April 2022 Public Humanities Newsletter
A monthly newsletter from Humanities for All, an initiative of the National Humanities Alliance.
In this newsletter:
If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to our Substack (for free!) so that you receive the newsletter in your email inbox and don’t miss any news in the future. We also encourage you to submit items to share. If you have any questions or would like to connect about the newsletter please email Humanities for All project director Michelle May-Curry (mmaycurry@nhalliance.org).
Recently on the Humanities for All blog
March 3: In Exploring What's New in the Public Humanities, Routledge, Taylor, and Francis partnered with the National Humanities Alliance and the Federation of State Humanities Councils to invite scholars and state humanities council leaders to reflect on the state of the public humanities ahead of the 2022 National Humanities Conference. Contributing authors include Mary Foltz, Denise Meringolo, Matthew Pavesich, Mary Rizzo, and Aiko Yamashiro.
March 15: Lynnea Salinas from the International Storytelling Center wrote about their Freedom Stories Initiative, which unearths the Black heritage of Appalachia through public programming and educational resources.
March 29: Humanities for All project director Michelle May-Curry gave an update on the exciting new directions the initiative has taken and previewed upcoming resources and events relevant to the public humanities community.
Interested in contributing to the Humanities for All blog?
We are currently soliciting short posts that highlight public humanities initiatives and projects for publication in summer 2022. Pitch a blog post to us here.
Calls for Proposals
NHPRC-Mellon Planning Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), with funding provided by the Mellon Foundation, seeks proposals for its planning grant program for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies. With an overarching goal to broaden participation in the production and publication of historical and scholarly digital editions, the program awards grants to collaborative teams consisting of at least two scholar-editors, as well as one or more archivists, digital scholars, data curators, and/or other support and technical staff. Deadline for optional draft review begins April 1, 2022, with a final deadline of June 8. Learn more and submit a proposal here.
Public Humanities Network: Call for Digital Contributions
The Public Humanities Network of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Initiatives invites digital responses to the theme, "How do you do Public Humanities?" from partner centers and institutes. All responses will be posted online, and displayed at the 2022 CHCI annual meeting. Learn more and see the guidelines here.
Call for Public Humanities Syllabi
In the spirit of making publicly engaged pedagogy, curriculum building, and course transformation an accessible activity for faculty and practitioners in the humanities, Humanities for All is seeking to create an open access collection of undergraduate and graduate-level public humanities syllabi. These syllabi might cover introductory topics such as “Introduction to Public Humanities” or “Theories and Methods in the Public Humanities.” Alternatively, they might provide a more topic-specific approach to public engagement such as “Asian American Community Archiving In New York City” or “Digital Public Humanities and the American South.” Syllabi will be collected for general use and archived through open-access links on the Humanities for All website. Syllabi should only be submitted by the individual who created the course. To submit your syllabus for inclusion, please email Michelle May-Curry at mmaycurry@nhalliance.org.
Publication News
Looking for a university press that welcomes public humanities manuscripts? The University of Wyoming Press, as part of the University Press of Colorado Consortium, is actively seeking projects in environmental humanities, public humanities, democracy and the United States, and history.
In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, “Who Owns Your Academic Community?,” Jeffrey Lawrence explores and critiques the growing foothold of the digital public humanities within higher education and points to the role tech companies play in shaping the future of public scholarship.
In The Public Humanities at Brooklyn College: A Conversation with Dr. Rosamond King, Director of the Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities, Dr. King speaks to the role public engagement plays in making the humanities accessible and applicable to everyone. This piece is published in Distributaries, the Center for Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center’s open-access publication.
Reframing Rhetorical History: Cases, Theories, and Methodologies is a forthcoming essay collection edited by Kathleen J. Turner and Jason Edward Black from UBC press. The sixteen essays are divided into four major parts: “Digital Humanities and Culture,” “Identities, Cultures, and Archives,” “Approaches to Nationalism and Transnationalism,” and “Metahistories and Pedagogies.” A chapter of particular interest to public humanitists is “Rhetorical History, Public Humanities, and the Exoduster Movement” by Shawn J. Parry-Giles and J. Michael Hogan. Read a sample of the chapter here.
“Undergraduate Research and the Public Humanities: Workable Futures” is a new article by Jamie Smith in Pedagogy journal exploring publicly engaged English coursework at the undergraduate level. Examining a course titled “Writing About Public Problems,” this article argues that undergraduates are capable of undertaking theoretical, creative, and practical writing and research when paired with empirical data collection on public stakeholders.
“The role of born digital data in confronting a difficult and contested past through digital storytelling: the Waterford Memories Project” is a new article by Jennifer O’Mahoney in AI & Society journal that uses a case study of a digital humanities project to explore the role of born digital data and digital oral histories in public humanities research.
