October 2025 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 and project news

• October spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Erica Kohl-Arenas

• Employment and funding 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

• Interspaces is an open-access, student-led journal that welcomes submissions in interdisciplinary work and research from inside and outside the proverbial ivory tower of the academic world. Interspaces currently seeks submissions for a special themed section, “Queering the Public Humanities.” The pitch deadline (200 words) is November 1, 2025. The final submission deadline is January 15, 2026. Click here to learn more about the theme and submission guidelines.

• The International Nineteenth Century Studies Association invites proposals for its 2026 biennial conference, “Revolution, Revelation, Reconciliation,” to be held July 21–24 in Washington, DC, and online. Public humanities practitioners are encouraged to submit work exploring 19th-century themes through interdisciplinary, international, and intertemporal lenses—including digital humanities, performance, pedagogy, and community engagement. Topics may include cultural memory, historical trauma, restitution, and technological change. The conference is hosted in collaboration with NCSA, INCS, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Proposals are welcome in English or Spanish and are due on October 31, 2025.

• The National Humanities Center (NHC) invites proposals for the Being Human Festival (US), a public humanities initiative for diverse, non-academic audiences across regions and subject areas. Events for this year’s festival will take place from April 18–May 2, 2026, and will be organized around the theme of “Between the Lines”—a space of hidden histories, shifting borders, and unspoken meanings. The NHC is seeking proposals from applicants interested in creatively mobilizing humanities research to design and stage public events. Academic lectures and symposia will not be eligible for inclusion. Grants ranging from $500 to $5,000 will be awarded to successful applicants. The submission deadline is November 5, 2025.

• The 2026 International Steinbeck Conference, themed “Steinbeck in Times of Crisis,” invites proposals exploring how Steinbeck’s work illuminates human experiences during personal, social, political, and ecological upheaval. Public humanities practitioners are encouraged to submit interdisciplinary presentations that engage themes like resilience, identity, conflict, and ecological crisis. The event will be held March 11–13, 2026, at Arizona State University, with both in-person and remote panels. Proposals (300-word abstract + 200-word bio) are due by December 1, 2025. Learn more and submit your proposal here.

Upcoming Events

• The 10th International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences and Humanities (ICARSH) is coming up on October 24–26, 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland, and offers a full virtual attendance option. This major global event is where top scholars, educators, and practitioners meet to share innovative new research. For public humanities practitioners this is a chance to tap directly into the latest findings shaping community work, cultural programming, and public policy. You can participate in academic sessions, hear renowned keynote speakers, and engage in great networking opportunities all from your home or office. Learn more here about all registration details and be sure to register by the October 14, 2025, deadline.

• Join the National Council on Public History (NCPH) Consultants Committee for a virtual “Spooky Grumpy Hour” on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, 7–8 PM ET. This informal, free event offers space for public historians and aspiring professionals to vent, connect, and build community—no NCPH membership or consulting experience required. Costumes welcome, grumpiness encouraged! Register here.

• Explore how philanthropy can strengthen civic engagement through journalism at “Investing in Constructive Journalism,” a webinar hosted by the Council on Foundations, on October 28, 3–4 PM ET, featuring the Community Foundation for Mississippi’s innovative approach using Denmark’s Constructive Journalism model. Learn how funders can support local media that promotes solutions-focused storytelling and community dialogue. Open to members and select nonmembers, this session is part of the “Leading Locally All Year Long” series.

Publications and Projects News

• Life is sometimes likened to a game of cards: luck can change, forcing us to play the hand we’re dealt. But, as Rare Book School’s new exhibition reveals, one historic card game can be a mirror of life, reflecting the literary reputations of once-famous writers and the bookish interests of past readers. Curated by rare book specialists Barbara Heritage and Zoe Langer and sponsored by the Pine Tree Foundation of New York, Famous & Forgotten: The Game of Authors features Rare Book School’s vast collection of authors card games, on public display for the first time. Displaying more than 200 objects pertaining to writers featured in the game, the show includes printed books, ephemera, and curiosities that have been drawn from RBS’s acclaimed teaching collection. The exhibition is on view through 12 November on the second floor of UVA’s Shannon Library in Charlottesville, VA, and is free and open to the public.

• In “Making the Invisible Visible,” recently published on Public Humanities, Mohammed Muharram champions the Blue Humanities as a powerful framework for translating climate science into public understanding. Through ocean-centered narratives in literature, film, video games, and social media, Muharram shows how storytelling can bridge the gap between data and civic engagement. His course “Narratives of Ocean Cultures” exemplifies this approach, blending fiction, climate science, and ethics to foster interdisciplinary learning. Students explored Nathaniel Rich’s short story Hermie, its film adaptation, climate poetry, and cli-fi games—connecting narrative to ocean acidification and ecological justice. Beyond the classroom, Muharram’s public outreach on Twitter/X makes emerging Blue Humanities research accessible to wider audiences. This article is a compelling call for public humanities practitioners to harness narrative media and interdisciplinary collaboration to make climate change not only visible but deeply felt and acted upon. Click here for a list of all latest articles published on Public Humanities.

October Spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Erica Kohl-Arenas

Erica Kohl-Arenas is the Faculty Director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars of Public Life and Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Her first book, The Self Help Myth: How Philanthropy Fails to Alleviate Poverty (UC Press, 2016) explores the role of private foundations in catalyzing and controlling social movements, in this case farmworker and immigrant organizing in California’s Central Valley. She is currently working on a book manuscript about radical world building projects from Northern California and beyond in the 1960s and today. This month, we are excited to highlight her perspectives as a public humanities practitioner via a brief Q&A.

How did you become interested and involved in the Public Humanities?

