Call for Applications: 2021–22 UCHI Faculty of Color Working Group Fellowship

December 16, 2020May 13, 2021FOCWG, News, University of Connecticut

With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the University of Connecticut, UCHI, together with the Faculty of Color Working Group of the New England Humanities Consortium, is pleased to accept applications for the UCHI/FOCWG Faculty Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year. The fellowship is intended for full-time UConn faculty members from historically disadvantaged minority groups and/or those whose projects specifically confront institutional blocks for BIPOC faculty.

Criteria for successful applicants include, but are not limited to: quality of research proposal; strength of reference letters; and articulation within the proposal of how this project can contribute to a larger support network for faculty of color in the region and/or to understanding and addressing impediments to success for BIPOC faculty in higher education.

Applications for the UCHI/FOCWG Fellowship are due on February 1st and should be submitted through UCHI’s regular fellowship application portal on Interfolio. All submission requirements are identical to regular UCHI Humanities fellowships; and applicants will be assessed by the same interdisciplinary review panel of outside academics. When applying, we ask that you indicate on the application form that you would like to be considered for the UCHI/FOCWG Fellowship. Indicating that you would like to be considered for the UCHI/FOCWG Fellowship does not preclude you from being offered a UCHI Fellowship—indeed, any application for the UCHI/FOCWG fellowship is considered as an application for a standard UCHI fellowship.

UCHI/FOCWG Fellows are full members of the UCHI fellowship class and have all the same benefits and responsibilities. See here for fellowship application materials and further information on the fellowship program.

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Open Letter to Dr. Suresh Garimella, President of UVM

December 15, 2020December 15, 2020News

The New England Humanities Consortium opposes the proposed cuts to humanities and arts departments at the University of Vermont. To express and explain our strong condemnation of these budget proposals, we have written the below open letter to Dr. Suresh Garimella, President of the University of Vermont.

Dr. Suresh Garimella
President
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405

December 15, 2020

I am writing, on behalf of the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC), of which UVM is a founding member, to protest, in the strongest possible terms, the proposed elimination of and consolidation of several humanities and arts departments at the University of Vermont.

Former President Obama recently noted that the nation is in the midst of an “epistemic crisis”—even as we face a devastating pandemic and unprecedented challenges to our electoral system. We understand that all institutions of higher education face terrible decisions because of the latter two crises.

But we also know that in order to solve the crisis of knowledge and truth eating away at the foundations of our democracy, our students—and the public at large—need the lessons we learn from the study of religion, languages, arts, classics and historical preservation. We can’t understand where we come from, what we value, and how we live while ignoring historic foundations, thinkers like Lao Tzu and Plato and knowledge about the politics and wisdom of religious experience. The state of Vermont—indeed the nation—cannot lose current and future voices who reflect these global lessons and the contributions they will make to a more inclusive and diverse workforce. Without them, we are spiritually, intellectually and civically worse off.

As noted, the University of Vermont has been a regional leader in the humanities and a founding member of the NEHC, an active consortium of public and private institutions throughout the region funding humanities research, engaging in public outreach and implementing a Mellon-funded Faculty of Color Working Group. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the University of Vermont Humanities Center and an undiminished and robust slate of humanities departments at the university.

Therefore, we respectfully implore the University of Vermont to reconsider these proposals.

Sincerely,

Michael P. Lynch
Director, New England Humanities Consortium
Director, University of Connecticut Humanities Institute
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, University of Connecticut

Darryl Harper
Director, Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Amherst College

Amanda Anderson
Director, Cogut Institute for the Humanities, Brown University

Kerill O’Neill
Director, Center for the Arts and Humanities, Colby College

Rebecca Biron
Director, The Leslie Center for the Humanities, Dartmouth College

Febe Armanios & Marion Wells
Co-Directors, Axinn Center for the Humanites at Middlebury College, Middlebury College

Lori Lefkovitz
Director, Northeastern University Humanities Center, Northeastern University

Alexandra Keller
Director, Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, Smith College

