Major Research INITIATIVES and Annual Workshops

In addition to organizing and presenting each year the major arts and lecture calendar for the College of Arts & Sciences, Syracuse Symposium™, and administering the Andrew W. Mellon CNY Humanities Corridor, The SU Humanities Center is responsible for a number of annual research initiatives and major programs. The research initiatives of the SU Humanities Center are organized into three overarching categories:

Annual Programs

Through its annual program of Dissertation Fellowships and Faculty Research Awards, the SU Humanities Center supports individual faculty and graduate student research across the University, including the Maxwell School and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

  • HC MINI-SEMINARS  The purpose of the Mini Seminars is to present national and international scholars in a seminar-style format, which is usually more intensive and conversational than a traditional lecture setting.  The goal is to create a dialogue about the public possibilities of humanistic inquiry as they pertain to interdisciplinary thinking and real-world issues.  2009-10 mini seminar leaders were: W.J.T. Mitchell, Richard Dyer, Gabriele Schwab, Gerhard Richter, and Cary Wolfe.

  • SYRACUSE SYMPOSIUM SEMINARS As part of the Syracuse Symposium, an intellectual and artistic festival celebrating interdisciplinary thinking, imagining and creating, symposium seminars taught by Syracuse University faculty will begin in spring 2011 which correspond to the annual theme.  Seminars will be taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and include visiting lecturers.  The Symposium and seminars are organized and presented for The College of Arts and Sciences by the Humanities Center.

  • HC FELLOW SYMPOSIA: Each year, funding is provided to the HC Dissertation fellows to organize organize a colloquium, symposium, or conference in their field of research.  The HC Fellow symposium are usually offered in the spring semester of each year.

  • WATSON VISITING COLLABORATOR PROGRAM:  The Humanities Center Advisory Board appoints scholars, writers, or artists for preeminent lectureships at Syracuse University each year as the Jeannette K. Watson Visiting Collaborator in the Humanities.  Linked to the Mellon Humanities Corridor, the collaboration was established to support the extended visits of prominent scholars and writers whose work is esteemed throughout the humanities.
    *View list of past Watson Professors*

  • GRADUATE FORUM ON PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP:  The Humanities Center and Imagining America have established a new annual program of support for Graduate Students engaging in public scholarship at Syracuse University, Cornell University, and the University of Rochester. The Graduate Forum on Public Scholarship is designed to give graduate students a voice and opportunity to dialogue about some of the following issues: graduate students’ experiences with engaged scholarship; how this mode of research is evolving within and across various academic disciplines; lessons learned from path-breaking faculty who have successfully engaged in this mode of research in the context of academic institutions; the role of supportive networks in making this research possible; institutional obstacles to publicly engaged research, etc.  This initiative is sponsored by the Mellon CNY Humanities Corridor and PAGE at Imagining America and generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  All graduate students with an emphasis on public scholarship in their research are eligible.  view Imagining America website

MUlti-YEAR INITIATIVES:

The SU Humanities Center is also affiliated with several multi-year projects either supported by external funding (apart from the Mellon CNY Humanities Corridor), or by the Chancellor’s Leadership Award. Currently, these research projects and working groups include:

  • TRANSDISCIPLINARY MEDIA STUDIO [TdMS]: Envisioning, designing, and constructing the MEDIA|SPACE of the Future, Chancellor's Leadership Project Award (2009) The Transdisciplinary Media Studio (TdMS) is a new type of design studio that uses digital media to foster multi-directional teaching and research collaborations among partners from different disciplines. The TdMS will bring together participants from the university and its broader community to conduct research and teaching that explore the new design practices emerging from this technology-inspired convergence. Principals:  Gregg Lambert, Dean's Professor of the Humanities and Founding Director of the Humanities Center; Mark Linder, Associate Professor of Architecture and Chair of Graduate Programs; Brian Lonsway, Associate Professor of Architecture; Jonathan Massey, Associate Professor of Architecture and Undergraduate Program Chair.  view website

  • PERPETUAL PEACE PROJECT (Spring 2010-Spring 2012):  A two-year collaborative initiative centered around Immanuel Kant’s “Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch” (1795), developed by the SU Humanities Center and Philadelphia-based Slought Foundation, with partners at the Austrian Consulate, UNIC, the UN, and International Peace Institute (IPI). The Perpetual Peace initiative revisits and encourages a critical rewriting of Immanuel Kant’s provocative essay for 21st century international conflict.  Its aim is to encourage philosophical and conceptual thinking about urgent matters of war and peace, their discourse, terms of debate, and implications.  view website

Workshops and Practicum

Additionally, the following workshops and practicum series will be offered regularly for SU Graduate Students and Faculty:

  • HUMANITIES CENTER PRACTICUM FOR NEW FACULTY AND ADVANCED GRADUATE STUDENTS: Beginning in 2010 the SU Humanities Center is designing a series of “practicum” specifically designed to help new faculty and advanced graduate students proactively engage with pressing issues relevant for their professional development and advancement in the interdisciplinary humanities.  Topics for 2010 include: “How to Transform a Dissertation into a Book.”
  • INTERDISCIPLINARY HUMANITIES DISSERTATION WRITING GROUPS: The SU Humanities Center and the Graduate School Professional Development Programs at Syracuse University have established an annual program of support in the Humanities Center for Interdisciplinary Humanities Dissertation Writing Groups.  Any doctoral student in good standing whose work has an interdisciplinary humanities component may join this dissertation writing group.  The Program provide funding support for several Writing Groups to convene monthly throughout the Fall and Spring semesters and summer (voluntary) to share drafts of dissertation chapters, to provide substantive feedback to each other’s work, and to discuss successful writing strategies.