The National Endowment for the Humanities is undergoing a dramatic shift in its grantmaking approach under new leadership, raising concerns about transparency and adherence to longstanding review processes. The changes come amid a broader rethinking of the agency’s priorities and funding criteria.
Since taking over as Acting Chairman on March 12, 2025, Michael McDonald has steered the NEH in a notably different direction from his predecessor, Shelly C. Lowe, who led the agency from 2022 to 2025. Under McDonald’s watch, the agency recently announced $34.79 million in grants supporting 97 humanities projects across the country, with particular emphasis on initiatives celebrating America’s upcoming 250th anniversary.
“The National Endowment for the Humanities is proud to support research, exhibitions, teacher training, and preservation projects that examine and illuminate our history, literature, and culture,” McDonald stated in the grant announcement. But beneath this standard rhetoric lies a substantial reorientation of the agency’s focus.
Merit-Based Shift Raises Questions
The NEH has explicitly pivoted toward what it describes as “merit-based” awards and projects aligned with themes of U.S. history and the semiquincentennial. This represents a marked departure from previous diversity and inclusion-focused initiatives that characterized earlier grantmaking cycles.
According to agency statements, “future awards will, among other things, be merit-based, awarded to projects that do not promote extreme ideologies based upon race or gender,” as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
What’s particularly troubling to some observers isn’t just the shift in priorities but the process behind it. Rep. Chellie Pingree has emerged as a vocal critic, expressing concern that the NEH is now giving “massive grants through questionable non-competitive processes,” a significant break from its historically rigorous selection standards established since the agency’s founding in 1965.
Council Depletion Raises Governance Concerns
Perhaps most alarming to humanities advocates is the current state of the National Council for the Humanities, the advisory body that recommends awards over $30,000 to the Chair. The Council has been reduced to just four of its 26 authorized members—a skeleton crew that raises serious questions about oversight and proper governance.
In a November 2025 letter, Pingree highlighted that “only four out of 26 members remain on the National Council for the Humanities,” suggesting the possibility that proper review protocols may be compromised by this depleted advisory body.
The situation grew even more contentious earlier this year. In April 2025, the NEH took the extraordinary step of canceling previously awarded grants, including all humanities council General Operating Grants and program-specific awards, with immediate effect. The American Folklore Society confirmed that “all humanities councils received emails and letters under the signature of NEH Acting Chair Michael McDonald notifying them that all awarded grants—including their 5-year General Operating Grants and other program-specific awards—were canceled in their entirety, effective April 1.”
A Contested Vision for American Humanities
The abrupt cancellation of existing grants followed by the announcement of new funding priorities reflects a dramatic realignment that has sent shockwaves through humanities organizations nationwide. Many recipients had already budgeted for and begun implementing programs based on previously secured funding.
Could this represent more than just a change in leadership style? Critics suggest these moves signal a fundamental reimagining of the NEH’s role in American cultural and intellectual life, with potential long-term implications for how humanities scholarship is funded and which voices are amplified.
The NEH’s history has included leadership transitions before, but rarely with such immediate and sweeping policy reversals. As the agency approaches its own significant milestone—having been founded in 1965—the current upheaval raises questions about its future direction and institutional stability at a time when humanities funding already faces numerous challenges.
For now, humanities organizations across the country are watching closely as McDonald’s interim leadership continues to reshape an agency that has been a cornerstone of American cultural funding for nearly six decades.