Kamran Rastegar
Director, Center for the Humanities at Tufts, Tufts University

Stephen Trzaskoma
Director, University of New Hampshire Center for the Humanities, University of New Hampshire

Evelyn Sterne
Director, University of Rhode Island Center for the Humanities, University of Rhode Island

Luis Vivanco
Director, The University of Vermont Humanities Center, University of Vermont

Eve Zimmerman
Director, Wellesley’s Newhouse Center for the Humanities, Wellesley College

Domingo Ledezma & Patrick Johnson
Co-Directors, Wheaton Institute for Interdisciplinary Humanities, Wheaton College

Download this letter as a PDF.

UVM Humanities Center Statement on Proposed Cuts to Humanities

December 9, 2020December 9, 2020News

The UVM Humanities Center decries, in the strongest possible terms, the proposal to eliminate humanities departments and programs in the College of Arts and Sciences. This proposal does not reflect a “comprehensive commitment to a liberal arts education” (UVM Vision statement), and it undermines the value of the Humanities for our students, faculty, state, and status as Vermont’s flagship land grant university.

As Vermont Congressman Justin Morrill—architect of the land-grant university system— once expressed, humanities are not marginal to the land grant university but lie at its very heart: “The fundamental idea was to offer an opportunity in every state for a liberal and larger education to larger numbers, not merely those destined to enter the sedentary professions, but to those needing higher instruction for the world’s business, for the industrial pursuits and professions of life.” For Morrill, the purpose of the university is not merely technical education; rather it is to create better citizens and strengthen the nation by enriching the human experience.

Through their teaching, research, and public engagement, the faculty of three humanities programs targeted for elimination—Religion, Classics, and Historic Preservation—as well as majors in various foreign languages targeted for elimination, have demonstrated that the Humanities help all students from across the University to:

Understand human experience across language, place, and time
Empathize with others
Think creatively and critically
Examine social problems related to race, gender, sex, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, class, and caste
Prioritize social justice and equality
Build skills in inquiry, writing and critical analysis, the so-called “soft-skills” that are in high demand in diverse careers

The proposal to eliminate these programs and majors based on an arbitrary measure like the number of majors is short-sighted and ignores the importance of these programs for the fulfilment of general education requirements for all students from across the university. Given that this proposal is patently about opening the door to cutting faculty positions, it egregiously ignores the contributions faculty in these programs make to Vermont through their public humanities work, consulting, and leadership in areas such as cultural heritage management, secondary education, teacher training, and humanities and arts programming throughout the state. UVM’s latest attempt to “engage” with Vermont would do well to recognize Humanities faculty are already deeply engaged in Vermont’s communities through a multitude of humanistic and artistic pursuits. Especially galling is the assault it represents on the accomplishments, productivity, and stature of the faculty who teach in these programs, whose contributions to UVM’s national and international reputation are substantial. We have been proud in the Humanities Center to provide direct support and awards to faculty in each of these programs.

Budgets are not apolitical, they are values statements. It is clear from the proposed budgetary cuts that the humanities are not valued at UVM. This is in spite of their inherent merit to our land grant institution, high enrollment courses that serve university mission, and excellent faculty. We question why we cannot invest university resources in academic programs and not bloated administrator salaries, or reform a budget model that systematically produces regular structural deficits to the academic unit that serves the greatest number and variety of students.

Sincerely,

Luis Vivanco, Director
Ilyse Morgenstein-Fuerst, Associate Director

Download a PDF of the statement

A black and white photo of women in white dresses holding a sign that says Banner State Women's National Baptist Convention. Most of the women are African American, but a few appear to be white.

University of Rhode Island Announces Suffrage Centennial Lecture Series

September 16, 2020September 16, 2020News

In 2020 we celebrate two monumental events in American history: the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting American women the right to vote, and the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment that at least nominally enfranchised African American men. To mark the occasion, URI is planning a yearlong virtual series focused on suffrage history and modern-day voting issues.

