After nine years at the helm of the National Humanities Center, President and Director Robert D. Newman has announced his retirement. He will step down as director in July 2024. Newman assumed leadership of the Center in 2015 and has overseen an array of initiatives expanding opportunities for humanities scholars and teachers.
The board of trustees of the National Humanities Center has elected Porter Durham, who recently retired as managing partner of Global Endowment Management, as its new chairman. He succeeds Ben Vinson III, the newly appointed president of Howard University. Joining Durham as officers of the NHC's board are entrepreneur Rishi Jaitly, vice chairman; Karen Lawrence, president of The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, secretary; and Raymond Wiacek, a partner at Jones Day, who was re-elected as treasurer.
This month we highlight the research of 2023–24 Fellows whose projects consider the ways that humans and environments act upon one another, challenging people physically, culturally, and ethically to commune, negotiate, innovate, and adapt.
This month we highlight the research of 2023–24 Fellows whose projects consider the role that music plays in shaping lives. From churches in medieval Iberia to movie houses in the Soviet bloc to the streets and dancehalls of New Orleans and Nigeria, these scholars are examining music’s profound power to reveal and reimagine the world around us.
This month we highlight the research of 2023–24 Fellows whose projects focus on the voices of women, from medieval hagiographers to contemporary rappers, exploring the ways that an author’s gender influences her perspective—across genres, eras, and geographies.
How does our understanding of American history and culture change when viewed through the eyes of Black women? How should we incorporate Black women’s voices in curriculums to ensure students can benefit from those perspectives? These and related questions will be the focus of (re)Centering the Narrative: Black Women’s Voices of the 19th and 20th Centuries which will be held July 10–14, 2023 at the National Humanities Center.
The National Humanities Center has announced the selection of twenty talented educators from across the country as members of its 2023–24 Teacher Advisory Council. These teachers, from schools in twelve states, will work with the Center’s staff in piloting, evaluating, and promoting NHC resources and professional development programs for collegiate and pre-collegiate educators.
At its recent meeting, the Board of Trustees of the National Humanities Center elected Yolonda Y. Wilson (NHC Fellow, 2019–20) from St. Louis University as the Center’s newest trustee. Wilson is a philosopher whose work focuses primarily on African American political philosophy, bioethics, feminist philosophy, law and morality, and related topics.
This month we highlight the research of 2022–23 Fellows whose seemingly disparate projects both examine the vital role that texts and creative works play in establishing authority and shaping systems of belief.
Howard University has announced that NHC Trustee Ben Vinson III (NHC Fellow, 2005–06) has been appointed to serve as the university’s 18th president, effective September 1, 2023.