Marco Institute Aspires to National Prominence
Chancellor Loren Crabtree
We talk a lot about the UT partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the promise of “big science.” But our humanities programs are extraordinary as well, and I’d like to brag on one in particular—our Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
The Marco institute is on track to be the pre-eminent program for medieval and Renaissance studies in the Southeast and has its sights set on North American prominence as well. Three years ago, Marco received a highly competitive challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, singling out Marco and UT as leaders in Medieval and Renaissance studies. NEH will provide $600,000 in money to seed a permanent endowment that will pay the center's future operating expenses. UT is raising $2.4 million to match the federal contribution.
Dr. Robert Bast, director of the Marco Institute, is rightfully proud of his program. He says, “We are gaining a reputation as the finest, most ambitious, and best-funded institute for medieval and Renaissance studies in the region. Give us five years and we will be a major national presence.”
During the past year, faculty and graduate students from the programs generally acknowledged as the best in North America—Notre Dame and the University of Toronto—came to Knoxville for workshops and symposia sponsored by Marco. And we recently hired one of the brightest scholars in the field away from the University of North Carolina.
Knowledge of our past is essential to keep us from repeating yesterday’s mistakes. With their rich tapestry of religious dissent, political organization, and global trade, the Medieval and Renaissance eras offer much from which we can learn. UT’s program is multidimensional, drawing on specialists in literature, history, religious studies, art, music, and languages who exchange ideas and perspectives that make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
The university has passed the $1 million mark in private contributions toward the challenge grant. The momentum and energy of the Marco program exemplify the time of great promise in which our university finds itself.