Scheduled speakers include: Kenneth Florey, one of the United States’ foremost collectors of women’s suffrage memorabilia; scholar and award-winning author Martha Jones, professor at Johns Hopkins University; Hilary Levey Friedman, a fellow at the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy and president of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women; URI professor Kathleen McIntyre; and Rhode Island’s Secretary of State Nellie M. Gorbea. The series is sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, the Gender and Women’s Studies Program, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Honors Program, Women’s Leadership Council, and the Suffrage Centennial Committee.

For a complete list of events please see the Suffrage Centennial Lecture Series’ website.

Faculty of Color Workshop 2019. Photo of all participants posing for pictures on the main front steps of a building.

UConn Humanities Institute Awarded Mellon Grant to Expand the Faculty of Color Working Group

July 7, 2020September 2, 2020News

humanities.uconn.edu

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a three-year grant of $750,000 to the University of Connecticut for the Humanities Institute to expand the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC) Faculty of Color Working Group (FOCWG). The thirteen member institutions of the Consortium support programming in humanities fields such as history, politics, language, art, literature, and philosophy.

Following a 2018 Mellon Foundation $100,000 grant that permitted a pilot phase, faculty of color at NEHC member institutions created and led the Faculty of Color Working Group (FOCWG) for the purpose of increasing mentorship, community building, and dedicated time for scholarly production among faculty of color. Coupled with the development of the NEHC’s social media and publicity, through cross-institutional networks, research and teaching mentorship, and fellowships, the Mellon Foundation grant enables FOCWG to bolster faculty success across schools in the region and the nation.

The Principal investigator for the program is Michael P. Lynch, director of the UConn Humanities Institute, director of NEHC and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, Philosophy. Co-principal investigators are Melina Pappademos, director of the UConn Africana Studies Institute, associate professor of history, and director of the Faculty of Color Working Group; and Alexis L. Boylan, director of academic affairs of the UConn Humanities Institute and associate professor of art and art history and Africana Studies.

“With generous support from the Mellon Foundation, this initiative recognizes the environmental obstacles and, at times, outright hostilities to professional advancement that faculty of color face at predominantly white institutions. FOCWG seeks to address these institutional failures by enabling scholarly productivity and professional relationships, even self-care, as safe-guards for aggregated individual success,” says Pappademos. “The FOCWG challenges institutions to dismantle rather than uphold their inflexible structures designed and defended to advantage some faculty members over others.“

In addition to UConn, the consortium includes Amherst College, Colby College, Dartmouth College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, University of Vermont, Wellesley College, and Wheaton College.

The FOCWG provides an urgently needed pathway for faculty of color to navigate the particular challenges they face in academic life. As part of a large network of institutions, the FOCWG grant will develop collaborative fellowship and mentoring opportunities to produce outcomes unachievable by any single institution.

The core activities made possible by the grant include:

Organizing an annual conference for faculty of color that will be the centerpiece of activities and outreach, which will include crucial professional dialogues on panel topics such as publishing, tenure and promotion and the challenge of transitioning into administrative roles. The conference will include pre-conference and post-conference interviews and surveys.
Development of a mentorship program to identify and train senior faculty mentors throughout the New England Humanities Consortium to offer a resource for faculty of color at all stages of their careers, including those holding administrative positions, in the region.
Establishment of The Mellon Faculty of Color Fellowship program, that will create opportunities for faculty to spend a year as a research fellow at another Consortium institution’s humanities institute or center contributing to cross-pollination across the Consortium while furthering faculty’s individual research.

There will also be increased support for NEHC administrative functions including a separate FOCWG website, expanded social media presence and creation of an Instagram account to attract younger generation students and scholars, particularly those who attend liberal arts institutions.

