Dean of Arts & Sciences Gloria Culver has announced the creation of a Humanities Center, which will support multidisciplinary engagement around literature, history, the arts, and philosophies of cultures past and present with the aim of fostering educated, contributing global citizens. The fundamental goal of the center is to enhance the study of the humanities at Rochester while strengthening the ties to related disciplines, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am delighted by the establishment of the Humanities Center,\u201d said President Joel Seligman. \u201cIt is an essential step in elevating the role of the humanities at a time when they are under pressure elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seligman, who supports the Humanities Project with $150,000 from the President\u2019s Venture Fund, has committed a further $100,000 per year while he is president to support the Humanities Center.<\/p>\n
Culver announced that Joan Shelley Rubin, Dexter Perkins Professor in History and the history department\u2019s director of graduate studies, had agreed to serve as interim director.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am grateful to Joan for\u00a0 assuming the center\u2019s leadership during its critical first year,\u201d Culver said. \u201cShe has been a thoughtful advocate for an interdisciplinary humanities center, and her own work on American intellectual and cultural history reflects the richness of her perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Culver and Rubin said that they had chosen \u201cHumanities at the Crossroads: Charting Our Future\u201d as the center\u2019s theme for its first year. Faculty and students will organize research projects, seminars and symposia around the theme. They expect that these activities will draw on the methods and insights of a variety of disciplines both within and outside the humanities as they address the theme.<\/p>\n
Culver said that the first tasks in getting the center up and running will involve initiation of a search for a permanent full-time faculty director and planning for the center\u2019s home in Rush Rhees Library.<\/p>\n
Rubin expects very soon to call for applications for Humanities Center junior faculty fellows, external and internal, who will collaborate with Rochester faculty and students on research projects related to the first-year theme. She said that a generous gift from Jay and Deborah Last to strengthen the humanities had made the junior faculty fellowships possible for the next three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Humanities Center is already off to a strong start on its first day,\u201d Culver said. \u201cThe Lasts\u2019 gift, President Seligman\u2019s commitment\u2014and Joan\u2019s leadership\u2014mean that the center already has real momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Humanities Center is expected to provide a transformative educational experience by creating an umbrella architecture within which students and faculty can exchange ideas, develop research questions and projects, and explore the application of technology in humanistic studies, Rubin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA shared experience among undergraduate and graduate students, fellows and University faculty is essential for the vibrancy for this center and for it to reach its full impact locally and beyond the University,\u201d Culver said.<\/p>\n
Culver said that she expects that the Humanities Center will develop mutually beneficial relationships with successful existing programs including:<\/p>\n
Culver said that the exact nature of those relationships will depend on the units involved and on the strategic plan of the Humanities Center.<\/p>\n
She said that she expected the permanent faculty director to be deeply involved in developing the Humanities Center\u2019s strategic plan. Some preliminary work will begin on the plan during the coming academic year and that work will accelerate once a permanent director was named.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dean of Arts & Sciences Gloria Culver has announced the creation of a Humanities Center, which will support multidisciplinary engagement around literature, history, the arts, and philosophies of cultures past and present. Culver and interim director of the new center Joan Shelley Rubin have chosen \u201cHumanities at the Crossroads: Charting Our Future\u201d as the center\u2019s theme for its first year. Faculty and students will organize research projects, seminars and symposia around the theme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":99802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18612,9576,25132,14062,15,16072],"class_list":["post-99722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-announcements","tag-humanities","tag-humanities-center","tag-joan-shelley-rubin","tag-rush-rhees-library","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n