies. (A new graduate emphasis in Visual Studies was inaugurated last year). Two positions in Art History will expand the program geographically and historically: an FTE in Asian Art, particularly Chinese, to build on the school’s excellent cluster of faculty in Asian Studies (supported by the Center for Asian Studies), and a position in early modern art (formerly known as Renaissance). With its fairly recent move from program to department and from a concentration on film to the study of film AND new media, Film and Media Studies at this allocation is concentrating on media other than film: television and advertising; media and its relation to legal issues, such as copyright and privacy; and postcolonial film, building on the Transnational research and curricular emphases in the School. Again, as emphasized in the strategic plan, both legal studies (with the approval of the new Law School) and transnational or global studies are threads running through faculty research and interdisciplinary curriculum.

The next cluster of FTE support our successfully launched new Ph.D. program in Culture and Theory, which draws on faculty expertise throughout the School but particularly in the interdisciplinary gender and ethnic studies programs and departments. The program has applied for multiple positions through the campus call, but we are supporting the Women’s Studies program in its request for two positions through the strategic plan: Sexuality and migration and Gender and Religion (the latter supported by our Religious Studies group) will strengthen not only the new graduate program but the breadth courses attractive to students across campus. With its emphasis on feminist transnational cultural studies, Women’s Studies takes transnational movements and migrations as its object of study. For African American Studies, we request one senior appointment in African American or Caribbean literature, with collaboration during recruitment with appropriate departments and programs and, in Asian American Studies, we support a senior position for Asian American Studies in some aspect of Asian American cultural studies. Also, The International Center for Writing and Translation has requested an FTE in translation studies. The School strongly supports this request to support our translation emphasis and special fellowships in translation studies.

A cluster of FTE involve Religious Studies, another key targeted interdisciplinary area for the School. With the recent hiring of Jack Miles as Distinguished professor of English and Religious Studies, and a major and minor in the field, and with plans for a potential graduate emphasis, Religious Studies is due for two additional positions, one in Buddhism (to be placed in East Asian Languages and Literatures, and one in Critical Religious Studies (relation between philosophy and religion, religion and law).

Educational Programs

Degrees, Minors, Emphases: The School of Humanities currently offers at the undergraduate level 23 majors and 28 minors and offers courses that satisfy several other interdisciplinary majors and minors. Majors include: African American Studies, Art History, Asian American Studies, Chinese Language and Literature, Classical Civilization, Classics, Comparative Literature, East Asian Cultures, English, European Studies, Film and Media Studies, French, German Studies, Global Cultures, History, Humanities and Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies, Japanese Language and Literature, Literary Journalism, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Spanish, and Women’s Studies.

At the graduate level we offer Ph.D. programs in eleven areas plus an M.F.A in Creative Writing. The Ph.D. programs include: Classics, Comparative Literature, Culture and Theory, East Asian Languages and Literatures, English, French, German, History, Philosophy, Spanish, and Visual Studies. In addition, the School offers graduate emphases in four areas – Asian American Studies, Critical Theory, Feminist Studies, and Visual Studies. The degrees programs are directly linked with the research programs within the School. (See the School’s website for detailed descriptions of our degree programs.)

In 2005-06 our majors had 2,184 students enrolled and our graduate programs had 421 students enrolled. The undergraduate numbers do not include unaffiliated nor undecided/undeclared students associated with the School. The students participating in the minors are not as easily tracked, but in 2004-05 243 students completed minors in the School.

Some of the current majors (such as French, German, and Classics) will not grow significantly, but will require a base level of faculty to serve the majors and the graduate programs. Other majors have almost unlimited potential for growth. For example, Literary Journalism, the only major of its kind in the UC system, started out with 7 majors in 2002-03 and currently has 262 students enrolled.

New Programs and/or Changes to Existing Programs: Graduate
Having just established a new Ph.D. program in Culture and Theory, which crosses school lines, it is not likely that new free-standing doctoral programs will be created. However, new MA degrees, affiliated with current departments and programs or with cross-disciplinary research interests are planned. In addition to a possible MA (including an international collaboration with Dusseldorf University, currently under discussion), a number of departments have expressed interest in establishing a possible major or minor in the Studies of the Americas, which would reconfigure the study of Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada. With existing strengths in particular departments, such as Spanish and Portuguese, English, Comparative Literature, History, Art History, and interdisciplinary programs such as African American Studies, Latin American Studies, and Asian American Studies, the Americas have emerged as an area of focus and development. The English Department plans to extend its popular Literary Journalism major into a five-year BA/MA program. Classics, East Asian Languages and Literatures, Spanish and Portuguese, and Religious Studies are all contemplating developing master’s programs.

