UCHI

Publishing NOW: Colson Whitehead

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The University of Connecticut Humanities Institute (UCHI) joins UConn Institute of Africana Studies to host The Colson Whitehead Faculty Reading Group, dedicated to a discussion of Whitehead’s latest novel The Nickel Boys. This discussion is the latest installment in UCHI’s “Publishing NOW” series and will take place at the UCHI conference room on September 19, 2019 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. This reading project will be followed by a UCHI-sponsored public presentation by Whitehead on September 26, 2019 at 4:30 PM at the Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center.

Colson Whitehead Reading Project_4

UCHI Co-Sponsors Faculty Reading Group to Discuss “The Nickel Boys”

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The University of Connecticut Humanities Institute (UCHI) joins UConn Institute of Africana Studies to host The Colson Whitehead Faculty Reading Group, dedicated to a discussion of Whitehead’s latest novel The Nickel Boys. This discussion is the latest installment in UCHI’s “Publishing NOW” series and will take place at the UCHI conference room on September 19, 2019 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. This reading project will be followed by a UCHI-sponsored public presentation by Whitehead on September 26, 2019 at 4:30 PM at the Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center.

Colson Whitehead Reading Project_4

New Book by UCHI Associate Director Alexis L. Boylan.

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"Six men, all artists, find their way to New York City at the turn-of-the-twentieth century and find friendship and love. They are also crushed emotionally and creatively by capitalism."

Arriving in New York City in the first decade of the twentieth century, six painters-Robert Henri, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, Glackens, George Luks, and George Bellows, subsequently known as the Ashcan Circle-faced a visual culture that depicted the urban man as a diseased body under assault. Ashcan artists countered this narrative, manipulating the bodies of construction workers, tramps, entertainers, and office workers to stand in visual opposition to popular, political, and commercial cultures. They did so by repeatedly positioning white male bodies as having no cleverness, no moral authority, no style, and no particular charisma, crafting with consistency an unspectacular man. This was an attempt, both radical and deeply insidious, to make the white male body stand outside visual systems of knowledge, to resist the disciplining powers of commercial capitalism, and to simply be with no justification or rationale. Ashcan Art, Whiteness, and the Unspectacular Man maps how Ashcan artists reconfigured urban masculinity for national audiences and reimagined the possibility and privilege of the unremarkable white, male body thus shaping dialogues about modernity, gender, and race that shifted visual culture in the United States. -
 

“Humility In Politics” Event Kicks Off UConn’s Public Discourse Research Project

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Humility and vulnerability are no longer values that are rewarded in the political arena, and it’s up to individuals, and their relationships, to begin a sea change that could “trickle up” into political leadership.

That was the message Tuesday evening as prominent political figures, journalists, educators, academics and nonprofit leaders came together for a public forum, titled “Humility in Politics,” in Washington, D.C.

Panelists and moderators from the Humility in Politics forum at the Folger Shakespeare Theater was held on Tuesday, September 20, 2016 in Washington, DC Photos by GH Studios. © Garrett Hubbard 2016

The event, sponsored by UConn’s Humanities Institute and a $5.75 million investment in UConn by the John Templeton Foundation, kicked off a three-year research initiative, aptly named The Humility and Conviction in Public Life project.

The project aims to investigate how intellectual humility – through being aware of our own innate biases and responses to new evidence – can overcome current political divisiveness.

“This is an unprecedented attempt to apply humanities and social science research to solve problems in the political sphere,” said Michael Lynch, professor of philosophy and director of the Humanities Institute, in his opening remarks.

continue here

 

Humanities Institute/Folger Library “Transcribathon”, September 14th, 10 am – 4 pm

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We invite you to take part in the Humanities Institute-Folger Library “Transcribathon,” to be held

Wednesday,  September 14th, 10 am – 4 pm in the Great Hall of the Alumni Center.

You’ve seen the First Folio, now try and read handwriting from Shakespeare’s time!

The Transcribathon is an event connected with the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Early Modern Manuscripts Online project, which is an effort to transcribe and digitize hand written documents from the Age of Shakespeare. [http://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Early_Modern_Manuscripts_Online_(EMMO)] Staff from the Folger will be on site to lead the event. Participants will transcribe and encode manuscripts, individually or in small groups. There will be food (lunch and pizza at the end of the day), fun, entertaining manuscripts, transcription sprints, prizes, and an easy-to-use online transcription platform called Dromio. UConn will be working on the seventeenth-century diary of the fascinating Rev. John Ward, who in addition to his church duties was a learned humanist and active in medical and scientific circles. Learn to read the original documents of the English Renaissance, and be a part of history by getting your name on the completed edition. Please join us, and encourage your students (classes welcome) and colleagues. The more the merrier!

For more information, contact: Brendan Kane at brendan.kane@uconn.edu.

