May 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
April 12: Melissa Frazier and Mara Gross of Sarah Lawrence College write about their Mellon Foundation-funded initiative, Liberal Arts and the Public Good, which advances and supports civic engagement through the arts and humanities.
April 26: In a trio of blog posts, fellows from Sarah Lawrence’s Liberal Arts and the Public Good initiative share their efforts to support civic engagement through the arts and humanities in Westchester County.
Object Lessons: Conversations Across Generations by Emily C. Bloom
Strengthening Community Bonds in Yonkers By Kishauna Soljour
Media Lab: Youth Education and Community Engagement by Yeong Ran Kim
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.
Publication News
In “Scholarly Societies and the Public Humanities” the Humanities for All team details the efforts of scholarly societies to a) engage the public directly by drawing on the tools of their disciplines and b) provide essential support to scholars in carrying out and gaining recognition for their publicly engaged work.
In a special issue of Reviews of Digital Humanities Journal, guest editors Aleia Brown, Marisa Parham, and Trevor Muñoz explore Black Digital Humanities projects, many of which engage communities on topics related to Black history and culture both virtually and online.
The Handbook of Digital Public History is a new edited publication by Serge Noiret, Mark Tebeau, and Gerben Zaagsma, published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg. The handbook provides a systematic overview of the state of international research in digital public history and includes individual studies by internationally renowned public historians, digital humanists, and digital historians.
A Companion to Public Philosophy is a new edited volume by Lee McIntyre, Nancy McHugh, and Ian Olasov, published by Wiley Blackwell. The companion brings together the diverse practices, modalities, and perspectives of public philosophy, a rapidly growing field. Forty-two chapters written by practitioners consider questions ranging from the definition of public philosophy to the value of public philosophy to both society and philosophy itself. Throughout the book, philosophers offer insights into the different publics they have engaged, the topics they have explored, the methods they have used and the lessons they have learned from these engagements.
“A Model for Engaging Students, Faculty, and Communities in Social Action through a Community-Based Curriculum and Admissions Process—A Case Study of the Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers University-Newark” is a new article by Engelbert Santana, Davy Julian du Plessis, and Timothy K. Eatman that details the work of The Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC) at Rutgers University–Newark (RU-N). Pivoting on a curriculum structured around what it means to be a local citizen in a global world, the HLLC brings students and faculty members from every school and college at RU-N together with community-based partners to operationalize authentic experiential learning.
In the most recent issue of the Council for European Studies (CES) Europe Now Journal, Taylor Soja presents an edited collection of reflections on public digital humanities projects that are underway in European studies at the University of Washington. Faculty reflect on the question: When are the digital humanities the public humanities, and when are the public humanities digital?
“Institutionalizing Public Humanities Projects” is a recent blog post from Peter Kerry Powers, Dean of the School of Arts, Culture, and Society at Messiah University. In the post, he recaps a plenary session he gave for the most recent recipients of the Council of Independent Colleges’ Humanities Research for the Public Good grant. The session focused on questions of how public humanities work fits within institutions of higher education, based on his experiences at Messiah University.
A recent article in Classic Chicago, “At the Edge of the City, There’s Life,” details the work of The Freshwater Lab, a research institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago that teaches the value of drinking water and its impact on the world. The lab is a grant-funded communal organization with a mission for both short- and long-term plans of water conservation and water usage.
Upcoming Events
CHCI Public Humanities Network Town Hall
May 4, 2022 | 3:00 p.m. Eastern
The Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) Public Humanities Network is hosting a virtual town hall to introduce attendees to Aaron Fai, CHCI’s newly appointed Membership and Diversity Officer; discuss the upcoming CHCI annual meeting; and talk about the call for digital responses to "How do you do Public Humanities?", which should be submitted by May 6, 2022. Learn more and register for the town hall here.
Photovoice: Art at the Center of Public Humanities Research & Pedagogy
May 6, 2022 | 10:00–11:30 a.m. Eastern
In the final virtual Inclusion Imperative Humanities Teaching Lab of the academic year at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Gina M. Lewis, Associate Professor of Art in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Bowie State University, will demonstrate how instructors across disciplines can use arts methodologies in their pedagogical practices and for community-engaged teaching and learning. As a primary investigator on the C&O Canal National Historic Park Ethnohistories: African American Communities in Context project for the National Park Service, Professor Lewis experiments with photovoice as a methodology for community-based, participatory action research.
