Since 1992, the National Humanities Center has provided college and university faculty with opportunities to deepen their knowledge and find intellectual renewal under the guidance of leading scholars.
With an emphasis on interdisciplinary connections, these seminars encourage learning about new ways to apply scholarly research to college-level teaching.
Public Humanities
The Center supports the increased turn and value of public-facing humanities projects, particularly when emerging technologies are applied to critical questions. Scholarship and expert voices are essential in demonstrating how the humanities can guide us through contemporary problems and issues.
Upcoming Public Humanities Institutes
Podcasting the Humanities: Creating Digital Stories for the Public
June 27–July 1, 2022
Podcasting has become a common form of storytelling in the digital and social media age. This five-day virtual institute will provide hands-on training for faculty in the humanities to translate research, commentary, and community-sourced narratives into podcast episodes.
Previous Public Humanities Institutes
Podcasting the Humanities: Creating Digital Stories for the Public
June 14–18, 2021
Mapping the American Experience
November 9–10, 2017
Summer Institutes in Literary Studies
From 2003 to 2013, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center hosted early career literary scholars for week-long, in-depth study of selected works of literature with distinguished senior colleagues.
| 2013 | |
|---|---|
| Versions of The Winter’s Tale: Theater, Literature, Film, and Philosophy Sarah Beckwith (Fellow, 1994–95; Fellow, 2012–13), English and Theater Studies, Duke University |
Tom McCarthy’s Remainder Walter Benn Michaels, English, University of Illinois at Chicago |
| 2012 | |
| Andrew Marvell: Theater, Lyric and Public Poems Nigel Smith (Fellow, 2007–08), Ancient and Modern Literature, Princeton University |
Form and Politics in the Work of J. M. Coetzee Robert Pippin (Center Trustee), Philosophy, University of Chicago |
| 2011 | |
| Reading The Golden Notebook Toril Moi (Fellow, 1994–95), Literature and Romance Studies, English and Theater Studies, Duke University |
Decisions and Revisions: The Art of T. S. Eliot’s Poetry Christopher Ricks, Humanities, Boston University |
| 2010 | |
| Reading Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure Kate Flint (Fellow, 2007–08; Fellow, 2015–16), English, University of Southern California |
Five by Five: The Short Story as Art and Artifact Louis Menand, English, American Literature and Language, Harvard University |
| 2009 | |
| Reading Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal Jonathan Culler (Fellow, 2011–12), English and Comparative Literature, Cornell University |
Shakespeare in Slow Motion Marjorie Garber, English, Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University |
| 2008 | |
|---|---|
| Chaucer: Past, Present, and Future Seth Lerer, English and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California |
Forms of Life in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry Sharon Cameron, English, Johns Hopkins University |
| 2007 | |
| Readings in the King James Bible James Wood, Literary Criticism, Harvard University |
Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes Michael Wood (Fellow, 2008–09), Comparative Literature, Princeton University |
| 2005 | |
| Benjamin Franklin: Reader, Writer, and Printer Peter Stallybrass, English, Comparative Literature, and Literary Theory, University of Pennsylvania |
Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy Deidre Shauna Lynch (Fellow, 2000–01), English, Indiana University Bloomington |
| 2004 | |
| Five Major Odes Susan Stewart, English, University of Pennsylvania |
Gustave Flaubert’s Sentimental Education Frances Ferguson (Center Trustee; Fellow, 2003–04), English, Johns Hopkins University |
| 2003 | |
| Jane Austen’s Emma Patricia Meyer Spacks (Center Trustee; Fellow, 1982–83; Fellow, 1988–89), English and American Literature, Yale University |
The Poetry of William Butler Yeats Helen Vendler (Center Trustee), English and American Literature, Harvard University |
DuPont Summer Seminars
From 1992 to 2016, with the generous support of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, the National Humanities Center welcomed cohorts of liberal arts college faculty to investigate compelling topics in the humanities. Previous seminars include:
| 2016 | |
|---|---|
| Immigration and Citizenship Kunal M. Parker (Fellow, 2014–15), Government, Law, & Political Science, University of Miami |
The Spatial Humanities John Corrigan (Fellow, 2014–15), Religion & Theology, Florida State University |
| 2015 | |
| Social Crime Fiction Ruth Morse (Fellow, 2012–13), English & American Literature, Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne |
Sounds Studies Charles McGovern (Fellow, 2013–14), American Studies and History, College of William & Mary |
| 2015 | |
| Constructing Children: Words and Pictures Laurie Langbauer (Fellow, 2011–12), English & American Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Globalization and Modern Capitalism Edward J. Balleisen (Fellow, 2009–10), History, Duke University |
| 2013 | |
| Cross-Cultural Encounters and Exchanges in the Age of Empire Dane Keith Kennedy (Fellow, 2010–11), History, George Washington University |
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| 2012 | |
|---|---|
| “Use Them All”: The Humanities and Environmental Study James Engell (Fellow, 2010–11), English & Comparative Literature, Harvard University |
Christian Apocrypha Bart D. Ehrman (Fellow, 2009–10; Fellow, 2018–19), Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| 2011 | |
| Exotic Wisdom: Encounters with the Religious Other in Pre-Islamic West Asia Jason BeDuhn (Fellow, 2009–10), Religious Studies, Northern Arizona University |
The Concept of the Savage: Fact, Fiction, and Factual Fiction Parker Shipton (Fellow, 2008–09), Anthropology, Boston University |
| 2010 | |
| The Self: Knowledge, Memory, and Imagination John M. Doris (Fellow, 2008–09), Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis |
Worried Sick, Worried Well Nancy Tomes (Fellow, 1999–00), History, Stony Brook University |