Human Ties Features

A scholar in the game

Making the jump from scholar to activist, Noah Cohan, assistant director of the American Culture Studies program, writes about his project and podcast, Whereas Hoops. Together with collaborator John Early (Sam Fox School), they tackle a central question — Why are there no basketball hoops in Forest Park? — and enact a game plan for correcting that omission. Along the way, they explore what park-goers themselves want, the Delmar Divide and St. Louis’ rich basketball history.

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Human Ties Features

What was “race” in ancient Rome?

Senior lecturer of Classics Kathryn Wilson’s Teaching Gallery exhibition at the Kemper Art Museum, “Colonizing the Past: Constructing Race in Ancient Greece and Rome,” explores the implications of our tendency to ascribe modern racial identities to people who lived in the ancient past.

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Human Ties Features

Gerald Early on Black studies at WashU and one of its early champions: McLeod lecture preview

In a preview of his address for the annual James E. McLeod Memorial Lecture on Higher Education (Sept. 30), Gerald Early talks to two colleagues about Dean McLeod, the evolution of Black studies at Washington University, and why the lecture series Early founded in McLeod’s memory focuses on the mission of higher education.

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Human Ties Features

Transnational literature in the age of nationalism

Even during the Age of Nationalism, the literary history of Germany/Austria reveals transnational or international forces. Further, what is a “national” literary tradition when political borders are shifting? Joined by colleagues from Washington University and scholars from the U.S., Germany, and Austria, organizers of a Sept. 2-4 symposium argue for “Transnational Framings: The German Literary Field in the Age of Nationalism, 1848-1919.”

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About the Center

The human fingerprint maps our identity, the ties that bind us, the lingering traces we leave on this earth. As humanists, we explore the durability as well as the fragility of the human condition — opening windows onto worlds near to home and oceans away, worlds we interpret through stories and images, poems and performance, history and narratives, sounds and silence. At Washington University in St. Louis, the Center for the Humanities facilitates the labor of humanists by nurturing innovative research, transformative pedagogy, and vibrant community engagement locally and globally.

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Funding new research in the humanities

Pursuing new scholarly ideas about the world takes funding — whether it's for a two-month tour of research sites in Japan or a two-week trip to an archive to view materials available only there — that can be hard to find via regular channels. The Center for the Humanities fills this gap with a number of funding opportunities for Washington University faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Learn more about their stories!

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Travel, Encounter, and the "Shuihu-esque" in Meiji-Period Japan

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Texas and the Future of Abortion Law and Reproductive Justice

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Craft Lecture with Visiting Hurst Professor Roger Reeves

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Faculty Fellowships at Center for the Humanities

Time devoted exclusively to research and writing is integral to academic productivity. Faculty fellowships provide the opportunity to make significant strides.

Apply for funding for humanities research, fellowships, reading groups and more

The humanities center facilitates the labor of humanists by nurturing innovative research, transformative pedagogy, and vibrant community engagement locally and globally.

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