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Symposium to Explore Significance of 18th-Century Philosopher’s Essay on Perpetual Peace in Today’s World

Philosopher Immanuel Kant’s 1795 essay “Toward Perpetual Peace” still holds significant relevance even now more than two centuries after it was first published. With ongoing wars across the globe, securing peace remains elusive.

April 17, 2024  · 

An upcoming one-day symposium will explore how Kant’s principles can help lay the foundation for lasting peace. The symposium is supported by the Central New York Humanities Corridor, whose administrative home is based at the Syracuse University Humanities Center...


Dian Ling | Contributing Photographer

Visiting professor Krushil Watene discusses the importance of Indigenous philosophy, justice

Krushil Watene discusses Māori concepts, the revitalization of their communities and the support of their knowledge.

March 25, 2024  · 

Māori scholar Krushil Watene projected a photo of herself and a youth education group canoeing on New Zealand’s Taumārere River to an audience of more than 20 students and faculty in Bird Library. Understanding their responsibility to learn about Māori culture is Watene’s group’s mission.

“We need more diversity and we need to hear the voice of those communities who hold the key and the knowledge to address issues that are impacting humanity, not just Indigenous communities, but humanity overall,” said Indigenous Studies Professor Mariaelena Huambachano...


spring flowers in foreground with pathway leading to Tolley building in background

The Humanities Center resides in the Tolley Humanities Building (in upper left view)

Humanities Center Supports Four Spring 2024 Fellows

Research ranges from recovering ancestral foodways, making Black space in the digital age, natural reasoning through virtue to stereotypical Caribbean images.

Feb. 27, 2024  · 

Humanities practitioners put current issues and events into perspective by encouraging critical thinking and analysis, challenging beliefs and values, sparking creativity and encouraging global citizenship and immersing in history. In an effort to further a world that is healthier, hopeful and more humane, the Syracuse University Humanities Center, in the College of Arts and Sciences, advances humanities research each year by awarding up to four competitive fellowships.


Humanities Center Showcases and Supports Graduate Student Research

The Syracuse University Humanities Center, in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), offers key grants and fellowships to graduate students that allow them to advance their projects and share their ideas beyond the walls of the University.

Feb. 5, 2024  · 

“Advancing graduate student research is so important. As the work of this year’s dissertation fellows and public humanities grantees amply illustrates, graduate students are pushing the boundaries of their fields and advancing the humanities in new ways for the 21st century,” says Vivian May, director of the Humanities Center.


Indigenous Philosophies Can Create Global Change and More Just Futures

Krushil Watene, Māori scholar from Aotearoa New Zealand, is the 2024 Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities, March 18-29

Jan. 18, 2024  · 

This spring, the Syracuse University Humanities Center welcomes a visit by renowned Māori scholar, moral and political philosopher, Krushil Watene. She is a member of the Māori tribal communities of Ngāti Manu, Te Hikutu, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and the Pacific Island of Tonga (Hunga, Vava’u). Watene is the Peter Kraus Associate Professor of Philosophy, and Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau, Aotearoa New Zealand.


Black women converse around workshop table

Cornell hosts "Black Girl Futures” workshop Nov. 11

Exploring girlhoods, Black scholars connect, imagine and heal

Corridor working group's mission brings Black female scholars, activists, community workers and educators together to reflect on their childhoods and find community – all in order to better serve the Black girls with whom they work.

Dec. 19, 2023  · 

Jamila Walida Simon grew up in a time and place where children were expected to be largely seen and not heard; as an adult, she wanted to correct that, providing space for Black girls to express themselves, their thoughts and feelings, their struggles and aspirations. Now, as part of a working group that spurs and supports the self-reflection of Black women who work with Black girls, Simon has found that space for herself.

Now in its third cycle of funding from the Central New York Humanities Corridor, the working group, “Collectively Envisioning Black Girl Futures,” was founded in fall 2022 by Misha Inniss-Thompson assistant professor of psychology in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, and Courtney Mauldin, assistant professor of educational leadership at Syracuse University.


Mariaelena Huambachano

Indigenous Studies Researcher Advises the UN on Inequalities in Food Security and Nutrition

Huambachano, an Indigenous scholar and current Humanities Center Faculty Fellow, is also co-hosting this spring's JK Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities mini-residency by Māori scholar, Krushil Watene.

Nov. 27, 2023  · 

A&S scholar, Mariaelena Huambachano, travels the world gathering and sharing research on the wisdom of “Traditional Ecological Knowledge”, while passing it down to the next generation through her teaching at Syracuse.


view of rustic cabin beyond fall-colored trees

Blue Mountain Lake, NY

Corridor Writing Retreat Supports Faculty Research

Three years of bolstering faculty research through an Adirondack retreat on Blue Mountain Lake

Nov. 21, 2023  · 

Being uprooted from one’s typical routine can have profound impacts on one’s writing practice, and for the third year running, the Corridor Writing Retreat has provided such an opportunity to participants from across all 11 Corridor institutions.


Who is the Enemy?

Perpetual Peace Project conference examines persistent questions through Kantian lens, Nov. 9-10

Oct. 24, 2023  · 

German philosopher Immanuel Kant's concept of perpetual peace introduced a utopian vision of permanent universal hospitality. "Such understanding of peace does not describe any real human behavior but... is an imaginary peace-to-come..." as explored further in lectures, workshops, and round tables of the second annual Perpetual Peace Project conference, November 9-10, 2023.


abstract art hangs on wall beside cactus sculpture

Multi-media exhibit explores the unification of cultural diversity in regions surrounding the Rio Grande valley

Gil Rocha’s ‘The Border is a Weapon’ explores the border’s impact on Mexican-Americans

Curated collection featured as part of Syracuse Symposium’s “Landscapes” theme

Sept. 26, 2023  · 

A cascade of western boots hangs above a trail of soil, while illustrations and photographs of life around the United States and Mexico border cover the walls of the “The Border is a Weapon” exhibit. Artist Gil Rocha curated the collection as part of the Symposium’s “Landscapes” theme for the 2023-24 year, which he’s set to discuss on September 29 with Juan Juarez, an associate professor in the School of Art...