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The Syracuse University Humanities Center (HC) will soon mark a significant milestone in its history. For a decade, it has recognized the wide-ranging scholarly and creative achievements of our academic community. The Center’s 10th annual Books in the Humanities reception honors an impressive 46 works authored or edited by 45 Syracuse University faculty, staff and students published in 2024.

In this Q&A, Amanda Brown discusses her new book’s origins, key takeaways and the collaborative process behind its development.

Annual faculty fellowship awards reflect the Center's commitment to leading the way in facilitating humanities scholarship that encourages critical thinking, new perspectives and interdisciplinary connections. “Each spring, we are so delighted to support a cohort of Faculty Fellows engaged in cutting-edge scholarship,” says Vivian M. May, director of the Humanities Center and CNY Humanities Corridor, and professor of women’s and gender studies.

In sixth grade, Azra Hromadžić started “writing” a book, though she might have not realized it at the time.

The memories young Hromadžić formed while growing up near the Una — a river winding through Bihać, a town in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina — became the foundation of her 2024 release, Riverine Citizenship: A Bosnian City in Love with the River.

This work is a “love letter,” a “grief letter” and a form of activism, all in one. Weaving together complex emotions and theoretical frameworks surrounding the Una, Hromadžić’s book constructs a concept she calls a “riverine citizenship.”

The Humanities Center, with support from the Office of Research and the College of Arts and Sciences, recently established the Engaged Humanities Postdoctoral Fellows program as part of a biennial initiative in collaboration with EHN. This prestigious, highly competitive program appoints researchers with doctoral degrees to two-year faculty-level positions in residence at the Humanities Center.

Thursday evening, April 3rd, Patricia Spears Jones visited the Shinder Theater at the YMCA in downtown Syracuse as part of the Syracuse Symposium series. Spears Jones, the current New York State Poet Laureate, read poems from her newest collection, “The Beloved Community.” Released in 2023, the collection aims to capture the “volatility of the world."

Bryant's distinguished work does not stop at her new book. She has since returned to her Humanities Center fellowship research: a social history project that pieces together what freedom meant for those living in the part of Southern New Jersey that overlooked Delaware while it was still a slave state — a place she calls “the edge of freedom.”

Layers of support and recognition continue to add up for AY25 Humanities Center Dissertation Fellow, Caroline Charles (Ph.D. candidate - English). Earlier this month, Charles was one of just eight recipients of this year's Graduate Dean's Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work, competing with dozens of other nominees for this selective honor.

In another one of its "Meet the Scholars Coffee Hours," the Humanities Center's 2024-2025 Dissertation Fellows, Lerie Gabriel and Caroline Imani Charles participated in a Q&A-style session highlighting a common thread in both projects: how they each draw from their lived experience to craft dissertation projects focused on the preservation and continuation of Black cultural practices.

Sunday's free public screening (Feb. 2) revealed a kaleidoscope of storytelling approaches — from experimentation with stop-motion animation, to anime-inspired sequences, to slice-of-life vignettes — forming a digital mosaic that echoed the 2024-2025 Syracuse Symposium theme, “Community,” as seen through the eyes of local students.