January 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/proposals
Upcoming events
Publications & project news
January spotlight: Q&A with RK Fauth
Grant & funding opportunity
Employment & fellowships 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/proposals
2026 Virginia Humanities Conference
Christopher Newport University (VA)
The Virginia Humanities Conference invites proposals for its 2026 meeting, Humanities for a Public Purpose, March 20–21 at Christopher Newport University. The conference foregrounds public humanities, including community-engaged research, public history, digital humanities projects, museum and archival work, storytelling, pedagogy beyond the classroom, and collaborations with cultural or civic organizations. Submissions may take the form of papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, or project showcases. Proposals that emphasize methods, partnerships, and measurable public impact are especially encouraged. Awards are available for professional, graduate, and undergraduate presenters.
Deadline: February 1, 2026
Learn more
Journal for Undergraduate Research in the Humanities (JURH)
Undergraduate researchers are invited to submit original essays (4,000–10,000 words) highlighting humanities research that speaks beyond the classroom. The call emphasizes work that connects literary, historical, and cultural analysis to public questions about society, culture, identity, and community. Submissions from fields such as history, literature, gender studies, cultural studies, and related disciplines are encouraged. Essays should follow MLA format and be authored by current undergraduates or recent graduates.
Deadline: February 9, 2026
Learn more
Upcoming Events
Media Training for Academics
National Humanities Center
January 15, 2026, 2 p.m. ET
Webinar
Learn how to share your expertise with broader audiences without losing control of your message. In this session, Don Solomon, Vice President for Communications and Marketing at the National Humanities Center, offers practical guidance on working with traditional media. You’ll learn how to engage reporters, respond to press inquiries, and ensure your perspective is accurately represented. With more than 30 years of communications experience, Solomon brings real-world insight into turning scholarly work into compelling stories for the public.
More information & Register
2026 MLA Annual Convention
Modern Languages Association
January 8–11, 2026
Virtual Sessions
Attendees can experience the convention from anywhere in the world through an expansive selection of virtual sessions. From early morning workshops to final afternoon panels, the digital format ensures every attendee can connect with global colleagues and join the conversation remotely. Sessions of interest to public humanities scholars and practitioners include “Reimagining the Public Humanities Incubator,” (Jan 8, 3:30–4:45 p.m. EST); or “Sandbox on Public Writing,” (Jan 10, 1:45–3:00 p.m. EST). Registration is required for all sessions.
More information
Publications & Project News
Data Center : Data Center (DC:DC)
Ever wondered about the true footprint of AI? DC:DC is a compelling new project from Vanderbilt University that pulls back the curtain on the physical infrastructure powering the machine learning revolution. This is an information hub and data repository tracking xAI’s controversial data centers in Memphis, TN. By utilizing StoryMaps, legal archives, and financial data, the site explores how massive facilities like “Colossus” impact local aquifers and ecosystems. Though grounded in a single case (for now), the project offers insight into the social and environmental conditions taking shape with AI’s rapid infrastructural expansion. It’s an essential resource for anyone interested in the intersection of tech and environmental justice.
What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI?
This article reports on a symposium, supported by the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), that took place at UConn Humanities Institute as part of the Reading Between the Lines initiative in October 2025. The project combines an international symposium, an AI Anti-Glossary, and a podcast series to explore how ideas about “AI,” “care,” and “literacy” differ across cultures and disciplines. Scholars from humanities, engineering, medicine, and industry agreed that these differences spark valuable conversations. Highlights included the need for AI tools that respect cultural and linguistic diversity, the role of language in fair access, and the importance of teaching people to think critically about AI rather than assuming technology can solve every problem.
January Spotlight: Q&A with RK Fauth
RK Fauth is a technical writer and a poet. Her debut book of poems, A Dream in Which I am Playing with Bees, explores the relationship between metaphor and species extinction. This month, we are excited to highlight her perspectives as a public humanities practitioner via a brief Q&A.
How did you first become interested in the Public Humanities?
Out of solitude and necessity. I started The UNPRECEDENTED Project in late 2020, in quarantine during the pandemic. At the time, it served two purposes: my Master’s capstone project, and a way to use poetry to connect with the broader world during an extreme (though not unprecedented!) period of isolation.
