Ruth Mostern, director of Pitt’s World History Center, won a $350,000 Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 

The grant supports innovative and experimental projects that can enhance research, teaching and public programming in the humanities, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities website. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the grant’s co-administrator, supports efforts to advance national libraries and archives, according to Pittwire.

According to Pittwire, Mostern’s grant will fund the expansion and development of the World Historical Gazetteer, which is a digital platform with an index of world historical place names within a network of linked data and user tools. The Gazetteer will help facilitate collaborative research. 

The funding will also help double the index, develop infrastructure content, better support teachers and contributors and increase engagement for communities, according to Pittwire.