Dear colleagues,

In an age of denialism—of COVID, climate change, and elections—does truth still matter? Here at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, we think it does, even though it is often hard to find, difficult to agree on, and endlessly complex. In that vein, we recommend recent UCHI fellow Amanda Crawford’s achingly moving exploration of denialism in the context of Sandy Hook and gun violence.

Truth and knowledge in all their many forms are a theme this year. Having just wrapped up our 20^th-anniversary year we welcome you back for the start of another season of creative research events here at the Institute, including projects that reach out to the public beyond UConn’s campus. In particular:

• • Picturing the Pandemic opening at Hartford Public Library on October 27.
  • Also in October (10/4) we host a celebration of our own World Poetry Books with Peter Constantine and Pen-Faulkner Award winning authors and translators.
  • Funded by a generous grant from the Luce foundation, and in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History, Alexis Boylan’s incredibly innovative Seeing Truth exhibition opens on January 19 at the Benton.

In addition, we welcome a stellar new class of fellows to the Institute, working on projects ranging from the social context of scientific inquiry to indigenous elders to queer cartographies. And this year we are especially excited to welcome our inaugural undergraduate fellows, a program we are looking forward to expanding in the years to come.

Of course, our regular programming returns, with a full range of talks in Digital Humanities and Media Studies (led by Yohei Igarashi) and the return of Publishing NOW.

As always, we continue to accept applications for funding for research, collaboration, and invited speakers all across campus, and we remind you that applications for our residential fellowships are due in February.

Keep up with everything we’re doing by following us on social media and subscribing to our newsletter: s.uconn.edu/subscribe. You won’t regret it—and that’s the truth.

Wishing everyone an excellent start to this academic year,

The UCHI Team