History

Formation

1987  Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences establishes the University of Washington Center for the Humanities with a mandate to support interdisciplinary activities

Formative leadership

• Ron Moore (Philosophy)
• Leroy Searle (English and Comparative Literature)

1997 Center receives competitive University Initiative Fund (UIF) for enhancement and expansion of its programs.

1997 The Center is endowed by a major gift from Barclay and Sharon Simpson and renamed the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities in tribute to Barclay Simpson’s father.

2000 Kathleen Woodward [LINK to About/Administration/Center Administration/Kathleen Woodward bio] is named Director of the Center and joins UW as Professor of English.
 

Major Gifts

The Simpson Center is grateful to all its supporters.

2009 Donald Petersen gives a major gift to support the Digital Humanities Commons Endowed Fund.

2009 A gift from Homer Bliss creates the Homer Bliss Endowed Fund in the Digital Humanities.

2008 A gift from Herbert Blau in honor of his parents establishes the Joseph and Yetta Blau Endowment to support graduate student scholarship.

2004 A gift from Barclay and Sharon Simpson supports a three-year Simpson Professorship in the Public Humanities, modeling a locally-invested alternative to sabbatical leave.

2003 A bequest from Yasuko Endo creates the Robert Bolles and Yasuko Endo Endowment, which supports UW humanities graduate students.

2001 A series of gifts (2001-2009) from Fredric Danz supports the Danz Courses in the Humanities: large-scale, team-taught interdisciplinary inquiry courses for pre-major undergraduates.

Major Grants and Contracts  

2011 The Center for Biological Futures at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center establishes a UW subcontract via the Center for Biological Futures in a Globalized World [LINK to Programs/Initiatives/Biological Futures]

2009 National Endowment for the Humanities awards the Center a Digital Humanities Challenge Grant, launching the Center’s five-year fund-raising Campaign for the Digital Humanities Commons [LINK to Programs/Initiatives/Digital Humanities Commons].

2006 Ford Foundation funds Engaging Southeast Asian Pluralism in Seattle (2006-2008)

2004 Rockefeller Foundation funds the Project for Critical Asian Studies (2004-2008)