Brief History of the Marco Institute
The Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies began in UTK's Medieval Studies program, a long-standing interdisciplinary program that sponsors graduate and undergraduate courses and provides support for faculty development. We joined with colleagues in the Renaissance and early modern periods in response to a call for proposals from the Office of the President of the University of Tennessee in Spring 2001. In early Summer 2001, this group formed the Medieval and Renaissance Curriculum and Outreach Project (aka "MARCO") and received a start-up grant from the President's Initiative in Teaching, Research, and Service, which we plan to match and eventually replace with outside funds.
A major turning point for Marco occurred in December 2003, with the award of a major NEH Challenge Grant. One of only 27 U.S. cultural institutions and the only one in Tennessee to receive this competitive grant, the Marco will be able to strengthen humanities programs, resources and scholarship. NEH Challenge Grants require institutions to match federal funds, 4 to 1 in our case. Private dollars, matching federal funds, will provide a $3 million Endowment for Marco programs at the University.
Until the spring of 2004, Marco's status was, frankly, in a state of flux. The funding from our original Presidential Initiative was to expire at the end of June; while our grant from the NEH, along with matching funds the grant requires us to raise, will eventually provide the endowment necessary to continue and extend our programs, we simply could not continue to exist meantime without the good will and substantive support of the UT administration.
Two crucial pillars of that support are now in place. In March 2004, Chancellor Loren Crabtree promised to provide the bridging funds allowing us to begin implementing our programming. The second piece of good news came from the University of Tennessee's Office of Research, informing us that our application for formal recognition as an Institute within the University of Tennessee system has at last been approved. Taken together, the bridging funds and the authorization to organize as an Institute speak volumes about the commitment of the administration to our endeavor. They also mark an important and substantive transformation: the expiration of the MARCO Project and its rebirth as The Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Tennessee.
And finally: we have chosen to retain the name "Marco" in honor of our beginnings, though we no longer write it in all-caps!
We are very grateful for all the support we have received thus far, but we still need your help!