February 2025 Public Humanities
A monthly newsletter from the Department of Public & Applied Humanities at the University of Arizona.
In this issue:
Calls for proposals
Upcoming events
Publication and project news
February spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Lisa Dush
Employment and funding opportunities
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 Giulia Negretto at giulianegretto@arizona.edu.
Calls for Proposals
The Association of African American Museums (AAAM) invites proposals for its 2025 Annual Conference, taking place on July 23-25 in Charleston, SC. The conference will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act under the theme Voices of Democracy. This landmark gathering will bring together museum professionals, scholars, and community leaders to explore the achievements of civil rights champions and reflect on the enduring legacy of their work for democracy. Proposals due by February 10.
Events
Registration is open for the Connecticut Digital Humanities Conference, taking place on February 21-22, 2025 at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT. The Connecticut Digital Humanities Conference endeavors to bring together a network of DH practitioners committed to advancing collaborative scholarship in digital humanities research and pedagogy across the New England region. Conference attendance is free but registration required.
Registration is open for the 2025 Organization of American Historians (OAH) Conference on American History, which will be held on April 3-6, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. The OAH Conference on American History is the premiere event for American historians and the study of American history. The full program is available here.
With less than two years until the 250th anniversary of The United States of America, the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) is hosting a virtual event titled “250 CON” on February 27-28, 2025. Attend 250 Con to learn about national and state planning opportunities, identify actionable ways to participate, and join your peers in generating enthusiasm for this once-in-a-generation event. Registration is $50 for members and $75 for nonmembers. Learn more about the program here.
There are two upcoming online events organized by the AASLH. On Friday, February 6, 2025 during the live webinar Makerspaces for Museums and Historic Sites, Tim Betz, author of Making History: Makerspaces for Museums and Historic Sites, will provide real-world examples and practical guidance on designing and implementing makerspaces that complement existing exhibits and collections. On February 25, 2025 at 3pm EST, the AASLH will host its History Hours, a monthly online networking and community building event for those who work and volunteer in history organizations. Registration is required for all webinars and online events.
Projects and Publications
The Close Reading Archive is a free public database compiled by Scott Newstok in conjunction with John Guillory’s book On Close Reading. Over 2,500 entries excerpt key moments in the still-unfolding history of close reading, from its tentative origins to the recent flood of scholarship on the subject. In aggregate, the archive corroborates that the phrase “close reading” has remained in contentious circulation across a century of Anglo-American criticism. Early comments about close reading tend to stem from outside the university, while contemporary scholars increasingly attempt to establish the genealogy of the practice. Database conversion and website design by Lili Hsu (New York University), with extensive data cleaning by Ahyoung Hwang (Rhodes College), whose efforts were funded by a Rhodes College Student Research Assistantship, administered by D. Brian Larkins. Website hosting supported by the Wilson Center for Interdisciplinary Humanities.
“The linguistic landscape for sustainable and inclusive tourism: Insight from Timor Tengah Selatan, Indonesia” by Seprianus A. Nenotek, I. Made Suta Paramarta, Alya E. Sjioen, Norci Beeh, Atalya R. Cornelis, Naniana N. Benuwas was recently published on Cogent Arts & Humanities. The article describes a qualitative research study that adopts observation, photographic documentation, and interviews to explore the critical role of linguistic landscapes in developing sustainable and inclusive tourism. “Although significant focus has been placed on environmental sustainability and community involvement in tourism … the linguistic aspect has often been neglected… Most studies in this area focus on urban or internationally recognized tourist sites, neglecting lesser-known, rural areas … There is a gap in understanding how linguistic elements, such as signs, directions, and cultural information, in these settings can address the dual needs of environmental sustainability and social inclusion, particularly in regions with diverse linguistic and cultural identities.”
February Spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Lisa Dush
Lisa Dush is an associate professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse at DePaul University and the faculty director of HumanitiesX: DePaul’s Experiential Humanities Collaborative. The Collaborative brings faculty, community partners, and students together for a year-long fellowship to design and teach new, community-engaged, project-based humanities courses. This work is supported by the Mellon Foundation and DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences. This month the Public Humanities Newsletter is excited to highlight her perspectives and experiences as a public humanities practitioner via a brief Q&A.
How did you become interested in and involved with the public humanities?
It’s a long and winding path! I first felt the potential of the public humanities when I was an aspiring fiction writer in Virginia Commonwealth University’s MFA program. Each month, we had a student-organized event called “A Moveable Feast,” where students read their work at an art gallery in downtown Richmond. These events, where I spent a few hours engaging with both friends and strangers, helped me see the value of publicly accessible convenings to talk about serious things.
