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Artistic Noise, a Harlem-based non-profit, started when two women, Francine Sherman and Lauren Adelman, initiated an art-making activity for a juvenile detention center for girls in Boston. After one girl was released, she joined Awais and Adelman in forming the program dedicated to assisting youth aged 14 to 22 who face challenges in foster care, shelters, probation and mental health issues.

Twenty-five years later, Artistic Noise staff and alumni reflected on their work at an event on October 20, hosted by the Incarceration and Decarceration Working Group of the CNY Humanities Corridor.

How does creativity strengthen communities and individual well-being over a lifetime? The Syracuse University Humanities Center invites the campus and local community to reflect on that question through its 2025–26 Syracuse Symposium, themed "Creativity."

Using simple objects such as stones, eggs, paper plates, colored markers and a globe, and employing techniques of light, shadow and motion, a dozen Syracuse area high schoolers are making original short films this summer using their smartphones. “Teens With a Movie Camera” is a four-week, community-based project designed to empower the teens, give voice to their ideas and bring the skills the faculty mentors teach in their college courses to a wider circle of neighbors.

The positive impact of community-engaged research was on full display at the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) on May 2, presenting a wide array of projects. The event showcased the collaborative efforts of faculty, staff and students from over two dozen departments across seven schools and colleges at Syracuse University, along with partners from 30 community-based organizations.

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."