Dr. Frank L. Holt, a professor in the Department of History, has received a grant from the Public Scholar Program at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The NEH’s Public Scholar Program supports “well-researched books in the humanities intended to reach a broad readership.” Dr. Holt will use the grant to complete his latest project, From Croesids to Cryptocurrency: Money and the Making of Civilization, which examines the significant role of numismatics – the study of coins – in shaping society as we know it.

“I am pleased to be among the recipients for my project,” Dr. Holt said. “From Plato to Petrarch and Jesus to Jed Clampett, coins have served as tools not only to transact daily business, but also to ponder deeper issues such as sovereignty, art, language, literature, religion, and history.”

Dr. Holt is among less than ten percent of applicants who were selected to receive the grant, which provides $45,000 of support. Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation.