Humanities Center

Welcome to The SU Humanities Center. Founded in 2008, as the result of a five-year planning task-force led by the College’s Humanities Council, we are located on the third floor of the historic William P. Tolley Humanities Building at Syracuse University.

Now entering its third year this June, the Humanities Center has hosted well over a hundred major conferences, public lectures, performance and exhibits at Syracuse University and in the CNY region through its major annual programs Syracuse Symposium ™ and the Central New York Humanities Corridor, as well as international research initiatives such as the Perpetual Peace Project.

Following the 2010 Syracuse Symposium, “CONFLICT: PEACE AND WAR,” which  included lectures and public talks by renowned Native American author and advocate Leslie Silko, New York Times journalist Nicolas Kristof, as well as a new community production by acclaimed director Ping Chong, the 2011 season was organized around the theme of "IDENTITY." Whether understood as a principle of sameness that gives rise to perceptions of individual and social identity, or only as the point where people and societies begin to diverge and become different, IDENTITY is a persistent theme for inquiring into the meaning of the “Humanities” today. The 2011 Syracuse Symposium explores the meaning of IDENTITY, and its often-opposed meaning of difference, through fifteen public events and lectures, exhibits and performances, that reflected on both as only the abstract beginnings of common understanding. Lecturers include renowned contemporary philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah and Asian-American scholar David Eng; the Syracuse Stage production of The Boys Next Door and the 9th annual Human Rights Film Festival; exhitions by Keliy Anderson-Stayley (LIGHTWORK) and local photographer Bob Gates; and poetry readings at Syracuse University and in the Downtown Writers Center, and; finally, the world premiere of an original composition by composer Greg Wanamaker and Carrie Mae-Weems presented by the Society of New Music. 

Established in 2006 through a million dollar award by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and administered bythe SU Humanities Center since 2008, the Mellon CNY Humanities Corridor has facilitated collaborative research between faculty at Syracuse University, Cornell University, and University of Rochester. After undergoing an intensive external review process last fall, conducted by an international panel of Directors of public Humanities centers and institutes, followed by a reapplication to the Mellon Foundation this spring, I am very pleased to announce that the Central New York Humanities Corridor has received an additional million dollar award this summer to support a phase II of activities to begin in late fall. An official announcement of the award will soon be released, and detailed information on the history and range of collaborative range of research projects supported by Mellon CNY Humanities Corridor project is available at syracusehumanities.org/mellon

In addition to these major annual programs, including the Humanities Center Dissertation Research Fellowships generously funded by Dean George Langford, of The College of Arts and Sciences, this past spring we initiated the Syracuse Symposium Seminars in which faculty from across the University will offer new courses that address that year's Syracuse Symposium theme at both graduate and undergraduate levels. During the spring the Center's Dissertation and Faculty Fellows will also organize public symposia in conjunction with their area of research. 

The 2012 SU Humanities Center Spring Symposia feature the scholarship of our resident fellows—the 2011-2012 HC Dissertation Fellows and the 2012 HC Faculty Fellows—for the benefit of the College of Arts and Sciences and participating divisions of Syracuse University. As part of their appointment, HC fellows have the unique opportunity to bring their research into conversation with faculty and students across the College, as well as outside experts and colleagues. Each year, the Humanities Center offers dissertation year fellowships to students of participating doctoral programs in the College and annual faculty fellowships for the spring semester. This year, we are also proud to sponsor the Humanities Faculty Fellow Lecture series, which is arranged to showcase the research of our Humanities associates in conversation with faculty peers.   

Finally, as in past years, we will continue the annual program of HC Mini-Seminars, which bring national and international scholars to the Center to interact in a one-day seminar setting with faculty and graduate students from SU and the CNY region. The 2011-2012 HC Mini-Seminar series is co-sponsored with this year's Ray Smith Symposium speaker series, bringing eight scholars to explore issues of queer identity and sexuality in early modern history and literature. 

A key objective of the SU Humanities Center is to create a dialogue about the public possibilities of humanistic inquiry, as they pertain to innovative thinking and real-life problems.  For more information on upcoming programs, or If you would like to participate in any of the SU Humanities Center's public programs or donate to our ongoing initiatives, please do not hesitate to contact us at 315-443-7192, or through the contact portal of this web-site.

Sincerely,

Gregg Lambert
Dean’s Professor of Humanities
Founding Director

January 2012