Message from the Director
The humanities exist at an exciting juncture of traditional and evolving disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. More than ever, our world requires global citizens who can think historically, critically, culturally, and creatively. Its present and future depend on leaders and problem solvers who can transcend formulaic approaches, recognize the human dimension, synthesize multiple categories of knowledge, and articulate nuanced ideas to multiple audiences. The humanities are thus more relevant, and more instrumental in the professional and public lives of college graduates, than ever before. If you would like to hear more about the growing impact of the humanities on contemporary social and professional life, I encourage you to watch Humanities at Work Lecture video.
Here at Fairfield, the Humanities Institute has undergone its own renaissance. Founded in 1983 with the aid of an NEH challenge grant, then revitalized as a freestanding and multifunctional Institute in 2014, under the directorship of Dr. Ronald Davidson, we now enter a growth phase in which our aim is to broaden the impact of our programming, support, and outreach.
It is an honor to lead the Humanities Institute in its mission to promote the Humanities as the nexus of intellectual livelihood at Fairfield University. Among our recent highlights is an expanded Humanities Institute Seminar, directed by Dr. Kris Sealey, which welcomes six faculty fellows every two years, and six student fellows each year. Fellows receive reassigned teaching time to work on innovative research projects and support one another’s progress while also mentoring our eight student fellows, advising them in original research. The interdisciplinary seminar format provides valuable interactions between faculty scholars while also offering some of our top humanities students the kind of tutorial-based, one-on-one experience that will prepare them for graduate school or other intensive intellectual environments outside of Fairfield.
The program grants committee, now directed by Dr. Ryan Drake, will look to continue and enhance its exemplary work in assessing and funding faculty projects. Recently funded projects range from restoration of ancient Greek art to representations of China in Italian film, and from mapping Irish emigration in Rhode Island to guiding veterans in the writing and performance of their remarkable stories. Each of the program grants has been successful in infusing the dynamic energy of the humanities into the fabric of the University.
One of the Humanities Institute’s core concerns, the Digital Humanities Consortium, co-directed by Dr. Ron Davidson and Dr. Shannon Kelley, is now a permanent part of the Institute, and will continue working with the DiMenna-Nyselius Library to enhance its web-based hub for the promotion and dissemination of student and faculty digital projects. Other planned initiatives of the Humanities institute include exciting new public humanities programming and outreach, as well as the new course “Technical Skills for Liberal Arts Majors,” which will train humanities students in the specific software skills that surveyed employers say will make them competitive after graduation.
We will also continue to explore the possibilities arising from the recent formation of the School of the Humanities, including the ways in which the two entities in the College of Arts and Sciences will work collaboratively to promote teaching, scholarship, and initiatives in the Humanities.
We hope you will join us in the various events we are planning and connect with the remarkable faculty and students of this University as they ask difficult questions of themselves and their peers, seeking answers that challenge entrenched positions while also expressing intellectual generosity and empathy with others, whether in agreement or difference of opinion.
Nels Pearson, PhD
Professor of English
Director, The Humanities Institute in the College of Arts and Sciences
Fairfield University
