The Whiting Foundation has just announced that they will be awarding six $50,000 Fellowships and five $10,000 Seed Grants to a vibrant cross-section of public-humanities collaborations. We are pleased to announce that the APA’s nominee Dr. Melissa Jacquart (University of Cincinnati) has been awarded one of the $50,000 Fellowships for her project, Bringing Philosophy to Science Fairs—an after-school Philosophy & Science Fair Club for seventh- and eighth-grade students in Cincinnati. For more information, please see the Whiting Foundation’s announcement.
The Whiting Public Engagement Program (WPEP) is a distinctive national grant founded to champion the public humanities in all forms, and to highlight the roles scholars play in working to deploy the humanities for the public good. Since it began in 2016, the WPEP has given $2.7 million to launch and expand projects in the US and beyond. Winners are selected through a highly competitive process beginning with nomination by a university or humanities nonprofit and proceeding through two further stages of peer review by expert public humanists.
Melissa Jacquart is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Cincinnati and Associate Director for the Center for Public Engagement with Science. Her research focuses on epistemological issues in the philosophy of science, specifically on the use of models and computer simulations in astrophysics. She also examines the role philosophy can play in general public understanding of science, and in science education. Her interests include values in science, science policy, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of education, particularly developing effective teaching methodologies for philosophy. Jacquart has been a postdoctoral researcher in the Philosophy Department at the University of Pennsylvania and the Carnegie Observatories. She received a PhD in Philosophy at Western University, where she is also a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy.
