The National Humanities Center has announced its schedule of public lectures, exhibitions, and other events which touch on a wide range of topics. Events include lectures on Shakespeare’s Othello, portrayals of slavery and freedom across the Atlantic world, the history of the industrial oyster, and Viking art.
The NHC will partner with Vietnam National University in developing digital instructional resources that allow for a deeper understanding of the American Vietnamese War. This initiative, supported by a $175,000 grant from the Fostering Innovation through Research, Science, and Technology Project for Vietnam, will bring together a team of Vietnamese and American educators, scholars, and technology experts to create digital tools that examine the political, social, cultural, economic, and historical complexities surrounding the conflict.
The National Humanities Center and the Durham Veteran Affairs Health Care System are seeking participants for a new program for military Veterans and their families in eastern North Carolina. “Reading Our Stories: Exploring the Veteran’s Experience through Literature,” will give Veterans an opportunity to more deeply reflect on their service—what it means to them and to the country—by examining and discussing literary texts. Groups will meet in Raleigh, Durham, and Greenville beginning in January 2017.
Robert D. Newman, president and director of the National Humanities Center, will be giving talks and appearing in public forums throughout the fall of 2016 in venues from Charlottesville, Virginia to Shanghai, China.
On Monday, June 13, 2016, the National Humanities Center and Flyleaf Books were pleased to present best-selling author David Denby. Denby is a staff writer and former film critic for The New Yorker, and his reviews and essays have appeared in The New Republic, The Atlantic, and New York magazine (where he was film critic from 1978 to 1998), among other places.
The Center announces the appointment of Anthony E. Kaye as Vice President for Scholarly Programs, effective July 1, 2016. Robert D. Newman, President and Director, pointed to Kaye’s vision and energy as qualities that distinguished him: “Tony has a wonderful sense not only of what the Center means to scholars and their research but also an appreciation for the possibilities generated by its intellectual community.”
On March 31, 2016, William “Bro” Adams, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, spoke at length to Fellows and Trustees of the Center about the state of humanities research, teaching, and public engagement in the United States. Reflecting on the NEH’s founding in 1965 and the work it has supported ever since, he also discussed the challenges facing humanists and the liberal arts, in general, in the twenty-first century.
Following a nationwide search, the National Humanities Center has named Andrew T. Mink as its new Vice President for Education Programs. He will succeed Richard R. Schramm, who is set to retire in July. Mink will lead the Center’s efforts to strengthen humanities teaching at both the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels, which combine live webinars, interactive classroom lessons, and extensive digital archives of primary source materials.
The National Humanities Center announces the appointment of 37 Fellows for the academic year 2016–17. These leading scholars will come to the Center from 17 states, Argentina, South Africa, and the United Kingdom; they constitute the thirty-ninth class of resident scholars to be admitted since the Center opened in 1978. Robert D. Newman, president and director of the National Humanities Center, said, “This tremendous group of scholars is conducting interesting and important work across a range of humanistic fields. We are delighted to provide them support and look forward to their arrival.”
The National Humanities Center has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of a new outreach program for military veterans. This initiative, “Exploring the Experience of War,” will give veterans in North Carolina the opportunity to reflect on their own service by examining and discussing literary texts. It will be conducted in partnership with Chaplain Services of the Durham Veteran Affairs Medical Center.