YUAG-Poorvu Grants

Money Matters: Teaching Across Disciplines with the Yale University Art Gallery’s Numismatics Collection

The Yale University Art Gallery’s holdings of coins, paper money, tokens, and medals – the study of which is called numismatics – exceed in range and depth those found at any other university in North America. This workshop series, with funding opportunity, focuses on the capacity of the Gallery’s global numismatics collection to support learning goals in any discipline or subject. Money Matters comprises three 90-minute thematic sessions that explore numismatic objects across time and space to illuminate history, test or expand conceptual frameworks, and cultivate transferable skills. Providing participants with the exceptional opportunity to handle the art, these workshops aim to demystify the field of numismatics and foster an interdisciplinary appreciation of its role across the academic curriculum at Yale. Together with Gallery curators and Yale faculty members Prof. Joe Glynias (History), Prof. William Goetzman (School of Management) and others, participants will brainstorm how to employ the objects meaningfully in their own teaching. 

The workshops (individually and as a series) are open to all Yale instructors of record, including tenured and tenure-track faculty, clinical instructional faculty, lecturers, lectors, and part-time acting instructors (PTAIs), as well as postdoctoral fellows and associates. 

Participants who attend at least two of the workshops are eligible to apply for curriculum development grants supported by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to integrate the Gallery’s numismatics collection in their courses at Yale. Up to five grants of $1,500 each (paid as research funds) will be awarded.

Please reach out to Liliana Milkova (liliana.milkova@yale.edu) for more information.

The workshops are hosted by Benjamin Hellings, the Jackson-Tomasko Associate Curator of Numismatics, and Liliana Milkova, the Nolen Curator of Education and Academic Affairs, and feature hands-on work and short teaching demos by Yale faculty. Please note that attendance is capped at 18 and registration is required. To register for one or more of the workshops, visit:

Fri., Oct. 9, 10-11:30 am                              Physical Objects and Cultural Documents

Fri., Nov. 6, 10-11:30 am                             Thematic Approaches Across Disciplines

Fri., Dec. 11, 10-11:30 am                          Science, Technology, Networks 

Prior to attending their first workshop, participants are invited to watch these short videos: