{"id":5,"date":"2013-06-06T08:04:49","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T12:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/template-academic-small\/?page_id=5"},"modified":"2023-06-27T09:17:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T13:17:38","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute (AGHI) aims to advance humanities scholarship and teaching at Johns Hopkins and promote literature, art, philosophy, history, and other cultural studies in Baltimore and the wider community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Humanities Institute serves as a focal point of programming for the 13 humanities departments in the university\u2019s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, other departments in humanistic social sciences, and related centers, programs, and institutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johns Hopkins has a rich history in humanistic studies and is considered the birthplace of modern literary scholarship. In addition, Hopkins was the first in the nation to have a Classics Department and the first in the country to offer a doctoral degree in Near Eastern Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Philanthropist Elizabeth Grass Weese and her brother, Roger Grass, committed $10 million to advance humanities scholarship and teaching at the Johns Hopkins University and to promote literature, art, philosophy, history, and other cultural studies in Baltimore and the wider community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their gift, through the Alexander Grass Foundation, is the largest ever to Johns Hopkins exclusively for the support of the humanities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It established the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute (AGHI) as a focal point and important sponsor of programming for humanities departments. The institute is named for the donors\u2019 late father, a Pennsylvania businessman and philanthropist and founder in 1962 of what became Rite Aid Corp., now one of the nation\u2019s largest drugstore chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does AGHI do?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute serves as an umbrella for and supports the goals of all of Johns Hopkins\u2019 humanities-related academic departments, programs, and centers. AGHI sponsors scholarly meetings as well as public events. The institute also paves the way for faculty members from different departments to work together on innovative projects of mutual interest. AGHI focuses on these areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n