Prize Contest Asks Students to "Shout Out For the Humanities!"
4Humanities.org contest with renowned judges encourages students to make innovative projects thatspeak up for the value of the humanities in society.
SANTA BARBARA, CA -- October 26, 2015 -- "Why are the humanities--e.g., the study of history, literature,languages, philosophy, art history, media history, and culture--important to you? To society?" These arequestions that a new prize contest asks college students from around the world to answer in responseto the recent drumbeat of pessimism about studying the humanities.
Sponsored by 4Humanities.org (a grass roots organization started in the United States, Canada, andEngland), the contest encourages students to be creative in making high-impact projects in any medium
or format for a public audience--for example: short essays, videos, digital works, posters, cartoons,songs, art works, short stories, Instagram campaigns, or interviews. Prizes of $1000, $700, and $300 are
offered in each of the categories of undergraduate and graduate students, with submissions due March
1, 2016.
"I remember how hard it was for me in the 1970s totell my engineer dad that I was going to be an English
major," said 4Humanities.org co-leader Professor Alan
Liu of the University of California, Santa Barbara, who
had the idea for the contest. "Today after the GreatRecession, it's even harder to have such
conversations. I hope young people today, no matter
what career they want, will be willing to speak up toparents, employers, and politicians about why greatsocieties also need great humanities, and why they
personally value the humanities."
A distinguished panel of university, business, creative industry, and foundation leaders will serve asjudges, including:• Rens Bod (Professor of Humanities & Computational and Digital Humanities, University ofAmsterdam)• Richard Brodhead (President, Duke University)• John Churchill (Secretary, Phi Beta Kappa Society)• Richard Ekman (President, Council of Independent Colleges)• Neil Griffiths (Co-founder and Director, Arts Emergency)• Christine Henseler (Professor and Chair, Department of Spanish, Union College; Huffington Postcontributor)• Eileen Joy (Co-director, Punctum Books; Co-founder, Babel Working Group)• Jenny Lawton (CEO, MakerBot)• Earl Lewis (President, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)

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John Naughton (Senior Research Fellow, Cambridge University Centre for Research in the Arts,
Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH); Emeritus Professor of the Public Understanding ofTechnology, Open University)
Jonathan Schmidt-Swartz (Student; Founder and Director of StuHum, Student Advocates for theFuture of the Humanities)
Matthew Stinchcomb (Vice President for Values & Impact, Etsy, Inc.)
Laura Skandera Trombley (President, The Huntington Library)
Marina Zurkow (Media artist ; faculty in the Interactive Telecommunications Program, New YorkUniversity)

The contest web site at 4humanities.org/contest includes submission guidelines, a "contest kit" withresources and tools for students to use, and a call for university and community leaders to host a"creativity workshop" in their area to incubate student submissions (which will be featured on the4Humanities.org web site).
Started in 2010 by concerned scholars in several nations in the U.S., Canada, and U.K., 4Humanities.org
is an international initiative whose scholars, students, and others work on advocacy for the humanities
backed up by research on public perceptions and discussion of the humanities. It is backed in particularby scholars working in the "digital humanities" who feel that today's digital and networked media offer
promising new ways to enhance the public understanding of the humanities and also to infuse thehumanities themselves with fresh currents of thought and interest from the public.
Source:4Humanities.org
Local chapters -• University of California, Santa Barbara• Union College, Schenectady, NY (and NY6 Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges)• California State University, Northridge• Auburn University• McGill University• DHMakerBus
Contact information:
Lead contact: Alan Liu, Professor, Department of English, UC Santa Barbara, ayliu@english.ucsb.edu