My first experience with public humanities was when I took a year off my undergraduate studies at Reed College to live in a struggling coal mining town in Appalachia. I was blessed to have a mentor named Myles Horton who founded the Highlander Center in Tennessee. Myles introduced me to Maxine Waller, a charismatic woman organizing to save her deindustrializing coal-mining town. In the fall of 1989, I moved to Ivanhoe, Virginia to live and work with Maxine and local women fighting for the future of this town. As a participant in Ivanhoe’s people’s economics classes, oral history projects, and cultural productions, I saw locals who had previously blamed themselves for their town’s demise begin to understand the global economy and their place in the world around them, becoming active participants in planning for a shared future. My photographs appeared in their local history book Remembering Our Past, Building the Future (1990) and my first scholarly citation was excerpts from my journal in a book about Ivanhoe, It Comes from the People: Community Development and Local Theology (1995). I ended up writing my Reed sociology thesis on the difference between top- down and bottom-up community development, comparing what was happening in Ivanhoe to the Appalachian War on Poverty of the 1960s. More importantly, the experience of witnessing such a profound transformation in the people of Ivanhoe helped me understand the power of what we might call public humanities.

What are some of the challenges involved in your work in the Public Humanities?

There are many challenges that I have learned to maneuver over the years. To name a few, I have learned how to navigate university policies and loopholes to treat community partners as equals in collaborative research endeavors. This involves getting people listed as Co-Investigators on funded projects, getting people outside of academic institutions paid and in a timely manner, speaking back to funders and other academic gatekeepers who do not yet understand that critical knowledge is produced by community-based culture bearers, organizers, and everyday people. One challenge that I am pushing myself on is to co-author with my non-academic partners. While this seems like an easy task, it is important to admit to and work on our own blinders and habits as people situated within academic institutions. For me this is sometimes the desire when writing to just cut to the chase and do my own writing. In my heart and mind, I know that the community-based people I work with have more brilliance and skill than I do in telling their own stories, so I must work on my habits of sole authorship and the urge for efficiency.

What future directions do you envision for your work as a Public Humanist practitioner?

Aside from my work directing Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, I am currently working on a book project about radical world building experiments from the 1960s and today. The first half of the book tells stories from my own childhood including a radical school my father, Herbert R. Kohl, founded in Berkeley, California in 1968, the year I was born. Another chapter focuses on a wild summer camp my family ran in Mendocino County in the early 80s. I am excited about this writing and am heading into new territory in terms of audiences. I always want the people the work is about to feel connected to the written text, so this is a brand-new audience for me – my peers, my family, children of the movements of the 1960s. The second half of the book is about two organizations that I have been blessed to partner with over the past 25 years, the Pan Valley Institute in Fresno and the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production in Utica, Mississippi who are both engaged in inspiring “agri-cultural justice” organizing in their communities, conjoining cultural work with food work to build self-determined and community-owned futures in their regions.

Funding & Employment Opportunities

• The University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, New Jersey, invites applications for its prestigious Laurance S. Rockfeller Visiting Faculty Fellow for AY 2026-27. Open to scholars in the humanities and social sciences, fellows spend the academic year in residence pursuing research on human values in public and private life, participating in weekly seminars and enjoying access to Princeton’s resources. The fellowship runs from Sept 1, 2026 to June 1, 2027, with a stipend of approximately $100,000. Apply here by October 17, 2025.

• Project Pericles invites applications for its Civic Engagement Mini-Grants, a national initiative supporting undergraduate students in designing and implementing public-facing projects that advance civic responsibility and social justice. Ideal for students in the public and applied humanities, fellows receive funding and mentorship to carry out community-engaged work that reflects the values of equity, inclusion, and democratic participation. There are five mini-grants tracks: AI for human flourishing; Dialogue and bridging; Fostering constructive free speech; Voting rights and democratic participation; and Beyond media literacy: navigating information ecosystems. Applications are reviewed and awarded on a rolling basis until funds run out, but early applications are encouraged, with a priority deadline of October 3, 2025. Learn more details here.

• Rare Book School (RBS) is now accepting applications for its 2025 scholarship and fellowship cycle. Applications for All RBS-awarded scholarships (for both first-time and returning RBS students) are due on November 2, 2025. Applications for the M.C. Lang Fellowship in Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching with Historical Sources, a two-year program open to faculty and librarians at liberal arts colleges and small universities in the United States, are due on December 7, 2025. Applications for the Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography Junior Fellows Program are due on November 19, 2025. Learn more details on all applications here.

• The Institute for Citizens and Scholars opened applications to their Career Enhancement Fellowship, intended for outstanding junior faculty committed to campus engagement and innovative research in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. The program provides each Fellow with a six-month or one-year sabbatical grant; a stipend for research and travel or publication; and participation in an annual conference/retreat. A total of 30 Fellowships are awarded each year. Learn more here about eligibility criteria and application guidelines. Apply by October 24, 2025.

• The Institute for Citizens and Scholars also opened applications to their Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award, for early-career faculty whose research focuses on contemporary American history, politics, culture, and society. Learn more here about the award, eligibility criteria, and application guidelines. Apply by December 1, 2025.

• The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University, Atalanta, GA, opened applications for up to five, one-year, Postdoctoral Research Fellowships. They invite applications from candidates from any humanistic discipline who are eager to be part of a community of scholars engaged in innovative and interdisciplinary research and conversations around the 2026-27 theme, habitat. Fellowships are for a period of ten months, August 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027, and include a stipend of $60,000, a research budget of $2,000, and a one-time additional payment of $2,000 to defray the costs associated with moving to Atlanta. The application deadline is December 8, 2025. Learn more details on how to apply here.

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.