Creating Lifelong Learning Opportunities in North Dakota

Also known as North Dakota’s Polytechnic Institution, Bismarck State College’s (BSC) degree programs emphasize science, engineering, and technology. In 2015, To enhance the visibility of the humanities at the school, BSC in 2015 embarked upon Bringing Humanities to Life, an initiative aimed at supporting humanities faculty, offering lifelong learning opportunities to the public, and building humanities skills in the college’s students. The initiative was made possible by an NEH challenge grant, which helped the college raise an additional $1 million and create an endowment that will support this work far into the future.

NEH funding has helped BSC offer robust humanities programming that enriches student education. Each year, the Bringing Humanities to Life endowment supports two faculty fellowships that offer faculty time to conduct new research in their fields, helping them develop new classes for BSC students and programs for the broader public. Through the program, one theater professor developed a festival of short plays that drew international submissions and theater students researched and then recreated the script for a play that has been lost to history. A speech professor and chemistry professor worked together to develop coursework on how to better improve communication around STEM concepts. And English professor Michael Tomaneck, who also serves as the program’s project director, started a weekly poetry workshop at the North Dakota State Penitentiary, providing people who are serving prison sentences with opportunities to reflect upon and communicate about their experiences.

The program has helped BSC establish collaborations with a number of state and local organizations, including the North Dakota Historical Society and local indigenous tribes that are participating in a symposium on the North American bison planned for late 2021. With North Dakota Humanities, BSC has been able to offer humanities programming to the local community, including conversation programs and outdoor adventures. And the impact of these programs is not limited to Bismarck. In 2019, Bringing Humanities to Life worked with libraries and community centers in surrounding towns to offer engagements with local scholars. In 2020, the pandemic forced humanities programs to go largely online, further expanding the project’s reach.