NCA Participates in National Higher Education Meetings and Advocacy Days
This spring, NCA members and staff attended two conferences that focus on advocating for funding and public support of the humanities and social sciences.
More than 200 people attended the National Humanities Alliance (NHA) Annual Meeting and Humanities Advocacy Day, held March 11-13 in Washington, DC. The NHA conference explored best practices in humanities advocacy. This year’s panels and sessions covered a range of topics, including a 2017 Pew poll about growing distrust in higher education, training new advocates, and local humanities programs. The keynote address was delivered by the newly confirmed Chairman of the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH), Jon Parrish Peede; he discussed the formative role the humanities played in his own life and his vision for NEH.
Also in Washington, DC, the annual Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) Science Policy Conference & Social Advocacy Day was held April 30-May 1. Plenary sessions touched on the #MeToo movement in science and the academy, reestablishing trust in social science, and communicating facts in a post-truth world (the latter plenary was moderated by NCA Executive Director Trevor Parry-Giles, and included panelist Associate Professor of Communication Melanie Green of the University of Buffalo). The conference also featured a variety of breakout sessions focused on the conference theme, “Why Social Science?”
More than 160 advocates for NHA and 70 for COSSA spent the second day of their events on Capitol Hill, communicating the value and importance of the humanities and social sciences and asking their congressional representatives to preserve funding for critical humanities programs as well as funding for important social science research.
NHA provides a number of resources for individuals who want to learn more about ways to get involved with efforts to protect the humanities. Learn more at http://www.nhalliance.org. To learn more about ways to get involved with social science advocacy, visit COSSA at http://www.cossa.org/advocacy/.