Welcome to Fall 2025 at UCHI

Dear Colleagues,

As we begin a new year at the UConn Humanities Institute (UCHI), we are delighted to welcome a new cohort of faculty, graduate, and undergraduate fellows, who will spend the year working on a host of fascinating interdisciplinary research projects. We hope that you’ll join us for our weekly fellows’ talks, held on Wednesdays from 3:30–4:45 pm in our conference room.

As always, we are eager to support humanities research across the university and offer funding for working groups, conferences, invited speakers, and more.

Continuing from last year, UCHI’s theme will be “Connections and Disconnections,” exploring how we maintain meaningful human bonds in an increasingly fragmented world. The humanities offer essential wisdom for these challenges—teaching us to think critically, to understand context, and to center human flourishing in our responses to change.

I’m particularly proud of two initiatives that embody this mission. In March 2025, UConn Story Slam brought together undergraduates from diverse disciplines to craft and share stories of transformative moments in their lives. Watching these young scholars discover the power of narrative and sitting among an audience that was moved by what they heard, was an exhilarating reminder of why the humanities are key to the work of finding our way in the world. And we’re excited to be hosting Story Slam again this spring. Moving from time-tested forms of storytelling to the cutting edge of technological engagement, our “AI and the Human” collaborative brings together historians, literature scholars, philosophers, computer scientists, and engineers to explore how humanistic inquiry and values can—and should—guide technological development. Our success with international partnerships and grant awards is a welcome indicator that this approach will grow more valuable in the years to come.

These projects reflect UCHI’s broader commitment to fostering collaboration and community among researchers and students—through funding, working groups, our fellowship program, and our new Environmental Humanities Initiative. When we work together—across disciplines, across departments, across the traditional boundaries of academic life—we create something stronger and more meaningful than any of us could achieve alone. The humanities don’t just interpret the world; they help us navigate it with wisdom, empathy, and hope.