The Humanities Action Lab, an international coalition led from Hunter College, has been awarded the prestigious 2026 Robert Kelley Memorial Award from the National Council on Public History, recognizing its outstanding contributions to making history meaningful and relevant for society at large.
The Robert Kelley Memorial Award honors “distinguished achievements by individuals, institutions, or nonprofit or corporate entities for making history relevant to individual lives of ordinary people outside of academia.”
Most notably, the award recognizes HAL’s digital public humanities platforms featuring multimedia community histories, ways to engage in current issues, and toolkits for campus-community partnerships that expand the reach of its work.
HAL’s translocal learning exchanges — networks that connect participants across cities to share knowledge, resources, and strategies — has helped pioneer a form of mutual aid within the public humanities, enabling students, faculty, and community organizers to learn from one another while working toward shared goals.
Through this collaborative, community centered work, HAL has brought history to life for diverse audiences in meaningful and actionable ways — exemplifying the very mission of the Robert Kelley Memorial Award.