ASLE Graduate Student Workshop: Public Humanities
May 19, 2022 | 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Join the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) virtually for the first of three professional development workshops for ASLE graduate students in 2022. Graduate students will hear from other graduate students and early-career faculty about the challenges and rewards of developing public humanities (PH) projects, funding opportunities, and suggestions for creating PH projects. Learn more and register for the workshop 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
Wesleyan University invites applications for the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Public History, beginning July 1, 2022 with the possibility of reappointment for 2023-2024 academic year. In addition to teaching obligations, the postdoctoral scholar will collaborate with faculty-curator-student teams at Wesleyan and the Middlesex County Historical Society (Middletown, CT) to develop public-oriented projects (archival/exhibition) in digital and physical formats. Applications received by May 1, 2022 will be given full consideration.
The Jane Addams Hull House Museum at the University of Illinois Chicago seeks candidates for the position of Director to begin August 2022. This position is responsible for the overall direction of one of our nation’s most important historic sites and progressive museums. The scope of the work includes exhibitions, programs, the management of museum finances, the care and development of a museum collections and physical plant, and its continued growth into an internationally known museum commensurate with the reputation and significance of the social justice efforts of the Settlement and Addams, founder of the original Hull-House settlement. Apply by May 6, 2022 for fullest consideration.
The Oklahoma State University Department of History invites applications for a Teaching Assistant Professor (non-tenure-track) position in the history of museums and cultural institutions beginning in August 2022. Candidates with background in (any combination of) community engagement, race and ethnicity, digital humanities, or public facing scholarship are especially encouraged to apply. This position includes the opportunity to work closely with programs in American Studies and Africana Studies as well as cultural institutions located in Tulsa’s Arts District and historic Greenwood community. At Oklahoma State University, the Teaching Assistant Professor position carries a renewable 3-year contract, and opportunity for promotion to Teaching Associate Professor. Apply by May 15, 2022.
The Oklahoma Center for the Humanities at the University of Tulsa seeks an Assistant Director. This is a one-year, non-renewable position designed to develop hands-on leadership experience in the public humanities. The assistant director will report to the director and aid in organizing an extensive calendar of public programming, while working closely with faculty, staff, fellows, and students. Apply by May 16, 2022.
The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University is seeking a Public Practice and Community Partnerships Manager. The manager will provide leadership in the design and delivery of innovative learning opportunities that expand the understanding of art’s impact on the public sphere and that grow and enrich the relationship of the museum with its surrounding communities, the region, and the state. Apply by June 19, 2022.
Johns Hopkins University seeks an Africana Archives Curatorial Fellow who will report to the Associate Director of the Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts and work closely with the Center for Africana Studies and the Sheridan Libraries. During this three-year appointment, the fellow will serve as a vital member of the team implementing a new Mellon Foundation-funded project, Inheritance Baltimore: Humanities and Arts Education for Black Liberation. Specifically, the fellow will contribute to the “Baltimore Africana Archives” initiative within Inheritance Baltimore, dedicated to historical recovery and the belief that the arts and humanities have a central role to play in the continued revitalization of Baltimore.
Northeastern University seeks a program coordinator for Reckonings: A Local History Platform for the Community-Archivist. Reckonings is an 18-month Mellon Foundation-funded project that aims to empower individuals and cultural/historical organizations to excavate and re-interpret underrepresented histories of BIPOC communities in Greater Boston. The central goal of this position is to facilitate communication among stakeholders and convey the interests of community partners, manage logistics, and plan and coordinate activities for community-engaged projects.
The Laney Graduate School Dean’s office at Emory University is seeking a one year post-doctoral fellow who will engage in community-based research and programming that builds upon existing work in the public humanities. Funded by the Mellon Interventions Public Humanities Initiative, this individual would build on an existing professional profile that values using one’s humanistic training/background to develop curricula, conduct programming and research, and build infrastructure at Emory. This fellow would be included within the intellectual community of the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry.
The Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) seeks an Oral Historian to lead the collection and dissemination of SFA's oral history work. The mission of the SFA is to document, study, and explore the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. A member-supported organization based at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, SFA collects oral histories, produces films and podcasts, publishes great writing, sponsors scholarship, mentors students, and stages events that serve as progressive and inclusive catalysts for the American South.
The New York Public Library invites applications for a Manager of Public Services, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books. This position will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of the highest quality of public service, supervising a team of experienced staff, and collaborating with colleagues on outreach, instruction, and other community-building and promotional activities.
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.
Notice something that’s not here?
Submit your public humanities news for consideration for future newsletters.