UNPRECEDENTED circulated torn pages of Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron between strangers through the mail. People encountered the project much like they would a virus: by word of mouth, or by brief venture out of quarantine. Scanning a QR code, they were invited to create an erasure poem using only the text on the page. Participants passed additional pages along to someone else, and returned their anonymous verse to the project’s P.O. box. The poems that came back were surprising—both personal and political, echoing both medieval and distinctly modern sentiments.
From 2020–2023, I collected hundreds of nameless poems from twenty-nine U.S. states and fourteen countries. I later mapped the submissions using ArcGIS StoryMaps. The award-winning collection has been presented internationally and at institutions like Johns Hopkins, Brown, and UNC-Chapel Hill. Even now, five years after starting UNPRECEDENTED, I’m still surprised by the range of responses to this public humanities experiment.
What are some of the challenges involved in your work in the Public Humanities?
Time, mostly. I’m a technical writer by day, and anyone balancing a nine-to-five with creative work knows how strangely time behaves outside the workday. For a few years, I let UNPRECEDENTED rest while I figured out what it meant to be a professional writer. But as debates around technology and artificial intelligence have intensified, so has my urgency to commit more time to public poetry. It’s a useful tool for documenting the present moment.
I often think about creativity and metaphor as endangered skills: at risk of extinction, and automation. Large language models flatten writing for the sake of efficiency, and it’s easy for that logic to creep into how we value human expression. My hope is that UNPRECEDENTED pushes back by treating poetry as a useful, civic practice—one that trains attention, builds empathy, and resists optimization.
One of the challenges for hybrid projects like mine is finding the right audience for the work. It’s the same question in poetry, where genre and accessibility shape who feels invited in. I’m drawn to the field of public humanities because it doesn’t expect form and function to be resolved in advance. My hope is that the community stays optimistic about taking more experimental risks.
What future directions do you envision for your work as a Public Humanist practitioner?
I’m excited to share that I’m reactivating The UNPRECEDENTED Project after a three-year hiatus. This time, the project draws from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, specifically the myth of Pygmalion: in which a sculptor falls in love with his creation, an idealized woman carved from stone. More to say on why/where/when, but stay tuned.
In 2026, I’m lucky to have the support of artist residencies at places like the Oak Spring Garden Foundation and the Volland Foundation to focus on the details. I’m thinking about how I might propagate Ovid’s pages “in the wild,” in ways that weren’t possible during the pandemic. This time, I’m hoping to make the project more interdisciplinarily collaborative. That means more workshops, more “guerrilla” pages appearing in public spaces, and partnerships with artists, archivists, and technologists who can help exhibit the poems beyond my own early attempts with digital mapping.
For years, I considered UNPRECEDENTED as beginning and ending with the pandemic. But lately, I’ve been wondering about the longer lifespan of collective crisis—how it ripples into the mundane, and how art often emerges not at the height of catastrophe, but in its aftermath. This next iteration is an attempt to listen for those quieter reverberations.
Grant & Funding Opportunity
Award for Leadership in the Public Humanities
Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI)
This annual honor recognizes outstanding collaborative projects that bridge academic research and community engagement. The winner receives a $1,500 USD prize from Arizona State University and support to publish a peer-reviewed article in the journal Public Humanities. Applications must be submitted by a director of a CHCI-member center or institute.
Deadline: January 19, 2026.
Employment & Fellowships Opportunities
Postdoctoral Associate in Public History
The Humanities Research Center at Rice University (Houston, TX)
Deadline: January 20, 2026
Director, Oral History Research Center
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Deadline: Review of candidates' materials will begin on Monday, February 2, 2026
Postdoctoral Fellowship in African and African American Studies (AFAS) and Center for Humanities
Washington University, St. Louis
Deadline: Applications will be reviewed beginning February 1, 2026
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Buddhism Public Scholars Fellowships in Buddhist Studies
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
Deadline: January 27, 2026
Fellowships for Individuals
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Deadline: May 12, 2026 (anticipated)
Residential Fellowships
UConn Humanities Institute (UCHI)
Deadline: February 1, 2026
Humanities Center Fellowships
West Virginia University
Deadline: March 1, 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.