NEHC Announces 2020 Seed Grant Awardees

June 11, 2020September 2, 2020News

Read more about "Curation at a Distance"

Read more about “Shade: Labor Migration, Tobacco, Mobility and the Urban Nexus”

Read more about “Undisciplining Performance”

Read more about “A Journal of a Plague Year”

Read more about “Keeping it 101: A Killjoy’s Introduction to Religion”

Read more about “Public Memory, Place, and Belonging”

Read more about “Reactivating and Reshaping Humanities Communities”

NEHC Request for Proposals – Applications Closed

May 26, 2020September 2, 2020University of Connecticut

Guidelines and Application

NEHC Mission and Overview

The New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC) promotes and strengthens intellectual collaboration, interdisciplinary exchange, and innovative educational, intercultural, and curricular programming among New England Humanities centers and institutes, and the faculty, students, and regional, national, and global communities they serve. NEHC includes: Amherst College, Colby College, Dartmouth College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, the University of Connecticut, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Vermont, Wellesley College, and Wheaton College. The Humanities Institute of the University of Connecticut (UCHI) in Storrs, Connecticut is currently the executive and administrative hub of the NEHC.

Award Description

The New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC) is offering competitive seed grants for research initiatives in the humanities that seek to capitalize on the collaborative network of the consortium. Applications seeking to sustain, and build on, previously funded NEHC initiatives that demonstrated success are also welcome. Awards of up to $5000 will be made. (For projects whose total budgets exceed $5000 applicants must list additional committed funding sources and amounts.) Priority will be given to applications demonstrating concrete plans for consortium membership involvement. Such involvement can take different forms, but will typically involve, e.g. direct collaboration between two or more member institutions and/or active and solicitation of faculty, staff, or students exclusively from member institutions. Applications are welcome from individuals or teams, but the PI must be on the faculty of a NEHC member institution. Potential areas of funding interest include the following (this list is by no means exhaustive):

Collaborative research projects
Summer Seminars
Study or working groups
Shared speakers across institutions
Collaborative course design
Exhibitions

Please submit materials electronically in pdf or Word docx to YOUR HUMANITIES CENTER or INSTITUTE DIRECTOR BY MAY 15, 2020. They will then pass along the proposal to the NEHC board.

Application Procedure and Timeline

Applications for the NEHC RFP must include the following:

Cover page (1 page) stating

Title of the project
Name, department/program/school location, and NEHC school representation of PI(s)
Requested NEHC funding amount (Awards of up to $5000)

Project narrative (2 pages, single spaced, 1” margins, 12pt font) detailing:

The goals of the project
How those goals address those of NEHC
Plans for involving NEHC member institutions and which institutions in particular will be involved
How those goals will be pursued
Names and roles of participants
Expected outcomes and/or deliverables
External funding sources, if any
Project timeline describing completion of project goals and outcomes

CV (2 page) of Principal Investigator(s)
Budget and Award Period:

Total budget. (For projects whose budgets exceed $5000, please list additional committed funding sources and amounts, as validated by an attached letter of support.)
The award period will typically not exceed one (1) calendar year and must be stated in the application timeline.

The awardees will be required to submit a detailed summary of the project at the end of their funding term.

Reporting Requirements

All PIs will be required to submit a two-page report no more than one (1) month after the end of the award period specified in the award letter. The report should detail and substantiate progress on the following elements of the project:

The extent to which project goals have been met
Specific indicators or signs of success
Outcomes and/or deliverables achieved
Number of NEHC member institutions (and faculty/students) involved

Questions and requests for more information are encouraged and should be directed to UCHI (uchi@uconn.edu).

A black and white photograph of a young Black girl with her hand held up toward the camera, obscuring her face.

Colby College Launches Race and Identity Matters (RIM) Initiative

November 11, 2019September 2, 2020Uncategorized

With generous support from the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC), and from the Provost’s Office at Colby College, the Colby Center for the Arts and Humanities is proud to launch Race and Identity Matters (RIM), which seeks to build a mutually supportive, intellectually stimulating network between scholars working on race and identity across all eleven NEHC campuses. The first step to launching this network is a:

One-Day Symposium
University of Connecticut
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, February 29^th, 2020

At this first RIM meeting, the focus is on highlighting the range of work on race and identity at NEHC schools, and allowing individual scholars to recognize potential areas for collaboration. To that end, 10 of the accepted scholars will be invited to prepare a 5-10-minute presentation on their current or proposed research project. Each presentation will be followed by 15 minutes of discussion where the audience discusses the research idea/plan (it will not be possible for more than 10 people to make presentations, but we hope that others will be happy to join in the conversation and forge links with like-minded researchers). Click here to apply for this symposium. Application deadline is December 6, 2019.