Director of the Humanities Institute Michael Lynch, explores the dangerous insecurity of American Exceptionalism.

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The Danger of ‘American Exceptionalism’

The siren call of American exceptionalism ends up encouraging only demagoguery.

By Michael P. Lynch | Contributor

Aug. 14, 2016, at 7:00 a.m.

Over the last month, there has been a steady drumbeat of talk about America’s “greatness” – whether it was making it great again (Donald Trump) or already being the greatest country on Earth (the Obamas and Hillary Clinton). Yet what does it really mean to say America is “great” – now or in the future? Not surprisingly, it depends whom you ask: their politics, their views on the health of the economy and so on. But differences on the meaning of “greatness” go deeper as well and often concern a single idea that is of increasing national importance: American Exceptionalism. read more

The Humanities Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Alexis L. Boylan as New Associate Director

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Alexis L. Boylan, Associate Professor, (Art & Art History and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies).

Professor Boylan’s research focus is on American art from the colonial to the contemporary periods, with particular emphasis on race and gender. She is succeeding Brendan Kane, Associate Professor (History) who is completing his term as Associate Director.

 

 

 

Congratulations to UCHI Dissertation Fellow Allison Horrocks

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This April, 2015-16 UCHI Dissertation Fellow, Allison Horrocks successfully defended her doctoral thesis. She has accepted a position with the National Park Service and the recently established Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park, to begin after she completes her doctorate this May. Encompassing several sites from Worcester, MA, to Providence, RI, the heritage corridor is dedicated to histories of the Industrial Revolution and textiles in the U.S. (http://www.nps.gov/blac/index.htm). Allison will be working with local non-profits and other stakeholders to develop the new park’s engagement plan and public programs.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend Program

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The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) would like to announce the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend Program.  The Summer Stipend Program will only accept two nominations per institution (NEH recognizes UConn Storrs and UConn Health Center as separate institutions), and as such the OVPR will be conducting an internal screening process.

Recipients usually produce scholarly articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources while receiving the NEH summer stipend. Successful applicants will be awarded a stipend of $6,000.

NEH Summer stipends support:

·         Individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both.

·         Continuous full-time work on humanities projects for a period of two consecutive months.

·         Projects at any stage of development.

·         Projects beginning May 2017.

Limited Submission

Because only two nominations can be submitted for this program, an internal screening process is required.  If you are considering submitting an application for this program, an on-line Notification of Intent to Submit must be completed by the requested Intent to Submit Deadline.

When submitting pre-proposals for the internal screening process, please review the Guidelines for updates. Pre-proposals not adhering to these guidelines and instructions will be returned.

Program Requirements

Limit:  Two nominations from each institution
Intent to Submit Deadline: 6/6/2016
Internal Screening Deadline: 7/1/2016
Sponsor Deadline:  9/29/2016, 11:59 PM (Eastern Time)
Submit e-proposals to: research@uconn.edu

The University of Connecticut Humanities Institute is pleased to announce its Residential Faculty and Dissertation Fellowship awards for 2016-17:

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External Faculty Fellowships

Robert T. Chase (History – Stony Brook University) – “Civil Rights on the Cell Block: Prisoners’ Rights Movements and the Construction of Carceral States, 1945-1995” Leo J. Garafalo (History – Connecticut College) – “Forging a Place in the Spanish Empire: Black European Sailors, Soldiers, and Traders to the Americas”

UConn Faculty Fellowships

Anna Mae Duane (English) – “Strange Place Blues: The Unusual Education of Three African American Leaders” Mark Healey (History) – “Waterscapes of Power in the Dry Lands of Argentina, 1880-2000”
 Daniel Hershenzon (Literatures, Cultures & Languages) – “Captivity, Commerce, and Communication: Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean” Daniel Silvermint (Philosophy) – “Complicit Identities: The Ethics of Looking Out for Yourself”
Christine Sylvester (Political Science) – “Objects of War: Whose Wars Are on View? Dimitris Xygalatas (Anthropology) – “Homo Ritualis. Extreme Rituals as Social Technologies”

UConn Dissertation Fellowships:

DRAPER Dissertation Fellow

Jeffrey R. Egan (History) – “Watershed Decisions: The Environmental History of the Quabbin Reservoir, 1880-1940”

   DRAPER Dissertation Fellow

Melanie Meinzer (Political Science) – “Contested Consciousness: Foreign Aid and Palestinian Education in the West Bank and Jordan”
UCHI Dissertation Fellow

Troy Messick (Linguistics) – “The Morphosyntax of Self-Ascription: A Cross-Linguistic Study”

 UCHI Dissertation Fellow

George Moore (English) – “The Return of Dagon: Failed Iconoclasm in Early Modern English Literature”