Grant Will Help Students Explore Crossroads of Humanities and Data Science

A $150,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant will help 最靠谱的网赌软件 students explore the deepening relationship between the humanities — English, 哲学, 宗教, world languages — and data science.

“This is definitely a growing area,” said Teresa Kouri Kissel, associate professor of 哲学, who applied for the grant in conjunction with Interim Dean for Interdisciplinary 学校 Holly Handley and Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Brian Payne.

Kouri Kissel sees more 哲学 majors being hired in jobs related to data. “I think 50 percent of the jobs have a data-driven component,” she said.

This grant will allow more students to be exposed to data science, Handley wrote.

“The new undergraduate minor provides all students across campus the ability to augment their studies with content knowledge about data science, while the new undergraduate major allows our data science students to choose a concentration that expands critical thinking and communication skills,汉德利写道.

The NEH grant money supports the ODU project called “Developing Humanities-Focused Curricula in Data Science.” It is described as a three-year effort to create a humanities concentration within the university’s data science major and a minor in data science and humanities.

Kouri Kissel says today’s employers want workers with foundational skills — reading, 写作, 逻辑, analysis — in addition to technical ones. “The humanities are excellent at developing those foundational skills,” she said.

“To be able to get that development within your major or minor as opposed to just getting that through your electives … I think is going to be huge for our students on the job market. It just makes them that much more marketable.”

Handley also said the grant will help ODU continue to distinguish itself as a leader in the undergraduate education of data science.

Kouri Kissel表示同意.

“In doing 研究 for this, one of the things we realized is that no one has a degree or concentration that focuses on the intersection between these two fields,Kouri Kissel说. “So, we are hoping to pave the way.”

资源 compiled to build the concentration and the minor will be 分享d publicly, she said. “People can look to us when they think about these things in the future.”

ODU’s grant is one of several hundred projects supported by the NEH in a round of funding announced April 16.

“These projects show how the humanities help us understand ourselves and our world,NEH主席Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo) in a news release. “NEH is proud to support 238 exemplary new education, 保存, 研究, and public programs that will expand our nation’s cultural resources and foster learning in communities across the country.”

If all goes as planned, classes in ODU’s new curricula will be offered in Fall 2026 or sooner.

This isn’t Kouri Kissel’s first NEH experience. In 2022, 她赢了60美元,000 fellowship from the organization to 研究 the 写作s of Susan Stebbing, a 20th century British philosopher and 逻辑ian.

她的丈夫, 安德鲁Kissel, also a 哲学 professor at ODU, won NEH funding in 2020 for a project titled, “Philosophical Thought Experiments in Virtual Reality.”

“So, they are fans of the Kissels,” she said, “which I can’t complain about.”

_{上图:A new project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities will help students understand intersections of data science and the humanities. Credit: Canva/Sam McDonald}