Belmont University Receives Grant From National Endowment For The Humanities

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Belmont University’s Janet Ayers Academic Center

Belmont University has received a grant of nearly $150,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund an interdisciplinary project titled “A Model for Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Humanities Research: Redefining the Sacred in Americana Music.”

The project explores the shifting notions of the sacred within Americana music over the past several decades, and will pilot collaborative, project-based undergraduate research in the Belmont Global Honors program. Relevant courses will focus on the intersections of roots music genres including folk, country, rock and blues, and investigate how Americana musicians have engaged rhetoric, argument, spiritual themes and social context with the shifting religious identities of Americans. The effort will be spearheaded by Dr. Sarah Blomeley and Dr. Donovan McAbee.

A two-course sequence will be taught throughout the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years as part of the school’s Honors Scholars’ Collaborative program. The first course will center around students using rhetorical theory to analyze Americana song lyrics, conducting archival research at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum as well as interviewing key figures in the genre. In the second course, students will create a public-facing podcast with accompanying web resources. Each sequence will feature 15 students, resulting in a 30-episode podcast series by the conclusion of the two-year program.

“Through a blend of rhetoric, religion, melody and history, our project seeks to explore the often overlooked yet profound inquires of Americana music,” says Blomeley. “What does it reveal about American identity and religious beliefs? Where lies the boundary between sacred and profane in Americana’s narrative? Ultimately, our aim is to delve into Americana music’s role as a conduit for American religious discourse.”

In addition to utilizing resources, such as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s archives, students will receive instruction from the likes of Grammy winner Tammy Rogers King and folk artist Mary Gauthier, Relationary Marketing’s Clark Buckner and other Belmont faculty members. The resulting podcast and web guides seek to serve as accessible, educational resources while modeling revolutionary experiential learning at the university.

The findings of  “A Model for Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Humanities Research: Redefining the Sacred in Americana Music” will be shared through a podcast series available to the public as well as archival interviews, academic presentations by the faculty leaders and research articles.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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