The next meaningful turn on my path was when I worked as a digital storytelling facilitator, first in Boston community settings and later in community-engaged classroom projects at DePaul. Through this work, I saw how community writing and storytelling activities can create occasions for people to express themselves, reflect, and learn from each other.
That brings me to HumanitiesX, the Experiential Humanities Collaborative at DePaul, which I’ve directed since 2019. My outreach for HumanitiesX gave me a fast education in the public humanities. It’s been so instructive to learn from the work of state humanities councils and other universities, primarily through initiatives led by the National Humanities Alliance, including at the annual National Humanities Conference and the wonderful Humanities for All initiative.
What are some of the challenges involved with the public humanities?
My boring answer: logistics! Public humanities work involves many stakeholders whose different positionalities are the source of the work’s energy and meaning. However, people with different positionalities also have different schedules, locations, and priorities. Aligning these and creating spaces for meaningful collaboration is necessary, tricky, and requires excellent logistical support. I’m fortunate to have an outstanding coordinator, student assistant, co-PI, and grants staff at DePaul to help.
Secondly, there is a fundamental tension in public humanities work between what most humanities people are comfortable doing—including reading, reflecting in solitude, and writing—and the engaged, collaborative work of the public humanities. I recently wrote about this tension as it has played out in HumanitiesX, in an article called “Collaboration in the Humanities.”
Finally, I can’t ignore the assault on the core values of the public humanities that is happening right now. The public humanities require support for spaces where conversations about values, history, and culture can happen. If libraries, nonprofits, archives, public media outlets, and public spaces disappear, it’s hard to see the public humanities persisting. If we haven’t already, we may soon realize that the most pressing challenge of the public humanities in the US right now is to defend these spaces.
What future do you imagine for your work in the public humanities?
One of the best parts of my HumanitiesX job is that in any given year, I work with academic scholars in five or six different fields, with staff from nonprofit organizations with all kinds of missions, and with students and community partners who bring equally wide-ranging backgrounds and commitments.
We’ve learned so much from this diversity. I am excited to continue synthesizing and sharing what our HumanitiesX fellows and students have done and to articulate better the pedagogical approach we call the “experiential humanities.”
At DePaul, we’ve made outward-facing reflection a big part of our work, and I’m excited to keep at this. Our teams write showcase posts that document their courses and lessons learned. Last summer, our student fellows wrote a series of ‘how-to guides’ about the experiential humanities on topics like creating exhibits, promoting events, and working with campus special collections and archives. Finally, this summer, we plan to work again with collaborators beyond DePaul to offer a summer workshop series on “Teaching the Publicly Engaged Humanities to Undergraduates”—be on the lookout for the call for presenters this spring!
Employment and Opportunities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity to support empirical quantitative and qualitative research on the humanities and their impact. The funding opportunity offers grants of up to $150,000 for research that seeks to understand the humanities in one or more of the following categories: Humanities Education, Humanities Research, Public Humanities, Preservation and Access, and Humanities Infrastructure. Supported activities may include but are not limited to: data analysis, data collection, digitization, dissemination, and planning. The application deadline is April 16, 2025. Learn more about funding categories and guidelines here.
The Clemente Course in the Humanities (CCH) seeks a skilled, enthusiastic, and collaborative Outreach Manager (OM) to join its national leadership team. Clemente is a national nonprofit which provides free, transformative college courses to underserved communities. The OM will play a key role in developing connections within and between three crucial constituencies: 1) students/alumni; 2) faculty/staff; and 3) donors. The OM will have an opportunity to work closely and collaboratively with each member of CCH’s leadership team and will have a valued seat at the table as the organization charts the next stage in its development. This position is full time and fully remote. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis from February 1, 2025 onward. The application window will close on March 14, 2025.
The W&L Art Museum and Galleries (AMG) in Lexington, VA, invites applications for the inaugural Louise C. Herreshoff Curatorial Fellowship for American Art. This two-year fellowship, with the possibility of a third-year renewal, is designed to support emerging curators and scholars of American art while advancing the museum’s purpose, scholarship, and national impact. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.
The Boston University, College of Arts & Sciences, Center for the Humanities (BUCH), Boston, MA, seeks a dynamic and innovative Public Humanities Administrator to support and advance its public-facing humanities programming. Reporting to the BUCH Director and Managing Director, the successful candidate will coordinate and promote public events, manage communications, oversee student workers, and foster relationships with community organizations. This position also involves seeking external funding to sustain and grow BUCH's public humanities initiatives.
The Department of History, Politics & International Relations at Messiah University, Mechanicsburg, PA, invites applications for a one-year assistant professor position in History, with expertise in Europe and the World, starting in Fall 2025. Position is open until filled.
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.