Last year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities Award, Donald Mendiola, was honored for his lifelong practice of native healing techniques.
THE Northern Marianas Humanities Council reminds the public that the Governor’s Humanities Award nomination deadline is Sept. 23.
The council works in collaboration with the Office of the Governor annually to honor individuals and groups that make outstanding contributions to the humanities in the CNMI.
The humanities include the study and interpretation of language; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism, and theory of the arts; those aspects of social sciences that have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the human environment with particular attention to our diverse heritage, traditions and history.
The nomination form is available at https://tinyurl.com/governors-humanities-awards
There are five award categories.
• The Research and Publication in the Humanities Award recognizes original scholarly research that “resulted in a manuscript or in the publication of a book or article.” Research must be related directly to the CNMI or the Pacific.
• The Outstanding Humanities Teacher Award recognizes “significant contributions to humanities instruction.” Nominees may be classroom teachers or “individuals involved in humanities instruction outside of the formal classroom setting.”
• The Preservation of Traditional Cultural Practices Award recognizes those who preserve the CNMI’s language, medicine, subsistence, law, kinship, religion, and other cultural expressions.
• The Preservation of CNMI History Award is given for the creators of projects that record or examine “important aspects of local history.” The award can be given to film makers, oral history recorders, and similar project leaders. Nominees must have created projects within the past year.
• The final category is the Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities Award, which recognizes an individual for significant contributions in one or more field of the humanities over multiple decades. The award can be awarded posthumously.
For questions, email info@nmhcouncil.org or contact (670) 235-4785.
