December 2023 Public Humanities Newsletter
A monthly newsletter from Humanities for All, an initiative of the National Humanities Alliance.
In This Newsletter:
An Update on the Newsletter
Since the launch of the Public Humanities Newsletter in January 2022, the audience has grown to over 1,500 subscribers from across the United States and in 36 countries around the world. Each newsletter is read thousands of times. Like many humanities initiatives, the Public Humanities Newsletter has been supported by grant funding. We no longer have the funding to support the effort it takes each month to source, compile, edit, and publish the content for the newsletter. This will be the last Public Humanities Newsletter.
We hope that the newsletter can be taken up by an institution, organization, individual, or group of folks in the public humanities community. There is a clear appetite for the newsletter’s content and the connection it provides among public humanists. If you are interested in connecting with us to learn more about taking on the Public Humanities Newsletter, please fill out your contact information here.
Calls for Proposals
ACLS Digital Justice Grant program
Proposals due December 15, 2023
The ACLS Digital Justice Grant program is designed to promote and provide resources for projects at various stages of development that diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and/or contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues. The program offers two kinds of grants: Digital Justice Seed Grants for projects at early stages of development and Digital Justice Development Grants for projects that have advanced beyond the start-up or early phases of development. Learn more and apply here.
Speculative Play and Just Futurities residency
Applications due December 31, 2023
Speculative Play and Just Futurities is a residency, teaching, and community engagement program imagining new futures focused on social justice. One-month residencies in Indianapolis are open to all scholars and creators who have a track record of work focused on addressing social justice issues facing historically marginalized groups. Learn more and apply here.
AI in OH Virtual Symposium
Proposals due January 1, 2024
The Oral History Association invites oral history practitioners and scholars from all disciplines who utilize oral history in their work to submit paper or roundtable proposals detailing any number of intersections between artificial intelligence and oral history. The online symposium will take place in July 2024. Learn more and submit a proposal here.
U.S. Latina & Latino Oral History Journal: Special Issue
Abstracts due April 1, 2024
The U.S. Latina & Latino Oral History Journal is a research publication created to mine, showcase, and promote the rich field of oral history as it relates specifically to the U.S. Latina and Latino experience. The journal invites abstracts for an upcoming special issue on oral history and literary criticism. Learn more and submit an abstract here.
Upcoming Events
Locating Community-Based Research And Public Knowledge
December 8, 2023 | 1:00–2:00PM CST | Virtual
Join the Grounded Knowledge Project for their next public session. In this webinar, they will talk with experts from different disciplines and contexts about how their community-engaged research contributes to and broadens the study of religion and public knowledge, both in and out of the academy. Learn more and register here.
2024 OAH Conference on American History
April 11–14, 2024 | New Orleans, LA
The 2024 Conference on American History from the Organization of American Historians (OAH) will take place in New Orleans, LA. This year’s theme is “Public Dialogue, Relevance, and Change: Being in Service to Communities and the Nation.” Registration is now open. Learn more and register here.
December spotlight: Launching Public Humanities
Public Humanities is an international open-access, cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of humanities scholarship and public life. The journal will launch in 2024 with Cambridge University Press and feature peer-reviewed articles written in an accessible style for a wide audience. Each year, Public Humanities will publish four themed issues curated by guest editors. Published digitally to enable speedy delivery to readers and maximum flexibility for authors, articles range from individual of-the-moment responses to roundtable discussions and full-length papers. Through active and rigorous commissioning and peer-review processes, a diverse and committed editorial collective, and a world-leading publishing team, Public Humanities offers a platform for scholarly exchange and exciting new applications of excellent humanities research.
Learn more about the launch of Public Humanities here.
Publication and Project News
Recently on the Humanities for All website:
On the Humanities for All blog, Stephanie Rodriguez and Jennifer Austin wrote about Lives in Translation, a community-based translation and interpreting program based at Rutgers University-Newark.
Debates in the Digital Humanities 2023 is a new volume edited by Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein that is now open access. Debates in the Digital Humanities is a hybrid print/digital book series that explores debates in the field as they emerge. With general volumes that highlight current issues in the field, and special volumes on topics of pressing interest, Debates in the Digital Humanities tracks the field as it continues to grow.
“Imagining New Possibilities: Career Diversity and Doctoral Education in Theatre and Performance Studies” is a recent article by Michelle Granshaw, Mia Levenson, Courtney Colligan, Mac Irvine, Victoria LaFave, Noe Montez, and Elizabeth W. Son published in the journal Theatre Topics. In the article, the authors reflect on a roundtable discussion that included conversations around how to incorporate the public humanities into theatre programs.
Digital Humanities and Laboratories is a volume edited by Urszula Pawlicka-Deger and Christopher Thomson, published by Routledge as part of the Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities series. The volume explores laboratories dedicated to the study of digital humanities (DH) in a global context and contributes to the expanding body of knowledge about situated DH knowledge production.
Employment and Funding Opportunities
The Center for Digital and Public Humanities at the University of Missouri - Kansas City invites applications for a Digital and Public Humanities Coordinator to facilitate the academic programs, student internships, public programming, and grant- and gift-funded programs and projects associated with the center. This position will provide administrative support for the daily operations of the center as well as help to advise and manage student workers and interns connected to the Center and its related programs and projects. Application review began in November but will continue until the position is filled.
