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The ability to write and share our ideas is often taken for granted. We rarely stop to ask, is writing enough?

This question was addressed in January during a Humanities Center Syracuse Symposium event on the theme of creativity with Dr. Moira Marquis, Manager of Higher Education Partnerships at the Petey Greene Program, and Johnny Page, Director of Reentry for the Illinois Department of Human Services. For incarcerated writers, who face numerous barriers to writing and education, there are no easy answers.

Humanities Center Spring 2026 Faculty Fellows are developing books that extend interests cultivated throughout their academic pursuits, underline the power of scholarship, and showcase the humanities' capacity to shed light on longstanding issues with new frameworks and ideas.

On a February morning, members of the University community sat down at their keyboards with a shared purpose: to pull the voices of history out of the archive and into the digital age—one keystroke at a time.

Gathering at the Humanities Center on Feb. 13 to mark Douglass Day 2026—the annual national celebration honoring abolitionist Frederick Douglass—faculty, staff and students spent the afternoon transcribing collected documents from the Colored Conventions, a Black political movement that spanned seven decades in the 1800s.

The Humanities Center’s 2025-2026 Dissertation Fellows, Kellan D. L. Head (philosophy) and Abigail H. Long (composition and cultural rhetoric), are forging new paths in the Humanities and challenging prevailing ideas in their fields. From philosophy to writing pedagogy, Head’s and Long’s dissertations plant intellectual seeds that have been nurtured by their research, past academic pursuits, and personal experiences. All are invited to learn more about their projects, through video presentations and live conversation at 'Meet the Scholars Coffee Hour' event on Feb. 27.

In an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and automation, the distinctly human capacity for creativity has never been more vital for building resilient communities and fostering the understanding needed in moments of deep division.

The Syracuse University Humanities Center's spring programming for its Syracuse Symposium demonstrates the multifaceted power of “CREATIVITY” through events that span art, literary translation, textile arts and video production. Participants can engage with or witness creativity as a mode of healing and as a medium for social change.

Aligning with the Humanities Center’s 2025-2026 Syracuse Symposium theme, “Creativity," Voices of Service: A Celebration of Veterans Writing and Weekend Workshop offered space — in the form of writing workshops, readings, shared meals and a concluding open mic — for them to nurture and empower their creative expression.

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.