The Center promotes understanding of the humanities and highlights their vital role in a vibrant, democratic society through a variety of public programs and initiatives, podcasts, and events.
Humanities in Action
Preserving Democracy Against Dis-information
Proposed solutions to the “fake news” problem do little to address a more fundamental issue—a serious lack of critical media literacy.
Undocumented Students in the Classroom
With estimates suggesting there are over 1 million undocumented students in American schools, immigration has become a significant issue for teachers.
No Time for Despair: Environmental Humanities as Action
At its best, humanities scholars’ work not only uncovers and interprets; it also facilitates understanding and mobilizes action on environmental issues.
Whose World? Whose History?
The recent controversy over changes to the AP World History curriculum highlights the pedagogical problems associated with world history.
Humanities Moments
Riots and the Rolling Stones
Parthenon Huxley describes growing up as a musically-minded expatriate in Greece in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The Currency of Emotional Intelligence
Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, 28th Chief Justice of the State of California, shares how the humanities helped her learn to celebrate and respect the stories and uniqueness of others.
Reclaiming Richmond
Historian Ed Ayers discusses how the sesquicentennial Civil War observances in Richmond, Virginia, drew upon the past to reimagine the future.
Finding Meaning in Art
Social studies teacher Michael Miragliuolo recalls an unexpected moment of understanding when encountering art from Southeast Asia.
Podcasts
Discovery and Inspiration
Podcast Series
What makes scholars so passionate about the subjects they pursue? What is it like for them to make a new discovery? To answer a confounding question? And what can we learn by taking the time to ask scholars about the research they are doing?
Home Matters: Picturing and Understanding Place
Confronting contemporary challenges is impossible unless we understand the ways that humans interact with their environments and the repercussions those interactions have both locally and globally.
Excursions: Revisiting the History of the Caribbean
This podcast features conversations with several recent Fellows whose scholarship deals with the Caribbean and its relation to the Atlantic slave trade as well as a birthplace for not only revolutionary democracy but reggae music.
Infinity and Beyond
John H. Smith, Fellow 2017–18
This podcast traces the shifting understandings of the infinite across the long 18th century, with particular focus on German figures such as Leibniz and Hegel, as well as intellectual movements including Romanticism and the Enlightenment.
Events
The Trial of Lizzie Borden
November 19, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Cara Robertson (Fellow 2004–05; 2005–06) will discuss one of the most famous trials in American history, offering not only a detailed account of events but a window into life in America’s Gilded Age.
Reclaiming My Time: Contemporary Women Artists of the Regional South
On Exhibit September 3–December 30, 2019
This exhibit addresses inequalities in the voices we hear and the lack of diversity in the images we see by recognizing the work of female artists working in the regional South.
Coastal Thinking: A Conversation
September 26, 2019
A public conversation with four leading scholars of environmental humanities and science discussing coastlines and cultures in the context of climate breakdown.
Beyond Despair: Theory and Practice in Environmental Humanities
April 3–5, 2019
This unique three-day summit of environmental humanities scholars and experts from across the country featured a dynamic intersection between discussion, presentations, and exhibitions, grounded in practical site excursions.
Videos
Remembering Mussolini: Fascism, Representation, and Memory in Post-War Italy
Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi and Mia Fuller, Fellows 2018–19
A fascinating discussion about the closing months of World War II and its aftermath, as Italians began coming to terms with the legacies of Fascism.
An Evening with Seymour Hersh
NHC Public Event
Seymour “Sy” Hersh, one of our nation’s most important investigative journalists, discusses his most recent book, Reporter: A Memoir.
‘Vaccies Go Home!’: Evacuation, Psychoanalysis and Fiction in World War II Britain
Maud Ellmann, Fellow 2017–18
This talk examines how the 1931 evacuation of thousands of children to the British countryside came to influence psychoanalytic theories of the child and the depiction of children in wartime fiction.
Educating Citizens and Reforming Generations
Alan Taylor, Fellow 1993–94
Historian Alan Taylor discusses how republican reliance on popular sovereignty complicated efforts by elites to improve voters through education after the American Revolution.
