The university is a place charged with imagining our collective future. We turn to the humanities to craft the values that will shape that future, and to guide us as we face the challenges ahead.
How do we know what we know? What does the truth look like? Consider these questions and more at our exhibition
Seeing Truth: Art, Science, Museums, and Making Knowledge
William Benton Museum of Art
January 17–March 10, 2023
Learn more
This exhibition is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Image: Blazing the Trail to the Distant Past by Arthur A. Jansson, used with permission from the American Museum of Natural History.
Support Undergraduate innovation this UConn Gives with a gift to the UConn Humanities Institute.
What does it mean to be human?
UConn Humanities
The humanities seek to understand the whole human being: our languages, our histories, our art and ideas. The mission of the UConn Humanities Institute (UCHI) is to promote research on these questions, and to act as a voice for that research on the regional, national and international stage. In hosting annual residential fellowships, offering opportunities for humanities-focused programming, and fostering an interdisciplinary space for scholars to think, collaborate, and create, the Institute serves as a global hub for scholars dedicated to humanist scholarship and activism. UCHI seeks to inspire and support scholars at all levels and across disciplines to take on the critical and public task of humanistic inquiry.
Humanities Institute Success

Established, with the help of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the first-ever New England Humanities Consortium, bringing together both ivy-league and state-sponsored institutions.

Chosen to be an affiliate partner with the Yale Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. UCHI Director Anna Mae Duane will co-direct a two-year seminar convening an international group of leading scholars of the history of slavery.

Awarded a three-year grant of $750,000 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to expand the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC) Faculty of Color Working Group (FOCWG).
Latest News and Events

Fellow’s Talk: David Evans on the Human Right to Food
Dissertation research scholar David Evans (History) gives a talk on the political struggle surrounding the effort to embed the human right to food into US foreign and domestic policy in the mid-1970s. October 4, 2023, 12:15pm.
[Read More]
Fellow’s Talk: Kathryn Angelica on Black Women’s Activism
Draper Dissertation Fellow Kathryn Angelica will discuss how histories of the Civil War have neglected the contributions of African American women within and beyond the United States Sanitary Commission, with a response from Geoffrey Hedges-Knyrim. September 27, 2023, 12:15pm.
[Read More]
Fellow’s Talk: Xu Peng on Caribbean Chineseness
Richard Brown Dissertation Fellow Xu Peng (LCL) will give a talk on “Reading Caribbean Chineseness: A Literary Migration,” with a response by David Evans. September 20, 2023, 12:15pm.
[Read More]
Amanda Douberley says #YouShould...
Listen to Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar’s playlist for the exhibition Facing History

Robin Greeley says #YouShould...
Read Néstor García Canclini’s Art beyond Itself (2014)

Manisha Desai says #YouShould...
Watch Sambhaji Bhagat

Stephen Dyson says #YouShould...
Watch Drive (2011)
Listen
The UConnPopCast, hosted by UCHI Associate Director Stephen Dyson and Professor Jeff Dudas, features scholarly analyses of popular culture and interviews with prominent scholars.
Why We Argue features conversations with scholars, artists, and scientists about topics related to truth, science, art, political conviction, and more.