The working group invites University faculty, graduate students, and staff, as well as independent scholars and humanities administrators from the community, to join monthly conversations about our shared humanistic work and its larger, public implications outside of university life, and to consider more largely the value and relevance of the humanities in our present moment.
Topics of discussion will include: the public-facing humanities at Princeton; independent research libraries; podcasts; state humanities councils; public humanities programs at peer institutions; and literary and cultural journals. Questions will be asked about funding cuts for the humanities and defining the value of what we do; how might we contextualize this current “crisis of the humanities” within old and not just new pressures? In an Ivy League University that can sometimes feel like a world unto itself, how might we envision the meaning of our work as scholars, writers, thinkers, and teachers, and possibly as future professionals in diverse humanistic fields and institutions? How do we define public humanities? How do various groups and individuals define it – you personally, the university, and the public for example?
RSVP required. To RSVP and receive readings, contact Kate Thorpe, kthorpe@princeton.edu.
Spring 2020
February 13, 6 pm (dinner provided), Scheide Caldwell 103
East Coast Corridor Public Outreach
May 14, 12 pm (bring your own lunch if you wish), Virtual Session on Zoom
Presentations by Jim Casey (Center for Digital Humanities) and Martha Sandweiss (History)