Subsequent steps following the symposium include the RIM Summer Institute and a RIM Scholarship in NEHC classrooms project. Click here for more detailed information about the RIM symposium, summer institute, and the scholarship.

UNH Center for the Humanities Announces Summer Institute in Public Humanities Seed Grant Winners

October 23, 2019September 2, 2020Uncategorized

University of New Hampshire Center for the Humanities announced the names of its 2019 Summer Institute in Public Humanities seed grant winners. The seed grant was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In addition to two awardees from Howard University, winners also include 14 graduate students and faculty members from member institutes of the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC), including Colby College (1), Dartmouth College (1), Tufts University (1), University of Connecticut (3), University of New Hampshire (3), University of Rhode Island (1), University of Vermont (1), Wellesley College (2), and Wheaton College (1):

Elena Creef, Wellesley College
“Reenacting and Remembering the Battle of Greasy Grass, aka The Battle of Little Bighorn”
A public humanities podcast and digital archive project to facilitate a cross-cultural meetup
Community Partners:30-40 Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho riders

Kabria Baumgartner, University of New Hampshire
“Stories from the Archives: African Americans in Essex National Heritage Area”
An annotated resource guide to collections and resources as well as organizations and individuals from the seventeenth century up to the present
Community Partners:National Park Service units, including curators and park historians, the Organization of American Historians, student researchers

Catherine Besteman, Colby College
“Freedom and Captivity”
A series of events and art exhibitions, podcasts, short videos, an art book, and linked courses at Maine’s colleges and universities
Community Partners:faculty at several Maine colleges and universities, a theater company, art institutions, artists, poets, scholars, activists, lawyers, playwrights and others whose work interrogates captivity as a corollary to freedom and engages with alternatives to incarceration

Mohamed Camara, Howard University
“Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding in West Africa”
A forum on Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding along with a digital archive, podcast, and documentary to disseminate the knowledge
Community Partners:West Africa Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) and West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP)

Emilie Coppinger, University of New Hampshire
“Strengths Narrative Art Program (SNAP)”
Art therapy program for children who have been abused or neglected and are in need of channels through which to process past experiences and feelings
Community Partners:(tentative) Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program, Institutional Review Board (IRB), art therapists, children who have experienced abuse and neglect

Tyler Doggett, University of Vermont
“Public Philosophy Week”
Diversity of formats, including readings, group discussions, lectures, movie screenings, and tastings
Community Partners:Will vary from year to year depending on themes but may include police officers, food specialists, doctors and other professionals, comedians, documentary makers, and others

Megan Fountain, University of Connecticut
“The Guatemala-Connecticut Community History Project”
Documenting and archiving oral histories of Guatemalan immigrants and their families in Guatemala
Community Partners:A committee of Guatemalan immigrants and community activists including Unidad Latina en Accion (ULA), a grassroots organization; a team of public historians and New Haven Public Schools teachers; Columbia Center for Oral History Research; and Groundswell: Oral History for Social Change.

