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Humanities Center Leadership Boot Camp | Speakers
November 1–3, 2024 at the National Humanities Center
Nicholas Allen, PhD
Nicholas Allen is director of the Willson Center of Humanities and the Arts and Baldwin Professor in the Humanities at the University of Georgia. He has written several books about Irish literature and culture, reviews regularly in The Irish Times, and recently finished a study of the late poetry of Seamus Heaney. Allen has served on the advisory board of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) and led the Public Humanities network of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI). He has received several grants and awards, including from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Irish Research Council.
Ulka Anjaria, PhD
Ulka Anjaria is professor of English and Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University and director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities, with research and teaching interests in Indian literature and cinema, the global novel, and rethinking graduate education in the humanities. Her first book was a study of progressive writing, a movement that became dominant in mid-twentieth-century India. Her second book considers the relationship of contemporary Indian literature and film to new politics in India. Anjaria’s most recent book is an introduction to the popular genre of film known as Bollywood, and she is currently working on a book called Bad Mothers: Gender, Caste, and Modernism in 20th-Century Indian Literature.
Carin Berkowitz, PhD
As executive director of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities (NJCH), Carin Berkowitz establishes strategic direction for the organization and serves as a passionate advocate for the humanities across New Jersey. She joined NJCH in 2018 after eight years as director of historical research at the Science History Institute—a museum, library, and center for scholarship in Philadelphia. She has served as a member of the Nominating Committee of the American Historical Association (AHA) and on the governing council of the History of Science Society. She currently serves on the Board of the Federation of State Humanities Councils and is chair of the National Humanities Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2024. Berkowitz earned a PhD in the history of science from Cornell University and has published extensively on the historical intersections of art, science, medicine, and pedagogy, including the monograph Charles Bell and the Anatomy of Reform and the coedited collection Science Museums in Transition: Anglo-American Cultures of Display in the Nineteenth Century.
Danielle D. Blackwell, MPA, CFRE, CFRM
Danielle D. Blackwell serves as the associate vice chancellor of institutional advancement at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), where she is responsible for developing a transformative pipeline of gifts and opportunities. Her experience has included leadership roles at Albany State University as director of development, and at Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU) as assistant vice president of university advancement. She also served as the executive director of MVSU Foundation, Inc. Prior to her shift into higher education, Blackwell worked in politics, including as acting director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, campaign manager for US Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr., and as Georgia state political director for the 2008 Obama for America campaign. She is also the founder of D’Image Production and PR Management. Blackwell earned a master’s degree in public administration from NCCU and a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Temple University.
Barbara Mennel, PhD
Barbara Mennel successfully directed the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of Florida (UF) from 2017 to 2023. She holds a joint appointment in the German Studies section of the Languages, Literatures and Culture Department and in the English Department at UF where she is associated with the Film and Media Studies Program and the Feminisms, Genders, and Sexualities Track. Her research interests include miniatures, transnational cinematic practices, feminist and queer theory, and the intersection of urban studies and film studies. In recognition of her work, she has been awarded the University of Florida Foundation Research Professorship (2018–21) and the Waldo W. Neikirk Professorship (2014–21). During the academic year 2016–17, she was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie FCFP Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies in Freiburg, Germany. Mennel is the author of six books, most recently Mädchen in Uniform (2024) with the British Film Institute Classics series.
Robert D. Newman, PhD
Robert D. Newman is the recent past president of the National Humanities Center, a position he held from 2015 to 2024. Prior to this he was 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. 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. Newman’s scholarship has focused on twentieth-century English and American literature and culture and narrative theory. He has published six books; over a hundred articles, reviews, and poems; and has given talks throughout the world. He has received awards not only for his scholarship but also for his institutional leadership and teaching. For the past twenty-two years, he has been general editor of the “Cultural Frames, Framing Culture” series published by University of Virginia Press. He has been celebrated as a Distinguished Alumnus at both The Pennsylvania State University, where he received his BA, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his PhD.
Vincent Price, PhD
Vincent Price is the tenth president of Duke University, where he is also Walter Hines Page Professor of Public Policy and Political Science in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. A leading global expert on public opinion, social influence, and political communication, Price came to Duke in 2017. Since arriving on campus, he has turned his attention to the future of the university, developing a strategic vision focused on five core principles: empowering people, transforming education, building community, forging partnerships, and engaging a global network. He has also overseen a series of major new initiatives at Duke—including a comprehensive commitment to racial equity, continued strategic advancement of the arts, implementing next-generation residential programs, investing in Duke science and technology, and broadening and deepening engagement with Durham and the surrounding region. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Price earned his PhD (1987) and MA (1985) in Communication from Stanford University and a BA magna cum laude (1979) in English from the University Honors Program at Santa Clara University.