Since assuming leadership of the National Humanities Center in 2015, Robert D. Newman has been dedicated to broadening the Center’s scholarly mission, diversity, programming and educational outreach as well as to encouraging vibrant public engagement with, and national advocacy for, the humanities.
Dr. Newman was previously Dean of the College of Humanities, Professor of English, and Associate Vice President for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Utah where he was widely recognized for dramatically increasing support for the college, expanding its programs, and broadening campus diversity. In addition to establishing a new Humanities building on campus, he established the first country’s graduate program in Environmental Humanities and led the creation of the Taft/Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities in Centennial Valley, Montana. He also has held faculty appointments at the University of South Carolina where he was English department Chair, Texas A&M University, and the College of William and Mary.
Dr. Newman was trained as a literary scholar, receiving his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his scholarship has focused on twentieth-century English literature and culture and narrative theory. He has published six books, numerous articles, reviews and poems, and has received awards not only for his scholarship but also for his institutional leadership and teaching. For the past nineteen years, he has been General Editor of the “Cultural Frames, Framing Culture” series published by University of Virginia Press. Recently, he was celebrated as a Distinguished Alumnus at both The Pennsylvania State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
From the Director
NHC Director Robert D. Newman Named Distinguished Alumnus at Penn State and UNC-Chapel Hill
On October 12, 2019, National Humanities Center President and Director Robert D. Newman will be honored as a distinguished alumnus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received his Ph.D. in English. This follows closely on the heels of another honor Newman received in April when he was the inaugural recipient of a distinguished alumnus award from the Humanities Institute at Penn State.
Robert D. Newman, “The Humanities in the Age of Loneliness”
In this essay from the Los Angeles Review of Books, Robert D. Newman writes, “The principles grounded in the humanities—notions of character, responsibility, civility, empathy, inquiry, collaboration, the public good, the heroic, beauty, and truth—are also at the center of the revolutionary idealism which forged our Constitution. While the antidote to the Age of Loneliness is not easily conjured, it needs a political as well as scientific response—that is, it will need the lessons we can learn through the humanities.”
Robert D. Newman, “Rage and Beauty: Celebrating Complexity, Democracy, and the Humanities”
Adapted from a keynote address given at North Carolina Central University, Robert D. Newman's essay on the vital importance of the humanities in addressing contemporary issues appears in the collection, The Humanities in the Age of Information and Post-Truth, edited by Ignacio Lopez-Calvo and Christian Lux, recently published by Northwestern University Press.
“Environmental Humanities at the Crossroads of Climate Change”: A Panel Moderated by Robert D. Newman
This scholarly roundtable, featuring Center Fellows in conversation with NHC President and Director Robert D. Newman, explored the important role for humanists in ongoing public discourse about climate change. Touching on topics such as environmental justice and indigenous peoples, the economic history and lasting legacies of deforestation in Latin America, and the shift in demand for fossil fuels to support global military conflicts, these scholars discussed how the human element must be accounted for as we struggle to shape climate policies for the twenty-first century.
Robert D. Newman, “Saving the Humanities and Ben Franklin’s Ass”
How should humanities institutions and practitioners respond to ongoing challenges to their value and significance? In this opinion piece for Inside Higher Ed, Robert D. Newman revisits a fable from Benjamin Franklin's "Apology to Printers" to argue that humanists should be wary of responding defensively to critics lest we see "a continued dwindling of the imaginative, interrogative and empathetic impulses core to the humanities."
Robert D. Newman, “Saving the World with Metaphor: Toward an Ecological Poetics”
In this essay from the Los Angeles Review of Books (May 23, 2018), Robert D. Newman points to profound links between humanistic and ecological thinking and argues for “a restoration of a poetics of ecology and an ecological humanism.”
UNC-TV’s “Conversation”: An Interview with Dr. Robert D. Newman
In this wide-ranging interview with Conversation host Mitchell Lewis, National Humanities Center President Robert D. Newman discusses the significance of the humanities in everyday life, the enduring importance of humanities scholarship, and the mission of the National Humanities Center to advance humanities research, teaching, and public engagement. This program originally aired on UNC-TV’s NC Channel on June 27, 2017.