The Center for Presidential History (CPH) at Southern Methodist University invites applications for its two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship program, to begin in August 2024.The CPH considers "presidential history" as broadly defined, and so welcomes applicants from all fields, topics, and time periods in U.S. history, particularly those pertaining the nation, politics, citizenship, governance, or executive power. Review of applications began on December 4, 2023, but will continue until the position is filled.
The Coos History Museum invites applications for a Curator of Education. This position will leverage knowledge of Oregon history and experience with program creation, research, and exhibits to foster opportunities for inclusive learning among diverse audiences. Apply by December 10, 2023.
The Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC) at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for an Associate Director. This role will provide direction and oversight to all IHC public events, public humanities programs, and seven research awards programs that serve multiple constituencies. Apply by December 15, 2023.
The Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of Florida invites applications for an Assistant Director of Digital Humanities and Undergraduate Learning to begin in Spring 2024. This is a full-time position at the rank of Lecturer that will develop and oversee a suite of curricular programs, workshops, and events that expand opportunities for and engagement with the digital humanities for faculty and students. Apply by December 15, 2023.
The Newberry invites applications for their short-term fellowships. Researchers with short-term fellowships spend one to two months investigating specific collection items that are essential to their scholarship. These fellowship opportunities are open to scholars at the ABD stage and beyond. Apply by December 15, 2023.
The Department of Classical Languages and Literatures at Smith College invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin in July 2024. The candidate must also have a record of active engagement with new directions in the Classics field, possibly including but not limited to race and ethnicity in antiquity, environmental issues or science and technology in the ancient world, uses and abuses of the classical tradition and other reception studies, and/or public humanities. Apply by December 15, 2023.
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) invites applications for the inaugural AVDF/ACLS Fellowships for Research on the Liberal Arts, made possible by a generous grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVDF). This peer-reviewed fellowship program provides funding and data training for up to five scholarly projects that draw upon the newly available College and Beyond II (CBII) database. Apply by December 15, 2023.
The Tulane University History Project invites applications for one postdoctoral fellow to begin by August 2024 (earlier start dates negotiable). This is a residential fellowship based in New Orleans, LA. Candidates must have a Ph.D. in history or closely related fields by start date. They especially seek candidates with expertise in any of the following areas: 19th or 20th century African American history, history of race and higher education, New Orleans and the Gulf South, or public history. Apply by January 5, 2024.
The Humanities Research Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Public Humanities, supported by the Mellon Foundation Humanities Without Walls (HWW) initiative. The postdoctoral fellow will spend the two-year term in residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and pursue a community-based research project rooted in the HWW grant’s guiding methodologies of reciprocity and redistribution. Apply by January 15, 2024.
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences invites applications for a 2024–2026 Humanities Policy Fellow for Humanities, Arts, and Culture. This fellowship provides an opportunity for recent PhDs with training in the humanities or humanistic social sciences to learn about a career in public policy and administration. Apply by January 31, 2024.
The Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS) at the University of Pennsylvania seeks a Program Coordinator. The CPCRS works to advance the understanding and sustainable conservation of heritage places commemorating American civil rights histories and Black heritage. The Program Coordinator position is supported by a multi-year Andrew Mellon Foundation grant to build capacity among partner institutions to advance the historic preservation of places of civil rights heritage significant to the Black experience in the US.
The Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona seeks a Head of Learning and Community Engagement. A collaborative member of CCP’s leadership team and reporting to the Director, this position sets the strategic vision for a department that oversees programming, engagement, and outreach both for the university community as well as the public.
The University Libraries at the University of South Carolina invites applications for a University Historian. This role will serve as the principal resource on matters of historic interpretation, representation, and commemoration of the University of South Carolina for the university community and beyond. They will research, create, and disseminate original scholarship on the University’s past in collaboration with appropriate partners (e.g., the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Civil Rights History and Research, McKissick Museum, all units of University Libraries Special Collections), and other relevant university, local, regional, and state entities.
The Department of History & American Indian Studies at the University of North Dakota invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of History to begin in August 2024. They seek a colleague who will continue the department’s commitments to teaching excellence, furthering scholarship on North Dakota and the Northern Plains, and engaging diverse public audiences.
The Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research at the University of Wyoming invites applications for a Project Coordinator. This position will coordinate and manage the operational, financial, and personnel functions of large and/or complex specialized projects for a designated department under very limited supervision. Work or volunteer experience in the public humanities is desired.
The Department of English at Texas A&M University invites applicants for two tenure-track assistant professor positions in early modern studies. One position is an Assistant Professor of Early Modern Literary Studies and the other is an Assistant Professor of Early Modern English Drama (Shakespeare). For both positions, interest in and experience with the public humanities are ideal qualifications.
As always, check out the latest postings on the job boards for the National Council on Public History and the American Association for State and Local History, which provide lists of opportunities that might be of interest to those trained in the public humanities.
Interested in careers in scholarly publishing? Check out the Association of University Presses and the Society of Scholarly Publishing job boards.
Interested in careers in museums? Check out the American Alliance of Museums job board.
Interested in careers at state or jurisdictional humanities councils? Check out the Federation of State Humanities Councils job board.