Congratulations to the six MLA members who were awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grants in August 2025! Their projects include a volume on Walt Whitman’s journalistic writing; a virtual institute on the history of literary education; a research center focused on AI, the humanities, and the health sector; and more.
Deborah Gussman
Project Title: Letters of American Author Catharine Maria Sedgwick: An Online Edition
Project Description: Preparation for publication of an open-access digital edition of the complete letters of the early American writer Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789–1867).
Kevin McMullen
Project Title: “Missing Me One Place, Search Another”: Locating and Digitally Editing Walt Whitman’s Unsigned Journalism (1846–48)
Project Description: Preparation for publication of the journalistic writing of Walt Whitman (1819–92) while editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Cristanne Miller
Project Title: Marianne Moore’s Notebooks: A Dynamic Record of Poetry in the Making of Twentieth-Century Culture
Project Description: Preparation for publication of selections from twelve of the literary notebooks of the American modernist poet Marianne Moore (1887–1972).
Deborah Mutnick
Project Title: The Federal Writers’ Project: New Directions for Research, Teaching, and Public Engagement
Project Description: A three-week, combined virtual and residential institute for twenty-five college and university faculty members to study methods for teaching and researching the Federal Writers’ Project.
Andrew Newman
Project Title: Making the Good Reader and Citizen: The History of Literature Instruction in American Schools
Project Description: A two-week virtual institute for thirty middle and high school teachers on the history of literary education.
Kirsten Ostherr
Project Title: Center for Humanities-Based Health AI Innovation (CHHAIN)
Project Description: Establishing a collaborative humanities research center at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University focused on integrating humanities knowledge into the development of trustworthy AI tools in the health sector.