Investing in the Humanities

Sanchita Balachandran, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum, points to a scanned 1895 Baltimore newspaper article, which talks about a set of mummified remains and suggests that, even then, Baltimoreans were eager to know more about who the individual was.

More than 120 years later, Balachandran and a group of undergraduate and graduate students are closer to answering questions about those remains with support from an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Arts Innovation Grant.

The grants aim to spark creativity, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, and extend the reach of Hopkins’ arts and humanities programs. The Mellon funding has helped Balachandran take advantage of what modern scientific and imaging tools can offer in terms of knowing more about the mummified individuals while informing a conversation about how to respectfully present ancient remains in context.

“What kinds of different bodies of knowledge do we need to mobilize to be more responsible caretakers of these individuals?” she asks. “I hope that we can provide a way forward through this one project and build on existing literature about how to do this work more respectfully.”

Her interest in studying the remains, now stewarded by Goucher College and housed in Hopkins’ Archaeological Museum, stems from curiosity. But it also stems from concern that those ancient remains — and another set stewarded by Hopkins — be treated with respect.

“The mummies, especially the Goucher Mummy, are the most fascinating individuals in this museum — people come from everywhere to see her,” says Balachandran, a senior lecturer in the Krieger School’s Department of Near Eastern Studies and a recipient of the Johns Hopkins Discovery Award for another project focused on the making of ancient Greek ceramics.

Legendary investor William H. “Bill” Miller III has committed a record $75 million to the Johns Hopkins University Department of Philosophy to broaden and intensify faculty research, graduate student support, and undergraduate study of philosophical thought.

The gift is believed to be by far the largest ever to a university philosophy program. It is also the largest to Johns Hopkins for any department in the humanities.

Miller, founder and chairman of Miller Value Partners and formerly the longtime, highly successful manager of the Legg Mason Capital Management Value Trust, is himself a former Johns Hopkins philosophy graduate student.

“I had taken exactly one philosophy course in college, but it led me to read a lot more philosophy when I was in the Army during the Vietnam War,” says Miller, A&S ’67. “I decided to apply to a PhD program once my time in the military was ending.

“I attribute much of my business success to the analytical training and habits of mind that were developed when I was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins,” he adds. “I am delighted to be able to show my gratitude by helping to move the department to its rightful place among the best in the country.”

Ronald J. Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University, said Miller’s aim—and the university’s—is to set a new standard for excellence in philosophy and promote powerful, change-making collaboration between philosophers and other scholars.

“Philosophy matters,” Daniels says. “Philosophy defines what it is to be human, to lead lives that are meaningful, and to create societies that are just and humane. The contemporary challenges of the genomics revolution, the rise of artificial intelligence, the growth in income inequality, social and political fragmentation, and our capacity for devastating war all invite philosophical perspective. Bill Miller’s unprecedented commitment to our Department of Philosophy underscores the continuing vitality and relevance of the humanities.”

“She was a natural teacher,” says Robert Hall, Engr ’55, of Nancy Hall, his wife of 59 years. “Many teachers are only lecturers,” he says, drawing the distinction. “But the really good ones are engagers.”

When his wife passed away in May, Bob Hall, who works as a managing director at Brown Capital Management, knew just what to do. With a pledge of $2 million, he established the Nancy H. Hall Curatorship of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Sheridan Libraries, “an in-perpetuity extension of what Nancy was all about.”

The Sheridan Libraries’ Earle Havens was appointed to the position in 2016.

Havens says the endowed curatorship guarantees that there will always be someone at the libraries who can connect students and faculty with historical artifacts. Even more, the curator-scholar position expands what the libraries can do by increasing opportunities for partnerships and projects to enhance the university’s reputation as a leader in the digital humanities.

“To be an undergraduate and read Dante for the first time in your life with a Dante scholar, and then to flip through the first illustrated editions of the Divine Comedy—that is a priceless encounter,” he says. “It’s been the greatest privilege of my career to expand the horizons of students in similar ways.”

Inspired by democracy’s birthplace, the agora of ancient Athens, the SNF Agora Institute aims to restore civic engagement and open discourse, thanks to the generosity of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

The $150 million gift establishes the institute at Johns Hopkins University as an academic and public forum that will bring together experts in political science, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, ethics, sociology, and history.

“In the U.S. and around the world, the rise in division, distrust, and alienation presents a daunting and urgent challenge,” said Ronald J. Daniels, president of the university. “Today, cutting-edge research across a range of disciplines—coupled with a commitment to strengthen civic dialogue—can give us new insight into these trends and new opportunities for productive policymaking and problem-solving. The Agora Institute represents an extraordinary commitment to these aims, through a unique combination of scholarship, laboratory, and place-making. We are thrilled to lead the effort and look forward to partnering with scholars and institutions from across the globe.”

With distinguished faculty and visiting scholars, the institute will conduct interdisciplinary research into present-day issues focused on how citizens are informed, debate, and engage with each other and with government. It will then partner with public and private stakeholders and technical experts to investigate real-world strategies to ease division and strengthen dialogue.

“The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is committed to exploring issues that improve the functioning of civil societies today, and the connection to the Greek agora makes this particularly profound for us, since the agora was the heart of civic life, a common space for people to coexist as citizens rather than individuals,” said Andreas Dracopoulos, co-president of the foundation. “We are very excited to partner with Johns Hopkins and strongly believe in the importance of civil discourse, informed leadership, and the role of educational institutions in restoring a more fair and productive democracy.”

Alexander Levi, a trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins University, and his wife Vicki’s gift of $15 million to the university’s Berman Institute of Bioethics will support the education and training of future leaders in the field of bioethics.

Levi, a clinical psychologist based in New York, is a longtime supporter of the Berman Institute and chair of the institute’s national advisory board. He has previously supported post-doctoral bioethicists through the Hecht-Levi Fellowship Program.

The gift will establish the Ruth R. Faden Endowment for Education in Bioethics, named in honor of the Berman Institute’s founding director.

“This remarkable gift, one of the largest ever made to any bioethics program, will both enable the Berman Institute to attract and support the most promising students and fellows in the United States and from around the world and honor our founding director, Ruth Faden,” says Jeffrey Kahn, who became the Berman Institute’s second director last summer. “The Levi family’s generosity will dramatically expand our capacity to prepare leaders who will take on the most pressing and morally challenging bioethics issues of the day, and who will work to effect change when and where it is most needed.”