UCHI

A Farewell Message from Director Michael P. Lynch

Over the last decade, it has been my distinct honor to be part of the collective spirit of inquiry here at UCHI. That is a spirit that UCHI embodies by its very nature, and this year manifested it more than any other. Our inaugural undergraduate fellows, Rylee Thomas and Karen Lau, capped off a year of collaborative fellowship by giving two spectacular talks illustrating the value of humanities scholarship and advocacy. We launched two exhibits about the social emergence of knowledge led by Alexis Boylan: Picturing the Pandemic (with Sarah Willen) and Seeing Truth (in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History). And this year saw the launch of a new global initiative in partnership with Rutgers, Design Justice AI, as well as (in partnership with the New England Humanities Consortium or NEHC), the fourth Symposium of the Faculty of Color Working Group.

It has been tremendous to watch UCHI grow in both ambition and in substance. We have gone from a plucky institute housed in a few cozy rooms in the Austin building to an internationally known research center occupying the top floor of the library. Over the years, we’ve hosted dozens of creative minds, our fellowship program has become one of the most competitive anywhere, we founded and led the NEHC, and we’ve been awarded over $8 million in grants for projects on topics such as restoring public discourse, supporting faculty of color, and the future of truth.

None of this could have been possible without the collective work of the best team at the university, which for this year was Nasya Al-Saidy, Mary Volpe, Eric Berg, Nimra Asif, Katrina Kish, Elizabeth Zavodony, Elizabeth Della Zazzera, Yohei Igarashi, and the ever-amazing Alexis Boylan. My deepest thanks to them, and to everyone who has contributed to running this institute for the past nine years, for their hard work, creative insight, and good humor.

As I step away from the director’s seat, I know that UCHI’s spirit of collective inquiry will only grow. I very much look forward to watching the Institute develop under Professor Duane’s dynamic leadership and I’m confident it will remain a focus of creative humanistic inquiry well into the future.

Michael P. Lynch
Provost Professor of the Humanities
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy

Fall 2020 Events

UCHI has an exciting roster of events coming up this fall, detailed below. Be sure to peruse our offerings and register for the events you’d like to attend. Stay tuned as we announce more upcoming events!

Publishing NOW with Ilene Kalish of NYU Press

September 24, 2020

2:30pm

REGISTER

Fellow’s Talk: Nicole Breault

October 14, 2020

4:00pm

REGISTER

How to Do Nothing Book Discussion

October 19, 2020

6:00pm

REGISTER

Fellow’s Talk: Nu-Anh Tran

October 21, 2020

2:00pm

REGISTER

Publishing NOW with Matt McAdam of JHU Press

October 23, 2020

11:00am

REGISTER

UCHI and DHMS Present Jenny Odell

October 26, 2020

6:00pm

REGISTER

Fellow’s Talk: Kerry Carnahan

October 28, 2020

4:00pm

REGISTER

DHMS Presents Sarah Sharma

November 9, 2020

4:00pm

REGISTER

André Leon Talley

November 12, 2020

6:00pm

REGISTER

Dissertation Grant Writing Workshop

November 16, 2020

3:00pm

REGISTER

DHMS Presents Book Traces with Kristin Jensen (UVA) and Michael Rodriguez (UConn Libraries)

November 18, 2020

1:00pm

REGISTER

Fellow’s Talk: Ashley Gangi

November 18, 2020

4:00pm

REGISTER

Publishing NOW with Gita Manaktala of MIT Press

December 2, 2020

11:00am

REGISTER

Fellow’s Talk: Shaine Scarminach

December 2, 2020

4:00pm

REGISTER

UCHI Welcomes You To 2020–2021

The UCHI logo in front of a picture of a bookshelf.

Dear friends,

It has, by any measure, been a hard, puzzling summer that occasionally veered into chaotic and devastating, making it difficult to write an ordinary welcome back letter in such fraught, extraordinary times. What we’re here to say though is that it is our intention to continue to offer forums to learn, talk, and listen, opportunities to think harder, and occasions to ask new questions—all as we move our programming online for the time being. We welcome you to join us as we try out new methods, explore new ways to connect intellectually, and create collaborative cohorts. In short, UCHI offers this year what we offer every year: opportunities to shape the humanities. More than ever, we want to remind you that your research, your ideas, and your voices matter and can change the world.

What does this mean tangibly? It means we are going to continue to do what we do and even expand our reach in this online moment. This includes:

  1. UCHI Fellows’ talks and all activities will go online. The formats will shift, but Fellows’ talks remain an opportunity to hear cutting-edge researchers and their new material. Join us to see the best new books, articles, and dissertations take shape.
  2. We have funding and look forward to supporting scholars’ talks, colloquia, working groups, and other research events. Again, while travel is limited, online options offer new potentials for expanding and diversifying the dialogues we can share here with the UConn community.
  3. Our Digital Humanities and Media Studies initiative will continue to offer programming that addresses our (more than ever) digitally-mediated world and scholarship, as well as its graduate certificate program.
  4. Our programs such as faculty grant application aid and humanities book support remain active and wait for your applications.
  5. We were awarded this summer a $750,000 Mellon grant to build and sustain the New England Humanities Consortium’s Faculty of Color Working Group (FOCWG). This program will offer fellowships, mentorship, and advocacy in support of BIPOC faculty here at UConn and then also nationally. UCHI remains committed to working for equality, diversity, and change here at UConn and beyond.
  6. As part of this Mellon/FOCWG we are thrilled to welcome our first UCHI/Mellon Faculty Fellow, Professor Sean Frederick Forbes. For more on Sean and all our 2020-21 fellows see our site.
  7. Publishing NOW will again bring top editors to talk with UConn faculty and students about publishing and about projecting their scholarly voices in new publishing environments.
  8. Our Luce Foundation funded initiative, The Future of Truth, will host several events this year building toward our multi-year traveling exhibition, in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History, Seeing Truth: Art, Science, and Making Knowledge.

And is there something here you don’t see but that would help you and your colleagues now? Reach out to us. Again, we are here, and want to see you get to where you need to go. We’re eager to learn about the work you’re doing this year and to support your projects.

Best wishes for the start of the new school year.

Cheers,

The UCHI Team

Alexis L. Boylan, acting director
Yohei Igarashi, acting director of academic affairs
Jo-Ann Waide, program coordinator
Nasya Al-Saidy, financial coordinator
Elizabeth Della Zazzera, post-doctoral humanities fellow