At Project Pericles, we believe that higher education—and particularly the liberal arts and humanities—play a critical role in shaping a vibrant democracy. Humanities-based learning equips students with the tools to navigate complexity, engage across differences, and think critically about civic and ethical challenges. Over the past two decades, our Periclean campus partners—including faculty, staff, students, program directors, and community organizations—have demonstrated how courses and projects rooted in humanistic inquiry sparks meaningful collaborations, and prepares students to step confidently into their roles as active, engaged citizens.
We are thrilled to announce that the Mellon Foundation has awarded support for a new three-year initiative, Civic Prosperity Through Humanities-Based Learning: Deepening Local Impact with National Vision. Building on a prior three-year Mellon-funded program, which reached over 6,500 students across more than 100 institutions with 85% reporting stronger civic engagement, this initiative will deepen local impact, broaden national reach, and strengthen the networks that make this work possible. It will scale our humanities-based civic learning model, reaching an estimated 150+ institutions and 10,000+ students over three years through expanded grantmaking and field-facing resources. There are three core strands:
Catalyzing Pedagogical Innovation
At the heart of the initiative is our Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) program. In this program, faculty leaders have transformed courses and their communities by linking course content to real-world application in imaginative ways—students have co-created digital archives preserving neighborhood histories, collaborated on public art projects in courses ranging from biology to art history, and explored civic and ethical reasoning through cross-disciplinary deliberative dialogues. These experiences cultivate empathy, critical thinking, and strengthen skills like project management and collaborative problem-solving.
This new initiative allows us to expand the PFL model to support not only individual course redesign , but also deeper campus-wide transformation built with local stakeholders. New rounds of course grants will empower Periclean Faculty Leaders to design, revise, and scale humanities-centered civic learning experiences that become integrated into the curriculum and woven into the campus ethos across our consortium. This next iteration reflects our strengthened commitment to advancing both innovative course development, as well as sustained institutional change.
In addition, we will be launching a renewed and more robust mini-grant program to extend our reach beyond the consortium, supporting public colleges, community colleges, and minority-serving institutions. This program enables us to partner with institutions critical to achieving our vision of preparing students of all backgrounds and perspectives, particularly those from under-represented backgrounds, to participate in civic life, build thriving communities, and shape a vibrant democracy.
Launching Micro-Residencies: Connecting Campus Leaders Across Institutions
Our 45+ Project Pericles Program Directors serve as vital connective tissue, disseminating programming and acting as key thought partners in advancing community-engaged civic learning through humanities-inspired methodologies. They coordinate our programs and grant opportunities, advise faculty, and help translate course-level innovations into broader institutional change. To better support this essential network, we are introducing a new Micro-Residency Cluster Program, bringing Program Directors together in thematic clusters over 12–15 months. Each cluster will explore shared goals—such as integrating community-engaged learning into first-year experiences or developing digital humanities certificates—and participate in site visits, peer learning, and collaborative projects. These residencies will document best practices and share them through our expanded digital civic engagement resources. By capturing how our consortium builds lasting supportive structures–including the PFL program–these micro-residencies will demonstrate our collective capacity to facilitate deep institutional transformation while creating replicable models for broader adoption across higher education.
Sharing Knowledge and Building Networks
To amplify and sustain the impact of this initiative, we are expanding our digital civic engagement resources to showcase faculty projects and offer a more accessible, interactive repository of humanities-based civic learning methodologies, case studies, and implementation guides—ensuring these tools remain relevant, sustainable, and widely used. We will also hold regional and thematic convenings to connect faculty, alumni, and campus leaders, fostering professional learning and co-creating resources. This relationship-centered approach strengthens a national community of educators committed to humanities-based civic learning, ensuring that innovative teaching practices support wider adoption and long-term impact.
Looking Ahead
Through this initiative, Project Pericles aims to reach hundreds of institutions and tens of thousands of students, demonstrating how humanities-based civic learning cultivates both the skills and imagination needed for democratic life. Working with faculty, program directors, students, and community partners–both within our Periclean consortium and others across the nation—this initiative will strengthen campus relationships, deepen civic engagement, and expand national reach.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Mellon Foundation for their generous support, which makes this vital work possible. We are excited to launch this new initiative building on our past successes, and charting a bold path for embedding community-engaged civic learning at the heart of higher education.