Students, faculty, and postdoctoral scholars will have the opportunity to engage more deeply in the humanities, beginning this fall, through two new intersecting programs designed by leaders in the field.
The Intergenerational Humanities (I-HUM) Project and the Undergraduate Scholars Initiative (USI) will provide “a route for students to explore the humanities across Harvard,” said Suzannah Clark, director of the Mahindra Humanities Center, where the I-HUM project is hosted. Clark designed the programs with Robin Kelsey, dean of arts and humanities and Shirley Carter Burden Professor of Photography.
In the Undergraduate Scholars Initiative, interested College sophomores will participate in two seminars over the academic year, each focused on different themes within the humanities. Kelsey and Jennifer L. Roberts, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities, will teach the fall semester seminar, “Making It,” a course focused on the habits of thought that critical interpretation requires. The inaugural spring “Scholars Lab” seminar will be co-taught by assistant professor of English Sarah Dimick and Joyce Chaplin, James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History and an affiliate of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, on the theme of “Place and Planet.”
“We focus a lot of attention on the first-years, and sometimes sophomores wonder what is next after they’ve enjoyed the foundational freshman seminar, Humanities 10, or ‘Vision and Justice,’ or other eye-opening courses,” said Kelsey. “If you want to stay on this journey of deepening your understanding and broadening your exposure to the humanities, the Scholars Program is a fantastic way to do it. These seminars are really for everyone, and all that’s required is that somebody wants to spend some intensive time learning what the humanities can offer them.”