William Mason, Wheaton College
Untitled
Two concerts in Portland, Maine showcasing the music, dance, stories, and history of Somali refugees who have resettled in Maine
Community partners:high school students, Somali refugees, performers, Somali-Mainer Youth Network, residents who helped Somalis resettle in Maine

Jennifer Musto, Wellesley College
“Wellesley College-SMCC Co-Learning Collaboratory”
A Faculty Speaker Series and team-taught micro seminar program where faculty members facilitate interactive lectures with South Middlesex Correctional Center participants based on their research interests
Community Partners:Public Leadership & Action (PPLA) at Wellesley College, staff at SMCC and current and former SMCC participants who receive DOC permission to contribute

Tracy Perkins, Howard University
“Saving Ward Valley”
Conducting interviews to help tell the story of the Ward Valley anti-nuclear waste landfill campaign, creating both a digital archive and a multimedia storytelling and educational website
Community Partners: Fort Mojave tribal chairperson, activists from the Ward Valley Campaign, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Aspiration, an NGO that specializes in helping activists, nonprofits and foundations use internet technology for social justice purposes

Hesamedin Sharifian, Tufts University
“’Banned’ Stories”
Devised theatre production which will reach out to Iranian citizens to share their stories of pain and separation in the wake of Muslim ban
Community Partners:a theatre director and devised theatre specialist, legal attorneys, theatre

staff, a group of Iranian students and scholars who are willing to will share their stories and embody characters on stage

Roberta Stewart, Dartmouth College
“From Troy to Baghdad: Reading Communities and Public Humanities”
Trainings in methods for harnessing world lit to create community for US Veterans engaging in “radical reading” to come to terms with service and impact of war, eventual published volume documenting experiences
Community Partners:mental health providers; veteran readers; Center for Suicide Prevention; various Vet centers, including Lowell Mass Vet Center and Student Veteran Services; (tentative) Society for Classics Studies, Women’s Classical Caucus, Classics and Social Justice, community colleges, prisons… and more

Fiona Vernal, University of Connecticut
“A Caribbean Museum”
Community-based archival collecting to lead to an oral history initiative including one-week traveling pop-up exhibits, a migration exhibit to launch the Caribbean Museum, and salons (panel discussions) about public housing, mobility, and migration
Community Partners: Connecticut Humanities Council (CHC), The Hartford History Center at the Hartford Public Library, The West Indian Social Club (WISC), and El Instituto: The Institute of Latino, Caribbean and Latin American Studies (ELIN) at UConn, Hartford Public Schools, CREC (Capital Region Education Council)

Rob Widell, University of Rhode Island
“Documenting Rhode Island initiative of the Oral History Lab at URI”
The facilitation of a series of workshops and an open and accessible ongoing archive to document and preserve stories of activism and community organizing across Rhode Island and the surrounding region
Community Partners:George Wiley Center’s Social Movement History Project and The Collective, a woman-owned “bookstore, infoshop, lending library, reading room and community meeting space in Peacedale, Rhode Island

Leah Woods, University of New Hampshire
“Prison Outreach Program (POP)”
To outfit a new wood shop with tools and equipment for the NH Women’s Correctional Facility so women will have the opportunity to learn marketable skills and flex their creativity through furniture making led by female instructors/mentors
Community Partners:New Hampshire Furniture Masters, NH Women’s Correctional Facility, female woodworkers

Walter Woodward, University of Connecticut
“Doing Public Humanities: An Audio Field Guide”
A multi-episode web-based podcast as an audio roadmap into how to practice engaged public humanities
Community Partners:case history participants (faculty doing public humanities)

Call for Applications: 2021–22 UCHI Faculty of Color Working Group Fellowship

Open Letter to Dr. Suresh Garimella, President of UVM

UVM Humanities Center Statement on Proposed Cuts to Humanities

University of Rhode Island Announces Suffrage Centennial Lecture Series

UConn Humanities Institute Awarded Mellon Grant to Expand the Faculty of Color Working Group

NEHC Announces 2020 Seed Grant Awardees

Curation at a Distance

Working Group:

Shade: Labor Diasporas, Tobacco, Mobility, and the Urban Nexus

Undisciplining Performance

Journal of a Plague Year

Maintaining Accessibility and Developing Resources for Keeping It 101: A Killjoy’s Introduction to Religion Podcast

Public Memory, Place, and Belonging: Unearthing the Hidden History of the Native and African American Presence on Block Island

Reactivating and Reshaping Humanities Communities: Collaborative Humanistic Inquiry inNineteenth-Century Britain and Today