The Virginia Tech Center for Humanities recently was recognized with two grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The center was awarded $665,000 from the Foundation to support the creation of a “Tech for Humanity” Pathways minor. This new undergraduate minor will focus on the intersection of humanities and technology by emphasizing humanistic, human-centered approaches to technology. It will draw on a range of talent in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and elevate the efforts of faculty in humanistic disciplines to help prepare a new generation of learners to understand technology through a comprehensive lens.

In addition, the center, along with Universities Libraries, received a planning grant to explore ways that emerging technologies could improve digital access to National Archives records. Virginia Tech will collaborate with the National Archives and other universities to understand the opportunity for using artificial intelligence to search digital records. The funding will be used for a two-day workshop for Virginia Tech librarians, archivists, humanities faculty researchers, and experts in fields such as machine learning and document analysis to help assure access to governments records at the National Archives.