How do the stories that emerge from crisis help us confront them? And in what ways do they help us prepare for those yet to come? One of the pioneers in the field of narrative medicine, Rita Charon, discusses these and other questions in conversation with literary scholar Jane F. Thrailkill. Welcome and introduction by Robert D. Newman, PhD, President and Director, National Humanities Center.
April 11–14, 2022 | This four-day virtual conference sought to consider the ways that knowledge drawn from humanities disciplines and methodologies can inform and help address the ongoing crisis in healthcare. Recognizing that healthcare is predicated on human beings caring for other human beings, A Crisis of Caring explored how humanistic approaches can help identify the symptoms and causes of our malaise while guiding us toward a healthier, more caring future.
Science under Fire reconstructs a century of battles over the cultural implications of science in the United States, showing how suspicion of scientific methods and motivation has played a major role in American politics and culture since the 1920s with profound repercussions that continue to affect everyday life in the current moment.
The attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was the most violent assault on democracy in modern American history, with three rings of activity: a large outer circle of avid supporters who believed the Big Lie, a smaller number of resolute white-power radicals, and a suited inner circle that strategized to overthrow the election, exploiting federalism to achieve its ends. In this virtual event, Nancy MacLean (NHC Fellow, 2008–09; 2021–22) explains how each of these three elements is the product of decades of intentional cultivation.
From stagecoaches and trains to buses, cars, and planes, Traveling Black explores when, how, and why racial restrictions took shape and brilliantly portrays what it was like to live with them. It also recounts the many forms of resistance deployed in the prolonged fight for freedom of movement across the United States.
Zimbabwean poet and scholar Tsitsi Ella Jaji (NHC Fellow, 2017–18) discusses and reads selections from Mother Tongues: Poems, her award-winning second book of verse, in which she explores our relationships with language, from the first words we learn to the vows we swear, examining how generations of love and loss are inscribed in our every utterance.
Demonstrating the conflicts between international conservation, nature tourism, decolonization, and national sovereignty, Our Gigantic Zoo explores the legacy of Bernhard Grzimek, Europe’s greatest wildlife conservationist, who portrayed himself as a second Noah, called on a sacred mission to protect the last vestiges of paradise for all humankind.
What becomes of humanities majors after they finish the degree? How might colleges and universities assist them in the transition? Join the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Humanities Center for a conversation about these issues that features the perspectives of both academia and industry.
November 2021–May 2022
The National Humanities Center is pleased to present a series of engaging monthly virtual talks featuring recently published books by NHC Fellows on a variety of topics.
When we refer to “the international scientific community,” what do we mean? In this Scholar-to-Scholar talk, Lorraine Daston (NHC Fellow 2021–22) discusses how scientists began developing international collaborations and organizations in the latter half of the nineteenth century—the era of globe-spanning empire, telegraph networks, steamship lines, and world expositions. This international scientific governance has endured—and has created binding agreements that survived wars, revolutions, decolonization, and radical shifts in research agendas over more than a century.