November 2024 Public Humanities Newsletter

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

• 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 National Humanities Center (NHC) invites proposals for events to be included in the Being Human Festival USA 2025, a public humanities initiative for diverse, non-academic audiences across the United States. Successful proposals will receive grants from the National Humanities Center to help defray costs for their events. Events for this year’s Festival will take place April 14–28, 2025, and will be organized around the theme of “landmarks.” All proposals must be received by December 1, 2024. For more information, check out the application form or email Jacqueline Kellish at jkellish@nationalhumanitiescenter.org with questions.

• Imagining America (IA): Artists and Scholars in Public Life invites IA members to submit proposals to form new Collaboratories starting in 2025. In view of Imagining America’s 25th anniversary, to be celebrated at the 2025 IA National Gathering in Cincinnati, a particular interest is on Collaboratories with a focus on the first two IA guiding values. Submit your proposal via this online form by 11:59pm PT on Monday, December 2, 2024.

Upcoming Events

• The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities (SOFHCH) at Columbia University hosts a virtual discussion titled “The Librarian of Rikers: Cartoons, Books, and Narratives in the Age of Mass Incarceration” on Wednesday, December 4, with Medar de la Cruz and Thai Jones. Jones and Cruz will discuss their experiences working in libraries. Jones’s familiarity with academia and Cruz’s involvement providing book cart services at Rikers Island will highlight the consequences of the justice system in the context of information accessibility. This talk will open up a larger conversation on how to bridge the gap from university archives to public resources. The event is free and open to the public. Click here to read more about the event and register.

Publications and Projects

• “Public Humanities Practices as Fugitive Pedagogies in Latinx Communities from Kansas to New Jersey” is a book chapter by William Garcia-Medina, published in Promoting Equitable Classroom Practices in Higher Education: Approaches Beyond Curriculum. The author describes the empowering experience of implementing fugitive pedagogic practices in a Latino and Caribbean Cultural Studies course, where students went beyond the classroom as on-the-ground researchers of their own communities and collaboratively created a fascinating digital humanities project. A chapter preview is available here.

• Who gets to write poetry? Whose voices are made public? Whose voices are heeded? Erasing Frankenstein: Remaking the Monster, a Public Humanities Prison Art Project, edited by Elizabeth Effinger, is an adaptation of Frankenstein in the form of a book-length erasure poem, collaboratively created by federally incarcerated women and university students.

• The recent article “Two Professors Take Students Outside the Classroom to Bring History Home” published in The Chronicle of Higher Education talks about the exciting journey of two community college professors—Karen Curls, a criminal-justice professor and Dr. Lyle Gibson, a history professor—who created the “Civil Rights Pilgrimage,” an experiential educational tour through historical sites of civil rights struggles for students to truly learn about the reasons behind them.

• Also check out a list of the most recent book publications by members of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

Employment and Funding Opportunities

• The Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville is hiring an Associate Director of Transdisciplinary Programs (ADTP) to develop, coordinate, and implement the center’s research and public arts/humanities programs. The ADTP reports to the director of the DCHA and directly supports Center efforts to increase funding and innovate programming through external grants and program initiatives that bridge disciplines within, and professional fields outside of, the university. A candidate holding an MFA or PhD in a humanities or arts field is preferred, though all applicants will be considered. This is an exempt, full-time, benefited staff position. Market Range 11. Open until filled. Contact humanitiesctr@utk.edu with questions.

• The CAORC - National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship is accepting applications. This fellowship provides the opportunity for scholars to carry out advanced research in the humanities and to spend significant time in one country with an Overseas Research Center as a base. Approximately three to four awards will be granted and fellowship stipends are $5,000 per month for four to six consecutive months. Applicants must hold a PhD or a terminal degree, or have completed all requirements, except for the actual conferral of the degree, by the application deadline. Applicants must be US citizens or foreign national scholars who have been resident in the US for at least three years. The deadline for applications is January 15, 2025.

• The Department of History at Texas State University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of museum studies and history (regional specialization open). The successful candidate will contribute to a thriving Public History Concentration within the Master’s Program in History. Appointment date is Fall 2025. To guarantee full consideration, application materials must be received through the Texas State University website by November 15, 2024.

• The City of Tempe, AZ is seeking applications for a part-time Historic Preservation Intern position lasting from January to December 2025. The application deadline is November 23.

• The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is accepting applications for a full-time position as Director of Archives and Art Resources.

• Indiana Landmarks, Indianapolis, IN seeks a President and Chief Executive Officer. The President and Chief Executive Officer will play a crucial role in shaping the future of historic preservation throughout Indiana by leading the largest statewide preservation organization in the United States.

• The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to invite applications for Digital Justice Development Grants, which are made possible by the Mellon Foundation. Application deadline is December 3.

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.