New Programs and/or Changes to Existing Programs: Undergraduate
The School of Humanities expects to introduce some new undergraduate degree programs. Their development will be determined by their potential for growth and the use they would make of existing resources, as well as by their role in supporting research and graduate education. Languages that are tied to the research interests of faculty and graduate students, will continue to have priority. The School offers over 20 languages and over the past five years has added Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Tagalog (the latter offered through distance learning in cooperation with UCLA). Although the School of Humanities will continue to possess the expertise necessary to the teaching of language, it is imperative that the campus recognize this as a campus priority. (In this vein, a campus Language Center for less commonly taught languages should be considered.) Along with this focus on language is the increasing importance of translation, with the very visible activities of the International Center for Writing and Translation. It is likely that the graduate emphasis in translation in Comparative literature will become a School emphasis.

Growth of non-departmentally affiliated majors, such as Global Cultures and Religious Studies, are also projected, as well as a potential graduate emphasis in Religious Studies. New majors, such as Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, or Legal Studies will likely be considered. Although at present there is less faculty enthusiasm, we can envision a time when a Communication major might build on the strengths in writing, media, and rhetoric in the School. Enrollment pressures on certain popular majors, such as Film and Media Studies and Literary Journalism necessitate increasing FTE in related units, as do pressures on enrollments of non-majors in Art History, English, History, Women’s Studies, and Philosophy. There are also ongoing discussions with the Merage School of Business to develop joint curriculum.

Outreach programs, internships, etc.: The School of Humanities has two model outreach programs – Humanities Out There and the California History/Social Science Project – both of which are described below under Public Role. The Humanities internship program brings together Humanities majors with private and public sector businesses and non-profit agencies in Orange County looking for employees who have excellent writing and communication skills.

General measures of quality: Data available for the last four Fall Quarters for admitted freshman show the scores of the Humanities admits are very similar to the campus average in both high school GPA and SAT total scores. As might be expected our numbers are very good in the verbal and writing scores and lag a bit in the math score. At the graduate level our admitted students over the past 10 years have consistently scored higher on the GRE than the campus average and also had higher GPAs.

Programs that Involve Collaborations Across Schools: Above we have provided a description of several collaborations that already exist and other that are in planning stages, such as joint ventures with the Paul Merage School of Business, the School of Social Sciences, and internationally with the University of Dusseldorf. Potential for further cooperation between Humanities and Social Sciences in the area of international studies would be facilitated by an Institute for International/Transnational Studies. In fact, it is hoped that this initiative will facilitate research and potential educational programs among several schools.

Staff

We anticipate staff growth needs as proportional to the growth of our programs. The School has a history of providing promotional opportunities within the unit. This is due primarily to the various sizes of our units and is, unfortunately, toughest on our smallest units that often hire great people, train them, only to have them leave for an advanced position in another department. The School has been studying ways in which to reduce this burden on the smaller units by proposing creative reorganizations that will support more than one unit while providing cross-training and opportunities for reclassification and promotion. The design of the new humanities building should facilitate this type of reorganization. We note that the comprehensive campaign will necessitate increased staffing in the areas of development and communication if the School is to successfully garner private and foundation resources.

Support Services and Facilities: Libraries, Instructional Technology, Physical Facilities

Library holdings will need to be increased in the areas of growth. In support of our graduate research programs we have already added first year instruction in Persian, Hebrew, and Arabic. Holdings in these languages and about the cultures in our emerging fields will be required. As our language programs grow, so will the need to increase the capacity of our Humanities Instructional Resource Center (language labs) in both space and equipment. A campus Writing Center in less-commonly taught languages would benefit the campus at large.

The School of Humanities is scheduled to break ground for a new building in 2007 for occupancy in 2009. This building is our first new building since 1997. It is critical that this building be of sufficient size to meet the needs of our growing school. We are gratified that the campus has committed resources to this building.

Campus Life: Contributions to the intellectual, social and cultural community of the campus

The School of Humanities provides a variety of campus and public events that enrich the community. For example, the Film and Video Center is UC Irvine and Orange County’s premiere art house cinema, screening new, independent, experimental, and ground-breaking films and videos.

Public Role: Interaction With the Public Sector

For past ten years, we have developed a focus on Humanities and the Public Sphere. The list below includes some of the accomplishments of the School in this area.

