WADE's WORDS
“Renewal”
A new president, a new dean, and, in July, 2008, a new chair. We are at all levels an institution undergoing renewal. I think we take such renewal in stride because, after all, every year we have a new crop of students. We are engaged, by our very nature, in a process of renewal.
But, because of these top to bottom administrative changes, this is a particularly strategic moment for us. Though externally-funded research has been an emphasis over the last decade or so, there will now be an even more focused effort to make GW a top-tier urban research university defined, principally by such research funding. Where do the arts and humanities factor into this aspiration?
As you might imagine, the overwhelming amount of government and foundation funding to institutions of higher education goes to the natural, mathematical, social and behavioral sciences, and engineering. GW is certainly imagining that it will be in these areas that the unversity’s research aspirations will find their greatest opportunities and successes. The humanities (as distinct from the arts) will likely run a distant 5th with the arts here trailing a bit behind it. There is nothing new in this funding picture. The fact that the institution will now focus its resources more pointedly in the direction of external funding means that the arts and humanities must be a player, even if the role, in terms of percentage of funding, is a minor one.
Individual department faculty members in theatre and dance have, over the years, received external funding for work in the department. The late Nate Garner may have been principal among us faculty when he received, in 1977, a rather large (at the time) NEH grant of $100,000 to fund a project called “Anthopology, Drama, and the Human Experience,” an interdisciplinary initiative that some of you may have been a part of over the years.
Nate’s grant may suggest where the search for external funding by the theatre and dance department will reap the most rewards, that is, in an interdisciplinary structure that coalesces one or more theatre and dance arts with one or more humanities interests.
I won’t here attempt to suggest what these might be, but let me ask if you have any suggestions for us. Send them to me here at the department (awade@gwu.edu).
Back to Wade’s Word of the Moment: “Renewal.” At least twice a year we send out a card announcing the latest edition of this online Alumni-ae/Friends newsletter. That card also encourages you to renew your affiliation with the department by joining C.A.S.T. I want you to know how absolutely crucial to our work is this form of renewal. It sustains the numerous student awards we confer at the end of the academic year, purchases much-needed equipment, and allows us to bring guest artists and lecturers into our classes. We hope it might provide you with a kind of renewal, perhaps the renewal of old friendships through an ongoing interest in theatre and dance at GW. Many thanks!
