The Humanities Institute was founded in 1997 as “The Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities,” and that original name continues to define our mission.

Over the summer, we completed the re-organization of the Humanities Institute, and I am pleased to announce that the Center for Ethnic Studies, the Center for Folklore Studies, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Center for the Study of Religion, and the Melton Center for Jewish Studies have been brought together under the organizational leadership of the Institute. Centers are constellations of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students from across the humanities disciplines who join together to explore interdisciplinary questions.

The Humanities Institute facilitates collaboration and interdisciplinary inquiry into some of the most pressing problems facing contemporary society. With roots in the traditional disciplines of the humanities, the Institute provides a structure for long-term research projects that draw on humanistic methodologies to engage communities on and beyond campus. The Humanities Institute serves as an incubator of collaborative research.

Through programs that bring together visiting scholars, community leaders, postdoctoral scholars, students and faculty, the Humanities Institute offers a wide array of scholarly and public events designed to engage broad questions of social difference through humanistic lenses. Consequently, the Humanities Institute is a central space in which rigorous reflection on the complex histories of difficult cultural phenomena occurs. Through this commitment to the public humanities—sharing our research with the wider community—the Humanities Institute upholds the values of the land grant mission of the university.

David J. Staley

Director, The Humanities Institute