International Center for Writing and Translation (ICWT) – As a Campus Center, the ICWT continues outreach to the public for events, programs, and projects. Writers from around the world attract multiple communities and public constituencies to UCI. At the international level, the scholarship and writing of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Director of the ICWT, make it possible for the ICWT to be on the radar of a global community of writers, thinkers and scholars. The ICWT is currently embarking on the planning stages for a five-year conference and celebration, which will focus on marginalized languages and issues of revival, restoration, and visibility; the conference will bring activists, scholars and performers to promote their languages and cultures. With this conference we expect to merge the academic, local and global communities.

The Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture and the Center for Asian Studies (shared with Social Sciences) provide excellent opportunities to engage local communities in our activities and student support at UCI.

Developments in Middle Eastern and in Jewish Studies (within Religious Studies) allow the campus to demonstrate that UCI is a resource for research, teaching, and critical dialogue about the histories and contemporary cultural and geopolitical situations of major world cultures often in conflict today.

Humanities Out There (HOT) – HOT is a collaborative enterprise between UCI’s School of Humanities and the Santa Ana Unified School District with support from UCI’s Center for Educational Partnerships. HOT draws together public school teachers, graduate students, and undergraduate tutors in a shared enterprise of bringing innovative scholarship in the form of age appropriate curricula that enhance the critical thinking and writing skills of Santa Ana students. HOT’s basic goals are to increase the number of students from underserved groups who will be eligible to enroll in college. HOT promotes a broad-based, knowledge-driven literacy and encourages students from all backgrounds to increase their general literacy by incorporating the humanities into their studies for a lifetime of learning.

California History/Social Science Project (CH/SSP) is an educational partnership between Orange County schoolteachers and the University of California, Irvine. The primary focus of the CH/SSP is to provide an institutional framework for collaboration between history faculty at UCI and K-12 history/social science teachers in Orange County. The core of the project is the series of teacher-training institutes offered in the subjects of literacy, world history, and American history. These institutes provide the basis for on-going development of grade-appropriate curriculum that responds, among other things, to the challenges that teachers face in answering to district and state standards.

Humanities Center and HumaniTech – The Humanities Center provides programming, sometimes in partnership with other community entities, such as the Newport Beach Library, that are of interest to a broad audience. The Center has supported public town hall meetings at which Humanities and Biological Sciences faculty and visitors discuss recent scientific developments in stem cell research and their cultural implications. Several years ago HumaniTech launched a lecture series, popular with the local community, on “Humanities and Technology,” that raises awareness of the changed conditions of “being human” in a world of ever proliferating information technologies. HumaniTech will be expanding its use of podcasting over the next years to capture and broadcast many of the School’s public events. This will significantly enlarge the potential audience for these events.

Resources

Changes in the Level and Kind of Support Required Beyond Proportional Growth: The growth of our graduate programs will require greater than proportional support of our graduate students. In some areas we cannot compete with peer institutions for the best candidates who are attracted to our programs. Without the support of extramural research grants, the School depends upon fellowships and teaching assistantships for graduate support. Additional teaching assistantships, especially those accompanied by fee waivers will continue to be critical, even as we make graduate fellowships a top fundraising priority.

Endowed graduate fellowships ($450,000 or $25,000 annually) throughout the School are the number one fundraising priority. In certain areas, we will seek endowed chairs to be added to state faculty lines. These positions will reflect the priorities highlighted throughout the strategic plan.

In addition to graduate fellowships, including support of our MFA in creative writing, fundraising will support the growth of new programs through visiting scholars, library collections, lecture and film series, and student awards. Areas of focus for these efforts will include Persian Studies, Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Asian Studies. Finally, Literary Journalism, our new and very popular major, will be included in our fundraising activities. It is expected that departments will attempt to engage their own alumni in departmental activities and projects to help garner support for their highest priorities.

Structure of the Fundraising Effort and Integration with Centralized Efforts in Advancement: The School of Humanities Development Office supports the academic priorities of the School through private fundraising from individuals, foundations, and corporations. While we must remain flexible enough to respond to unexpected funding opportunities, the priorities outlined in the strategic plan will primarily frame our fundraising efforts over the next several years.

The School of Humanities Development Office works within the UCI centralized/decentralized fundraising model. In addition to professional support within the School, we also rely on a proportionate amount of service from centralized UA offices including UA Foundation Development and UA Corporate Development.

Zones of interest: Graduate Fellowship Initiative, new Humanities Building, Persian Studies Center, MFA Programs in Writing, Visual Studies and Film and Media Studies, International Center for Writing and Translation, Asian Studies, Jewish Studies.

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