The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory is a forthcoming edited collection by J. Daniel Jenkins that explores how different scholars, practitioners, musicians, and organizations have used music theory to engage public audiences. Read a sample chapter on Community-Engaged Music Theory Pedagogy by Daniel B. Stevens that recounts four community engagement projects completed by music theory students at the University of Delaware.
"The Humanities in Public: A Computational Analysis of US National and Campus Newspapers" is a new article by Lindsay Thomas and Abigail Droge in the Journal of Cultural Analytics. Building from the work of the WhatEvery1Says project (WE1S), they employ computational methods to analyze how the humanities resonate in the daily language of communities, campuses, and cities across the U.S.
Upcoming Events
Rutgers University Graduate Public Humanities Workshops
April 7–8, 2022
Join the Center for Cultural Analysis for a hybrid workshop series introducing graduate students and faculty to different public humanities methodologies. This workshop is planned to be a hybrid event, with some in-person attendance at Van Dyck Hall and speakers at Rutgers New Brunswick, with sessions streamed via Zoom concurrently. These workshops are free but registration is required. Learn more and register here.
Inclusion and Public Humanities: Challenges and Opportunities for Justice-Oriented Teaching and Learning
April 8, 2022
Join the Dresher Center for the Humanities at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Anti-Racism and Action Faculty Working Group for their 2022 Inclusion Imperative Humanities Symposium, “Inclusion and Public Humanities: Challenges and Opportunities for Justice-Oriented Teaching and Learning.” The virtual symposium is open to students, faculty, and community members. Learn more and register here by April 6, 2022.
E. Maynard Adams Symposium for the Humanities
April 8–9, 2022
Carolina Public Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites the public to attend their annual symposium for the humanities. The 2022 symposium, “Social Class Difference and the Search for Political Solidarity Among Black Americans,” features keynote speaker Dr. Tommie Shelby, Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African & African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University. Learn more and register here.
Gothic Women Today: A Public Humanities Panel for Early Career Researchers
April 14, 2022 | 12:00–1:30pm Eastern
Join the Gothic Women Project for a discussion of how we can engage with the field of Public Humanities in this panel for early career (and beyond!) researchers. Hear Dr. Kim Simpson (Chawton House), Dr. Corin Throsby (Cambridge), Dr. Courtney Floyd and Dr. Eleanor Dumbill (Victorian Scribblers), and Dr. Sarah Faulkner (University of Washington) speak about their work bringing Gothic women writers alive and to the people. Learn more and register for the event here.
All Welcome! Best Practices for Increasing Accessibility
April 14, 2022 | 4:00–5:00pm Pacific
Join California Humanities for the next event in their Tools of the Trade series. In this session, explore how we can make public humanities programs more accessible to people of all abilities, through a conversation with the team from The Art of Disability Culture, an exhibition and public program series organized by the Palo Alto Arts Center. Learn more and register here.
Environmental History Meets Public Policy
Next event: April 19, 2022 | 3pm CET / 10am Eastern
Join the International Panel on Environmental History & Policy for a series of virtual workshops and roundtable discussions about environmental policy engagement and environmental history. The workshop will provide the environmental history community with the basic understanding of the ways in which science and policy interact, in particular in the European context, helping individuals and groups to engage in the policy making process. This series is a collaboration between the academic collectives Historians for Future, Climate Change and History Research Initiative, and the International Advisory Panel on Environmental History and Policy, supported by the Centre for Grand Strategy at King’s College London, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. Learn more and register for the workshops here.
Hoʻokaiāulu: Public Humanities in the Pacific Speaker Series
Next event: April 19, 2022 | 5:30pm HST
This series of one-hour events is live streamed for the public and showcases inspiring individuals who are actively engaged in public humanities. The events are co-hosted by Craig Santos Perez, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa associate professor of English, and Brandy Nālani McDougall, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa associate professor of American studies. This speaker series is sponsored by the Mānoa Center for the Humanities and Civic Engagement (MCHACE) and the Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellowship. Learn more about the upcoming events and register here.
Inheritance
April 27–30, 2022
This symposium, organized by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University, brings together activists, curators, educators, tribal leaders, artists, historians, heritage workers, and policy makers to explore the range of strategies that institutions and communities are using to respond to contentious representations of race, Indigenous lifeways, and history in public art and architecture. The event includes a mix of in person and online sessions and opportunities over four days. Learn more and register here.
2022 CHCI Annual Meeting, “Face to Face: Forms of the Humanities”
May 19–22, 2022
The Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) is a global forum that strengthens the work of humanities centers and institutes through advocacy, grant-making, and inclusive collaboration. Join CHCI for their Annual Meeting, which will take place in person at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and online via zoom. Given the pandemic’s impact on in-person connection and the mediating role of technology, the conference will ask what is a face? And what is the form of a face? How does the face index the human? Do non-human animals have faces? What scale of relationality is implied in the phrase, face to face? Learn more and register for the conference here.
