If you believe in these principles, I would be grateful for you to become a paid subscriber to anneleader.substack.com
Though it won't make up my the salary lost with the #NEH cuts, it will help. More importantly, it will give me inspiration to know that people care about what I do 🧵17
I was inspired to write about it. Why the #humanities and #NEH matter, and what’s at stake.
If you care about this kind of work, I’d be glad to have you read it. It starts with a quote from @mika-brzezinski.bsky.social
anneleader.substack.com/p/what-is-my...
🧵16
The justification?
Reduce the federal deficit. Get rid of "useless" agencies.
The #NEH was not useless. Its entire budget is a tiny, truly inconsequential fraction of federal spending.
Cutting grants and firing most staff did essentially nothing to solve our deficit problem.🧵12
In many other cases, even when ChatGPT said a project had no connection to DEI, including our project, it was still cut. Even after the acting #NEH head said to preserve these projects and only cut the "DEI" ones. 🧵11
Listening to the Nate Cavanaugh #NEH deposition, and a little of Justin Fox and McDonald, many of my suspicions were proven true. They tropes about the humanities were all there, my field specifically. 🧵3
youtu.be/qkCz-Sw4kLY?...
In light of the one-year anniversary of the #DOGE destruction of the National Endowment for the Humanities, I thought I'd share some thoughts on the value of the #humanities and importance of #NEH in a 🧵 /1
As outrageous today as it was a year ago. Restore #NEH
Email from DOGE/Michael McDonald placing National Endowment for the Humanities staff on leave.
At nearly midnight one year ago today, the National Endowment for the Humanities placed 80% of staff on Administrative Leave, using a similar fake #DOGE email address to those that were used to terminate #NEH grants.
A week later, the majority of us were fired - "On Behalf of Michael McDonald."
A redacted image of an NEH grant termination notice, dated April 2, 2025.
It's one year to the day since Nat'l Endowment for the Humanities staff arrived at work to panicked emails from our grantees; they'd received notices of the sudden termination of their #NEH grants. We had no idea what was happening - it was pure chaos.
One year on, we continue to fight for you.
Not April Fools but reality - mass firings of staff, mass terminations of grants. We continue to stand with our grantees as they await justice, and with all civil servants who have been impacted by these senseless actions. #NEH
Screenshot of an email dated March 31, 2025, from Michael McDonald (Acting Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities) to Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh of #DOGE with details regarding the cancellation of NEH grants and terminations of staff.
One year ago today, the plans to fire the majority of National Endowment for the Humanities staff were well underway - only none of us knew that 75% of us would lose our jobs less than two weeks later.
One year later, it's still hard to comprehend what happened to #NEH, its grantees, & its staff.
"As historians, we invite all Americans to join in defending the work of our colleagues in federal agencies entrusted with understanding and disseminating the nation’s past honestly and transparently." #NEH #Smithsonian #NARA #LibraryofCongress #NPS #humanities #history
"Yeah, it would be much better if Philosophy Talk was the thing that killed Trump."
#PhilSky #Philosophy #DOGE #NEH
"Preserving our cultural heritage, enhancing education, & fostering public engagement with the humanities has long-term societal and educational benefits, offering tools to navigate the complexities of our world." #NEH #IMLS #comics #humanities @comicsatsdsu.bsky.social
Keep your stories coming!
"I’m surprised by the forcefulness with which the president has pursued this campaign." - Jennifer Schuessler @nytimes.com who has reported in-depth on the gutting of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the American cultural landscape. #NEH
My 2024 book, "Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies" was written with support of a 2021 #NEH Public Scholar Award. Past media projects had NEH support. And "DOGE" admits that the devastation to the NEH was not about cost cutting.
2. Funding Restrictions You may not use funds made under this notice for the following purposes: Restricted activities: • promotion of a particular political, religious, or ideological point of view • promotion of gender ideology • promotion of discriminatory equity ideology • support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) or diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives or activities • environmental justice initiatives or activities • advocacy of a particular program of social or political action • support of specific public policies or legislation • lobbying
These are the current #NEH guidelines for media projects (3/19/26). What does it even mean that a project may not support DEI or DEIA -- how does a media project "engage general audiences with humanities ideas in creative and appealing ways" and leave out whole segments of humanity???
🚨 More outstanding reporting on the Nat'l Endowment for the Humanities! 🙏
"Some organizations are scaling back their work. Others worry artists will censor themselves just to survive. But many are fighting back." #NEA #NEH #humanities #arts #Nashville #Alabama #podcasts @drangelasutton.bsky.social
We'd be just fine - ecstatic, really - with having all of the "work" by #DOGE undone - 116 fired National Endowment for the Humanities employees would get their jobs back, and 1400+ grants would be restored. #NEH
Latest in #NEH case ‘when a government lawyer suggested that some of the testimony was not intended “for the entire internet to see,” the judge responded: “Aren’t they proud of what they did?…Do they not stand behind what they did?”’ www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/n...
Here's the original press release, when St. Bonaventure Univ. received the #NEH grant in 2023:
"The project will strengthen understanding of the Seneca Nation and Indigenous peoples among SBU students, faculty, and staff and likewise strengthen the university’s relationship with the Seneca Nation."
"We did have the final year of a 3-year National Endowment for the Humanities grant rescinded by the Federal Government related to our Seneca partnership. The funds were used to help with training and education in Seneca [Nation] culture."
#NativeAmerican #Indigenous #Tribal #DEI #NEH
@legaleagle.tv & @annabower.bsky.social | LegalEagle: "DOGE Tapes Are a Catastrophe" | #LawReviewNews #NEH #HolocaustArchive #DEI #HVAC #HumanitiesGrants #LLM #ChatGBT #FirstAmendment #NateCavanaugh #WastefulSpending #APA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q9B...
New on my "Briefly Noted" Substack: DOGE's ChatGPT humanities purge; Digital history after vibe coding; Musk's orbital data centers; Testing and education; AI reliability vs. trust; and more. Go ahead and subscribe!
buff.ly/jcA1UAr
#AI #Humanities #NEH #Education #DH
We all lost our positions at the National Endowment for the Humanities - and our grantees lost all their funding - under the guise (lie) of "reducing the deficit." But the deficit hasn't been reduced at all. #NEH
"The administration 'systematically targeted grantees and programs that sought to increase the public’s understanding of Black history and cultures' when they cancelled a $250k grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year. #NEH #humanities #NY #museums
It still feels inconceivable that this was nearly a year ago, when two-thirds of National Endowment for the Humanities staff were fired at once.
Most programs and initiatives no longer exist.
Most grants are still terminated. #NEH
Read more about this damning picture in the full survey - and please continue to support civil servants like those who remain at #NEH.
The Nat'l Endowment for the Humanities regularly scored among the top small government agencies to work in the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. OPM cancelled FEVS this year (no surprises there)
A new survey by @ourpublicservice.bsky.social provides a current glimpse into fed service. #NEH
