The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded two Penn State
professors in the College of the Liberal Arts a $195,023 grant to promote
the study of great speeches and public debates in undergraduate humanities
classrooms with the goal of helping students learn the habits and practices
of active engagement in a democracy.

J. Michael Hogan, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, and Rosa A.
Eberly, Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and English,
are two of five principal co-investigators awarded the grant for the Voices
of Democracy project. University of Maryland Associate Professors of
Communication Shawn J. Parry-Giles and Robert N. Gaines and Baylor
University Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric and Communication Martin J.
Medhurst are the other principal co-investigators on the project. Penn
State and the University of Maryland will provide institutional resources
adding up to a total award for the project of $294,690.

The interdisciplinary and multi-institutional Voices of Democracy project
seeks to foster understanding of the nation's history and principles by
reinvigorating the humanistic study of U.S. oratory. The project will
enable students to witness transformative moments in U.S. history when
"speaking out" made a difference.

By exposing students to some of the most eloquent voices of democracy in
American history, the project aims not only to enhance understanding of
what NEH Chairman Bruce Cole has called the "principles and practices on
which our nation is built" but also to inspire and reinvigorate civic
engagement and democratic deliberation among young people in the United
States.

"NEH support for this project reflects broad, interdisciplinary concern
over how well we educate students for citizenship," said Hogan, whose
scholarship focuses on the history of political campaigns and social
movements. "We hope not only to enliven the study of history, but also to
inspire students to get involved themselves. Teaching the skills and
responsibilities of democratic citizenship should be an important part of
Penn State's mission as a land-grant university."

According to the grant proposal, the project emphasizes the actual words of
those who, throughout U.S. history, have defined the country's guiding
principles, debated the great social and political controversies of the
nation's history, and shaped the identity and character of the American
people.

The three-year project will culminate in a Voices of Democracy website in
support of the study of great speeches and debates in undergraduate
humanities classrooms. The website will feature teaching-learning
materials including a multimedia archive of great speeches and debates.

The project website will provide reliable, authenticated primary texts
(with audio and video versions when available) along with interactive
curricular materials organized around seven "deliberative topics":
citizenship, civil rights, freedom of speech, religion and public life,
social and economic justice, U.S. internationalism, and war and peace.

The Voices of Democracy website will be the first "full-service"
educational resource on U.S. public oratory, providing both primary texts
and pedagogical materials for educators interested in establishing or
improving course offerings in civics and U.S. history and culture.

In the first year of the project the principal co-investigators and an
interdisciplinary advisory board of some of the nation's leading
historians, political scientists, and scholars from rhetoric, communication
studies, and English will plan and develop units for the website. During
the second year, participants will continue to develop new units and will
begin testing and assessing completed units in undergraduate classrooms.

In the final year of the project, the materials will be made available to
teachers across the country through the project website. An external review
board will assess the materials before they are included on the website,
which will be publicized nationally and will remain on-line after the
granting period.

Voices of Democracy Project -- Advisory Board
Robert Abzug (American Studies & History), University of Texas, Austin
Patricia Bizzell (English), College of the Holy Cross
H. W. Brands (History), University of Texas
Michael Delli Carpini (Political Science), University of Pennsylvania
James Darsey (Communication), Georgia State University
Gerard Hauser (Communication), University of Colorado
Lisa Hogan (Communication), Pennsylvania State University
Susan Jarratt (English & Rhetoric), University of California, Irvine
Philip Jenkins (History & Religious Studies), Pennsylvania State University
Cheryl Jorgensen-Earp (Communication), Lynchburg College
Shirley Logan (English), University of Maryland
Garth Pauley (Communication Arts & Sciences), Calvin College
John Powers (History), National Archives of College Park
Eric King Watts (Communication), Wake Forest University
David Zarefsky (Communication), Northwestern University

Voices of Democracy Project -- External Review Board
James Andrews (Communication), Indiana University
Moya Ball (Communication), Trinity University
Thomas Benson (Communication), Pennsylvania State University
Celeste Condit (Communication), University of Georgia
Robert Ferrell (History), Indiana University
Fred Greenstein (Political Science), Princeton University
Stephen Lucas (Communication), University of Wisconsin
Bruce Miroff (Political Science), University of Albany, SUNY
Susan Romano (English), University of New Mexico

Penn State alumni involved in this project:
Andrews is Penn State Ph.D. 1966 (Speech Communication)
Lucas is Penn State Ph.D. 1976 (Speech Communication)
Medhurst is Penn State Ph.D. 1980 (Speech Communication)
Eberly is Penn State B.A. 1984 (English) and Ph.D. 1994 (English with minor
in Rhetoric/Speech Communication)
Pauley is Penn State Ph.D. 1999 (Speech Communication)

Other Penn State faculty involved in this project:
Hogan, Communication Arts and Sciences (Advisory Board)
Jenkins, History and Religious Studies (Advisory Board)
Benson, Communication Arts and Sciences (External Review Board)