April 2026 Public Humanities
A monthly newsletter connecting publicly-engaged humanities scholars and practitioners across the US (and beyond), hosted by the Department of Public & Applied Humanities at The University of Arizona.
In this issue:
Calls for papers
Upcoming events
Publications & project news
April spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Eilin Perez
Employment opportunities
If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to Substack, a free app, to receive the newsletter in your email inbox and not miss any future news! We also encourage you to submit items to share. If you have any questions or would like to connect about the newsletter, please email Giulia Negretto at giulianegretto@arizona.edu.
Calls for Papers
Humanities Methods in Librarianship
City University of New York (CUNY)
A new open-access publication from CUNY invites submissions for its inaugural issue focused on humanities-based approaches to librarianship. They welcome peer‑reviewed articles, creative nonfiction, interviews, and book reviews that engage methods from disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, and cultural studies to examine library work, theory, and practice. Submissions from scholars, practitioners, and library workers are encouraged.
Deadline: April 24, 2026
Learn more
Bodies of Culture: Somaesthetic Explorations
Florida Atlantic University
Hosted by the Center for Body, Mind, and Culture, this interdisciplinary conference (November 6-7, 2026) examines how culture shapes embodied and somatic experience. Topics include body care practices, representation in the arts, attire and adornment, physical forms, and culturally shaped somatic differences. Contributions are welcome from the humanities, social sciences, and arts, including medical humanities and historical, religious, national, and cosmopolitan perspectives. Selected papers may be published in The Journal of Somaesthetics or a Brill volume in the Studies in Somaesthetics series.
Deadline: August 18, 2026 (abstracts)
Learn More
Upcoming Events
Baltimore's Black Arts Then & Now: Virtual Book Launch
April 30, 7:00 pm EDT
Zoom
This virtual event celebrates the forthcoming book (Spring 2026) Baltimore’s Black Arts Then & Now: Behind the Scenes of a Collaborative Public Humanities Project, which brings to life the Chicory Revitalization Project and the legacy of Baltimore’s groundbreaking grassroots magazine Chicory. Published from 1966 to 1983, Chicory captured the unedited poetry, conversations, and visions of working-class Black communities during the War on Poverty and the Black Arts Movement. Since 2017, former editors have collaborated with scholars, librarians, poets, educators, and young writers to revive Chicory as a catalyst for intergenerational dialogue on race, place, and social justice. This book documents that work and offers valuable insights for educators, public historians, and community-engaged humanists.
Register
Being Human Festival (US) 2026: Between the Lines
National Humanities Center
April 17–May 3, 2026
Multiple locations across the United States & online events
What do an interactive theater performance and craft workshop in Kansas, a public art and activism party in Washington, D.C., a hands‑on exploration of New Orleans’ funeral traditions, and a literary canoe trip down the Mississippi River all have in common? They are just some of the events featured in the National Humanities Center’s third annual Being Human Festival (US), Between the Lines, a nationwide celebration of community‑focused public humanities.
Publications & Project News
Now & Here
A new digital directory and resource hub highlighting the work of the ACE Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The site features nearly 100 original public humanities projects created by emerging scholars in collaboration with national parks, community partners, Tribes, and descendant communities. Projects include digital exhibits, articles, StoryMaps, comic books, and more, alongside More to the 250th, an original essay series connecting Mellon‑funded work to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Upcoming additions include a podcast series and practical resources for aspiring public humanists.
More Information
The Kashmiri Diasporic Memory Project
A student‑led public humanities and digital archive documenting memories from the Kashmiri diaspora. Created by Noah Khan, a Kashmiri‑American undergraduate student at Baruch College (CUNY), the project preserves family stories, migration experiences, traditions, and reflections on growing up Kashmiri outside Kashmir. Contributors include people born in Kashmir who later migrated abroad as well as members of the diaspora whose parents or grandparents are from Kashmir. The archive aims to preserve lived memory in a public‑facing, accessible form while creating space for a wide range of Kashmiri voices across generations, regions, and religious communities.
