University of St. Thomas Awarded $1 Million NEH Grant to Strengthen Catholic Engagement in American Civic Life

At a time when American history and Western Civilization are increasingly contested on college campuses, the University of St. Thomas-Houston (UST) has received a $1 million federal grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The award comes as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary and underscores UST's commitment to the Catholic intellectual tradition and to understanding the American founding within its broader moral, philosophical, and religious context.

"For Catholics, participation in civic life is part of our obligation to love our neighbor. While we belong to many communities, our country is the most important one outside the Church," said Dr. Thomas Harmon, Division Dean of the Core and Centers for Excellence at the University of St. Thomas-Houston. "Ensuring the health of our political community is an urgent demand of charity. It requires ethical formation, civic knowledge, and a deep understanding of the history, laws, literature, and constitutional traditions of the United States. This grant will allow us to better understand our nation and become more faithful citizens at a moment of civic urgency."

The highly competitive federal grant will support Educating for Liberty, a comprehensive, institution-wide humanities initiative that integrates civic education across the curriculum, campus culture, faculty formation, and public engagement, in alignment with the NEH's Celebrate America! theme. The initiative unites five mutually reinforcing projects designed to ground students and the broader public in the moral, philosophical, and religious foundations of American ordered liberty, while preparing them to confront contemporary civic challenges with wisdom and responsibility.

Projects include the expansion of UST's Great Books Honors Program; enhancements to the core curriculum; Moral Imagination and the Foundations of Liberty, a public humanities initiative commemorating the nation's semiquincentennial; a national survey on citizenship and civic virtue; and a faculty-led initiative examining artificial intelligence through Thomistic thought and guided by civic purpose. These efforts will generate shared texts, common events, faculty collaboration, student leadership, and public scholarship that strengthen UST's mission-centered approach to virtuous citizenship.

"It is important to engage young people now, as deep knowledge of American institutions has reached a low point," Harmon said. "By helping students understand what America truly is-free from abstract ideology or nihilistic deconstruction-we hope they can learn to love what is good about their country and about their fellow citizens. They deserve the opportunity to discover that civic life can be a worthy and meaningful enterprise, particularly when it is informed by faith, hope, and charity."

The NEH-funded initiative will launch on July 4, with public events and resources rolling out in the lead-up to the United States' 250th anniversary.

For more information and a complete press kit, visit https://news.stthom.edu/press-kit-neh-grant/.

Dr. Thomas Harmon is available for comment. To request an interview, contact Carrie Kline at [email protected].