Robert D. Newman, “On a Sense of History, the Salvation of Poetry, and the Power of the Humanities”
In a wide-ranging talk to alumni Fellows that incorporated stories about figures as distinct as H. L. Mencken, Georgia O’Keefe, and Mary Oliver, NHC president Robert D. Newman discussed how the humanities lend perspective to current events, refine our sense of the world and all it contains, and provide wisdom for navigating the future.
“Rage and Beauty: Celebrating Complexity, Democracy and the Humanities”: A Keynote Address by Robert D. Newman
On October 5, 2016, NHC director Robert D. Newman delivered a keynote address as a part of the ongoing Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Speaker Series at North Carolina Central University. In his remarks Newman touched on events as seemingly disparate as the workings of the Continental Congress and the social media origins of the Black Lives Matter movement and discussed the ways that the humanities help us understand the world, relate to one another, and come to terms with the most profound experiences and questions — on the nature of beauty, the search for justice, and the meaning of life in the face of horrific violence and our own mortality.
Upcoming Public Appearances by NHC President Robert D. Newman
Robert D. Newman, president and director of the National Humanities Center, will be giving talks and appearing in public forums throughout the fall of 2016 in venues from Charlottesville, Virginia to Shanghai, China.
“What Does the Future Hold for the Humanities?”: A Town Hall Meeting with Robert D. Newman
On Tuesday, February 9, NHC president and director Robert D. Newman joined Lloyd Kramer from UNC-Chapel Hill and Victoria Gallagher from NC State University to discuss the humanities’ future as part of a town hall meeting. The event, held at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC, and moderated by retired philosophy professor Clay Stalnaker, drew an engaged crowd who challenged the participants about role of the humanities in an environment that has become increasingly concerned with financial outcomes from academic activities, technologically-focused, and oriented toward the concerns of the individual rather than the common good.
Robert D. Newman, “Humanities Moments and Modernity”
National Humanities Center President and Director Robert D. Newman was the featured guest at an event held January 14, 2016 at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, NC. Newman discussed the ways the humanities give meaning to our lives, shape historical events, and help address the most complex challenges of modernity.
Robert D. Newman, “How the Humanities Give Moments Their Meaning”
Humanities moments are the unexpected miracles that provide meaning, sharpen purpose, and offer depth — profound pauses in the otherwise frantic and self-absorbed scurrying that characterizes our gettings and spendings. When the personal harmonizes with the collective, the anomalous with the essential, humanities moments occur. When we recognize their exquisite and resounding centrality, we better understand the foundation of the democratic society of which they are a product.
Robert D. Newman, “Mickey Mouse, Vonnegut and Humanities Moments”
At a recent dinner with Center Fellows alumni, President Robert D. Newman recounted several “humanities moments,” including Kurt Vonnegut’s response to the 1973 burning of his book Slaughterhouse Five by school officials in Drake, North Dakota.
Robert D. Newman Installed as President and Director of the National Humanities Center
At a celebration October 22, 2015, Robert D. Newman was installed as the sixth president and director of the National Humanities Center. In his inaugural remarks, titled “Humanities Moments and the Heroic,” Newman shared his vision for the Center as the premier destination for humanities scholars, a national leader in the effort to strengthen teaching, and a vital resource for all who seek greater understanding of themselves and the world in which they live.
Robert D. Newman, “The Uncomfortable Responsibility of the Liberal Arts”
Friends, current research Fellows and members of the Center staff gathered recently for the annual National Humanities Center Patio Party. President Robert D. Newman, who joined the Center in July of this year, addressed the group with brief but timely remarks entitled “The Uncomfortable Responsibility of the Liberal Arts.”
National Humanities Center Appoints New President and Director
The National Humanities Center announces the appointment of Robert D. Newman as its next President and Director. On July 1, 2015, he succeeded Geoffrey G. Harpham, who led the Center since 2003. “Robert Newman intends to continue and enhance the role of the Center as a leading voice nationally in support of the humanities,” said Center trustee William Jordan.