More Information & Share Your Diaspora Memory
Wynter’s Queer Revolution: Community Organizing and the Future of the Humanities
In an era of overlapping economic, political, and climate crises, this forthcoming book (Routledge, 2026) asks how the humanities can move beyond reactive teaching and instead cultivate the capacities students need for the worlds ahead. Drawing on research with faculty in Community Change Studies programs at public colleges serving Black, Brown, immigrant, and low‑income students, it outlines a hopeful model for a “Community Organizing Humanities.” Author Hannah Ashley, Ph.D.—professor of English and Community Change Studies at West Chester University and longtime community‑based literacy educator—offers workshops, professional development, and book events.
April Spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Eilin Perez
Dr. Eilin R. Perez is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Global History at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He is also Advisor and Incoming Visiting Assistant Professor of Public Humanities at the Bard Prison Initiative. This month, we are excited to highlight his perspectives as a public humanities practitioner via a brief Q&A.
How did you become interested and involved in the Public Humanities?
Throughout my graduate studies at the University of Chicago, I was enlivened by an awareness developed through deep, historically oriented research and writing. But I was often at a loss for how to communicate my newfound awareness to communities back home. I wanted to expand the base of people impacted by the insights facilitated by critical inquiry. I set out to translate what I was learning—and the methods I used—across different contexts. I soon saw great value in exchanging insights with others while remaining anchored in my own training as an historian. So, in addition to discipline-specific work, I sought to spark interactions across fields and professions. Efforts to communicate across communities helped further orient me as an historian while also instilling a passion for critical pedagogy. By the time I reached candidate status, I felt comfortable collaborating with archivists, curators, and librarians on digitization projects and display case designs as I completed archival research across four continents. The sum of my experiences comprised a Public Humanities praxis-in-waiting. I reflected upon and made sense of these experiences under the tutelage of Matthew Frye Jacobson and Karin Roffman in my role as Postdoctoral Associate in Public Humanities in the Department of History at Yale University.
What are some of the challenges involved in your work in the Public Humanities?
Bringing together the work of Public Humanists and their collaborators across disciplines, methodologies, and life experiences poses a unique set of challenges. Figuring out how and when to draw connections across learning communities is a balancing act, but one I find enriching. What holds my experience of the Public Humanities together might not be the same as whatever holds another person’s experience together, but finding these pressure points presents an opening for exchange. In addressing these challenges, I’ve leaned into an understanding of Public Humanities work that produces relational awareness through forms of inquiry often undertaken in uncommon learning environments. At its heart, this work expands our conception of where and when teaching and learning can occur. The Public Humanities can multiply the spaces in which we interrogate the relationship between different forms of knowledge. This line of thinking informs my efforts to develop and support programmatic visions that foster teaching and learning across experience.
What future directions do you envision for your work as a Public Humanist practitioner?
I hope to expand not just the base of people engaging in humanistic inquiry, but also the base of those who skillfully translate the results of that inquiry to various publics. Much of my immediate work as a Public Humanist practitioner will go into drawing upon the field to deepen the programmatic vision for the MA in Public Humanities at the Bard Prison Initiative. My work with BPI’s Public Humanities MA initially arose in response to incarcerated student requests to develop an advanced degree. Joint efforts alongside BPI administrators, faculty, and students helped get the program off the ground. I have since taught the first two versions of the “Introduction to Public Humanities” course, and I am currently advising the inaugural cohort’s capstone projects. Those engaged in collaborative knowledge production and refining information dissemination practices can help build co-learning environments at a time when it is much easier to individuate. A continued focus on creative and responsive approaches to building the program will expand access to education in ways that also bridge disparate publics.
Employment Opportunities
Special Assistant Professor of U.S. History
Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY)
Deadline: April 7, 2026
Vice President for Research and Education
Newberry Library (Chicago, IL)
Deadline: April 10, 2026
Lecturer, History
Georgia Southern University (Swainsboro, GA)
Deadline: April 10, 2026
Research Scholar, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Humanities
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
Deadline: April, 15, 2026
Assistant Professor, English and Creative Writing
The University of Rhode Island (Kingston, RI)
Deadline: April 17, 2026
Department Head, Social Foundations and Leadership Education
University of North Georgia (Dahlonega, GA)
Archivist, Historian for Public Engagement and Research Services (Newcomb Institute)
Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)
Deadline: April 24, 2026
Faculty, Environmental Studies and Sustainability & Regenerative Design
Prescott College (Prescott, AZ)
Deadline: April 30, 2026
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.