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Humanities Center faculty fellows and director pose in front of library books

HC Director Vivian May (seated, left), with this year's cohort

Honing Humanities Excellence

Faculty fellows examine narratives, genres and communities that are frequently misunderstood, under-represented or, in some cases, wholly missing from existing bodies of research. —Vivian May, Humanities Center director

Feb. 22, 2022  · By Rob Enslin

What do environmental history, cultural anthropology and 19th-century American literature have in common? They’re fields at the nexus of the humanities and humanistic social sciences. They also inform the work of this year’s class of Humanities Center (HC) Faculty Fellows—researchers committed to understanding what it means to be human.

illustrated fish in blues and oranges encircle the word "Conventions" for Syracuse Symposium 2021-22

Conventional Wisdom

The Humanities Center’s Syracuse Symposium investigates conventions through a diverse selection of spring events.

Feb. 21, 2022  · By Dan Bernardi

From COVID-19’s transformative impact on people’s daily lives to the global reckoning against histories of colonialism and racism, norms are constantly evolving. The Syracuse University Humanities Center’s yearlong Syracuse Symposium, entitled Conventions, explores the ever-changing political, social and cultural currents through a series of lectures, workshops, performances, exhibits, films, readings and more.

Kameshwar Wali smiling, wearing red sweater

Kameshwar C. Wali

Remembering Kameshwar C. Wali, Longtime Physics Professor and Friend of Both the Sciences and Humanities at Syracuse University

Renowned theoretical physicist, author and humanist taught at SU for nearly 30 years

Jan. 27, 2022  · By Dan Bernardi

The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) mourns the loss of Kameshwar C. Wali, Steele Professor Emeritus of Physics, who passed away January 14 at the age of 94. An eminent theoretical physicist, Wali was internationally recognized for his research into the symmetry properties of fundamental particles and their interactions.

Wali’s daughters Alaka, Achala and Monona, founded the Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture series in honor of their father’s commitment to science and the humanities... a partnership with the Syracuse University Humanities Center.

Vivian May, director of the Humanities Center and the CNY Humanities Corridor, says, “Professor Wali's longtime passion for thinking across cultural and historical boundaries, convening people for intellectual exchange, and bridging disciplines has offered an important model of scholarly community to continue to build upon. His interest in and ability to link scientific and humanistic inquiry will be greatly missed.” Read the full article at A&S News.

Author and activist Eli Clare

Disability Justice Advocate Eli Clare is the CNY Humanities Corridor’s 2021 Distinguished Visiting Collaborator

Clare will discuss his ongoing work during two virtual presentations on October 28 and 29.

Oct. 19, 2021  · By Dan Bernardi

The Syracuse University Humanities Center, in partnership with the Cornell Society for the Humanities, welcomes author and social justice educator, Eli Clare, as a Distinguished Visiting Collaborator in the Central New York Humanities Corridor. A leading thinker at the intersection of queerness, race, and disability, Clare is widely recognized for his work highlighting how mental and physical processes interrelate.

Read the article at A&S News.

Starling-Davis is a Humanities New York Public Humanities Graduate Fellow (2020-21)
Starling-Davis is a Humanities New York Public Humanities Graduate Fellow (2020-21)

Curating the Bigger Picture: Evan Starling-Davis Approaches Literacy from Multiple Entry Points

April 5, 2021

By Ellen de Graffenried

Evan Starling-Davis is a narrative artist, curator and producer. More precisely, he names himself a digital-age “griot”—a term used for traveling poets, musicians and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history derived from the African diaspora’s culture and history...

Read the full story at SU News.
P. Gabrielle Foreman, founding faculty director of the Colored Conventions Project, is the 2021 Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Humanities. (Submitted photo)
P. Gabrielle Foreman, founding faculty director of the Colored Conventions Project, is the 2021 Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Humanities. (Submitted photo)

Bringing an Earlier Era of Activism to Digital Life

Jan. 28, 2021

Article by Dan Bernardi

Bringing seven decades of nineteenth-century Black organizing to digital life is the mission of the Colored Conventions Project (CCP). Co-founded by faculty director P. Gabrielle Foreman, the CCP is a scholarly and community research project focused on digitally preserving Black political activism from the 1830s to 1890s, some of which occurred in this region, near Syracuse University and across Central New York...

Read the full article at A&S News.

A Vital Space: CNY Humanities Corridor Offers Unique Resource to Writers

A Vital Space: CNY Humanities Corridor Offers Unique Resource to Writers

Dec. 9, 2020

Article by Dan Bernardi

Collaboration can be a key element in the process of taking a book from rough draft to print. It often takes many sets of eyes to provide the necessary clarity writers might not see on their own. To gain such valuable feedback, it helps to find a trusted group of peers who have knowledge of a book’s subject matter and who are committed to a collaborative, give-and-take research ethos. Thanks to support from the Central New York Humanities Corridor, scholars are connecting with colleagues from across the region who specialize in corresponding areas of study...

Read the full article at A&S News.

AY20 Humanities Center Dissertation Fellow, Haejoo Kim

AY20 Humanities Center Dissertation Fellow, Haejoo Kim

Skepticism of Masks, Vaccinations Isn’t New: Ph.D. Candidate’s Research on 19th-Century Britain Provides Lessons for Today

Dec. 8, 2020

Article by Brandon Dyer

Haejoo Kim, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English, is currently researching and writing her dissertation “Medical Liberty and Alternative Health Practices in Nineteenth-Century Britain.” She is exploring 19th-century British anti-vaccination periodicals and pamphlets to examine the rhetoric. “When the pandemic first hit in early spring, I was thinking I should have been working on epidemics and contagious diseases instead of alternative health practices,” Haejoo says. “And then people started to protest against mask wearing, and vaccine refusal resurfaced with full force..."

Read the full story at SU News.