There is considerable interest within academia and at Princeton in the future of the humanities with regard to support for innovation and graduate education, which are interconnected. At Princeton, the Office of the Dean for Research is exploring ways to ensure that our mounting support for innovation and entrepreneurship provides benefits across all research divisions at the University.

Over the years, the Office of the Dean for Research has introduced innovation funds for the humanities as well as funds that support research collaborations between faculty in the arts and the sciences or engineering. The funds have been used to encourage innovation and scholarship on enduring questions via the development of new research, working groups, conferences, data sets, technologies, etc. In addition, Princeton Innovation’s new education programs in entrepreneurship have been designed to support faculty and students from across all four divisions (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering). Nevertheless, we have heard from our colleagues in the humanities that they are interested in more significant support, and in particular, initiatives explicitly designed to enhance innovation in the humanities. In our view, new initiatives will require us to re-think certain assumptions and definitions about innovation. We do not wish to create new programs to support innovation in the humanities that are simply copycats of programs already in place to support innovation in the natural sciences and engineering, as this assumes that the needs are the same. 

The Office of the Dean for Research, which has the responsibility to support and grow the research, innovation, and entrepreneurship infrastructure, is developing a report that produces recommendations on how we can become the leading institution that supports innovation in the humanities. The UAF will be integral in developing and curating the recommendations outlined in this report.