Angela Krieger, professor of the history of science and chair of the Department of History, and Ryo Morimoto, assistant professor of anthropology, have received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support their projects in the humanities, according to the British Daily Mail. University announcement.
Their projects are among 260 projects in the humanities “carried out by scholars, higher education institutions and organizations of all sizes” that will be awarded NEH grants this year. According to the NEH press release announcing the recipients, the goal of the endowment is “to help preserve and expand community history, enhance the ability of small museums and archives to serve the public, and provide resources and educational opportunities for students to participate.” With history, literature, languages and cultures.
The grants come at a time when humanities programs at colleges and universities across the country face budget cuts, eliminations, and political attacks, leading to a national debate about the future of the humanities. The recipients indicated that they hope the research conducted with the assistance of the grants will encourage continuing education in the humanities.
“There are a lot of universities that engage in activities to try to promote the value of the humanities… [The NEH] “It's a very important resource for research,” Krieger said. “My style is deeply historical… and it's really important for historians to be able to cover all aspects of society.
Krieger received a $60,000 grant to research and write the book “Environment, Mutation, Cancer: A History of the Ames Test.” Morimoto received a $60,000 grant to research and write his second book, “Disasters, Crises, and Robotics Development in Japan and the United States.”
Krieger has been a member of the faculty at Princeton University since 1994. Her academic work focuses on the history of science, specifically “how the work of biologists has contributed to new understandings of health and disease.”
“Environment, Mutation, Cancer: A History of the Ames Test” will examine the connections between the Ames Test and the cultural, political, and legal history of cancer in the United States. The Ames test exposes a bacterial strand to a potentially dangerous substance to evaluate whether the substance will cause mutations in the bacteria.
Krieger shared with the Daily Princetonian that she initially became interested in “thinking.” [about] And analyze how [the Ames Test] “It may have informed environmental regulation because it was developed in the early 1970s,” when landmark legislation like the Clean Water Act highlighted how new tests could inform regulatory agencies about potentially unsafe substances.
Krieger has followed the Ames test for the past 10 to 15 years. Her book will span from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1980s and 1990s, and includes a lengthy analysis of “how ideas about the genetic origins of cancer, and the mutational origins of cancer, shifted in this time period.”
Morimoto joined the faculty at Princeton University in 2018. He teaches anthropology with a focus on nuclear history, culture, and memory.
His project, “Disasters, Crises, and Robotic Development in Japan and the United States,” examines U.S.-Japan cooperation in robotics development, focusing on their use in areas including disaster recovery, elder care, and nuclear reactor maintenance.
In an interview with “Prince,” Morimoto said he first became interested in the topic after working as a translator for an international documentary project about coastal Fukushima, which was affected by the nuclear disaster in 2011. Morimoto stressed his desire to “represent the local communities there more accurately and how Affected by the nuclear disaster.
Morimoto's book will follow the development of “disaster robots” tasked with shutting down damaged nuclear reactors and how this investment in robotics can provide benefits to other areas of Japanese society, such as elderly care.
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, also received a $75,000 grant for their project titled: “Developing Optical Character Recognition for Compression: Unlocking the Text of Greek Inscriptions Using the Craterus Database.”
The NHS has come under political criticism in recent years, with right-wing politicians suggesting the fund should be abolished. Bipartisan support in Congress for the program has so far stymied such efforts, with the fiscal year 2024 budget providing $211 million for the National Health Fund.
“Because democracy requires wisdom, NEH serves and strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans,” the NEH website says.
Morimoto similarly added: “I want to show that the humanities are inevitably linked to science and technologies. Many people-made technologies have eventually been integrated into society, which then raises all sorts of questions and issues that humanities and social science scholars can address.
Bridget O'Neill is news editor at Prince magazine.
Yan Zhenzhou is a news contributor to “The Prince.”
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