James E. McLeod Memorial Lecture on Higher Education
James E. McLeod Memorial Lecture on Higher Education honors the esteemed vice chancellor of students, who died in 2011. The lecture series addresses the role of the liberal arts in higher education, a subject especially meaningful to Dean McLeod. Recent past speakers include Mary Schmidt Campbell, 10th president of Spelman College (2022); Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and two-time director-chair of Washington University’s Department of African and African-American Studies (2021); Bethany Nowviskie, dean of Libraries, senior academic technology officer, and professor of English, James Madison University (2020–21); George Sanchez, professor of American studies and ethnicity and of history, and director of the Center for Democracy and Diversity, University of Southern California (2019); and Cathy Davidson, co-founding director of HASTAC, distinguished professor of English and founding director of the Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center, CUNY (2018).
Faculty Book Celebration
The publication of a monograph or significant creative work is a milestone in the career of an academic. The Center for the Humanities commemorates this achievement annually during the Faculty Book Celebration. The event recognizes Washington University faculty from across campus by displaying their recently published works and large-scale creative projects and inviting two campus authors and a guest lecturer to speak at a public gathering. Recent past speakers include Charles Johnson, professor emeritus, University of Washington (2022); Walter Johnson, the Winthrop Professor of History and professor of African and African American studies, Harvard University (2021); Daphne Brooks, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of African American Studies, and professor of theater studies, American studies, and women’s, gender, and sexuality Studies, Yale University (2020); and Caroline Levine, the David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of Humanities, Cornell University (2019).
International Humanities Prize
The Washington University International Humanities Prize is awarded biennially to a person who has contributed significantly to the humanities through a body of work that has dramatically impacted how we understand the human condition. In 2022, the humanities center honored cartoonist-memoirist Alison Bechdel. Recent recipients include Bill T. Jones, internationally recognized choreographer and artistic director; documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk.