Springfield, IL  (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The University of Illinois Springfield is one of five public liberal arts institutions to receive part of a $25,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant aimed at helping public colleges and universities navigate the world of artificial intelligence. The funding was awarded through a partnership with the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC).

The project, “Developing a Public Liberal Arts Humanities Curriculum: Empowering Students to Navigate an AI World,” will help with the development of classes, units or short modules for humanities classes that focus on the positive and negative aspects of generative AI.

“As public institutions that pride ourselves on accessibility and meeting regional needs, our students are in an excellent position to ask key questions that have become newly relevant —about human communication, about reflective writing practices and about access to digital tools and the risks of amplifying biases through large language learning modules,” said Miriam Wallace, dean of the UIS College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The humanities faculty at UIS, the University of Mary Washington, Eastern Connecticut State University, Northern State University and Evergreen State College will collaborate on curriculum.  After forming learning communities and sharing progress at UIS, the participants will meet the summer of 2025 to work together at a COPLAC workshop at Innovate Springfield, the UIS business incubator in downtown Springfield.

“Innovate Springfield is proud to support this vital program,” said Robert Kerr, UIS executive director of innovation and opportunity. “The humanities are uniquely positioned to help guide a more thoughtful and ethical implementation of AI and help students understand the risks and potential it poses.”

The institutions will also create open-access AI teaching resources, such as syllabus modules, readings, activities and assignments for all COPLAC institutions to utilize as part of the grant.

NEH Spotlight on Humanities grants are highly competitive. Out of 94 proposals submitted, only 22 grants were awarded.