Employment and Funding Opportunities
Miami University of Ohio seeks a Visiting Assistant Professor specializing in linguistic anthropology and working at the intersection of public engagement, media, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Screening of applications began on March 3, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled.
The Center for Archival Futures in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park invites applications for a full-time, professional track lecturer who will teach core courses and electives in archives and digital curation. The successful candidate can develop new courses that cover a range of topics, such as the intersection of archives, social justice, and public humanities. Screening of applications began on March 30, 2022 but will continue until the position is filled.
The Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM) invites artists, media makers, and journalists whose work focuses on race, indigeneity, and/or transnational migration to apply to be a Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow during the Fall 2022 term. Applications are due April 8, 2022.
The Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County invites applications for a Program Management Specialist, who will oversee the Public Humanities minor and associated public programming. Applications are due April 8, 2022.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland is accepting resumes for the one-year position of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Public Humanities Fellow. The Public Humanities Fellow is charged with building on national attention for the College’s recently dedicated Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland by leading a one-year NEH grant-funded project. Review of applications begins April 15, 2022.
Northeastern University invites applications and nominations for one or more faculty positions in Digital Humanities with a specialization in literary, cultural, rhetorical, or historical studies. These renewable positions will be at the rank of Teaching Professor (Assistant, Associate, or Full) or Professor of the Practice. Successful applicants will have the ability to initiate and lead substantive research projects, design innovative curricula, engage with practitioners and communities outside of the academy, and contribute to strategic planning around experiential learning in digital humanities. For fullest consideration, application materials should be submitted by April 18, 2022.
The School of History, Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University invites applications for a full-time visiting assistant professor in Public History or Public Humanities. The position is anticipated to be two years in duration, with possible renewal. The visiting professor will conduct research and collaborate in developing public history projects related to Oregon history with a special emphasis on science, technology, economies, labor, race, and environment. Apply by April 29, 2022.
American Conservation Experience (ACE), a nonprofit Conservation Corps, in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) is seeking an Untold Histories Research Assistant interested in dedicating 16 weeks to support Acadia National Park in promoting, preserving, and creating opportunities for visitors to experience the untold history of marginalized communities’ participation in park history. This RA-ship is part of the Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program (CRDIP), a professional development internship that introduces students from backgrounds historically underrepresented in the National Parks to career opportunities within Cultural Resource Management in the NPS. Apply by April 30, 2022 for fullest consideration.
The Munson Institute at Mystic Seaport Museum, in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University and Williams College, seeks junior faculty and advanced-level graduate students for participation in their Reimagining New England History: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom project. This summer fellowship is part of the Munson Institute’s multi-institutional Reimagining New England project funded by the Mellon Foundation. Apply by April 30, 2022.
Virginia Humanities invites applications for their Public Humanities Fellowship, which offers a stipend of up to $15,000 to support public humanities projects. Preference will be given to projects that engage the public in meaningful and creative ways and explore issues around public humanities topics related to subjects such as history, literature, religion, and community stories. Applications are due June 1, 2022.
Emory University’s Center for Humanistic Inquiry is seeking a Community Outreach Coordinator. The coordinator will work closely with faculty authors of scholarly monographs—both before and after publication—to develop and implement programming that explores new models of community connection and participation. The full-time position reports to the Senior Associate Director for Publishing and is funded through June 30, 2024.
Massachusetts Cultural Council seeks two individuals to join their Communities Initiative team in the roles of Program Officer and Cultural Districts Program Officer. The goal of the Communities Initiative team is to amplify cultural vitality in cities and towns in Massachusetts through integrated community-focused grants, initiatives, and advocacy. The Communities Initiative consists of the Local Cultural Council Program, the Cultural District Initiative, and the Festivals Program.
The Center for Public Humanities at Messiah University seeks a part-time Research Projects Mentor. The Research Project Mentor oversees the CPH student fellows' research projects, interfaces with students, faculty, and community partners and is in charge of facilitating the communication among them.
The University of Texas at Austin Harry Ransom Humanities Center seeks a Head of Public Programs to oversee the center’s programming. The Head of Public Programs builds relationships and fosters/forms collaborations with campus colleagues, community partners, and peer institutions, nationally and internationally, and participates in the larger professional community of cultural public programming.
The University of Pennsylvania Institute for Contemporary Art seeks a Director of Public Engagement and Research to re-envision, design, and build a hub for Public Engagement and Research (PE&R) onsite and across ICA’s digital platforms.
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.
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