2014-2015 ANNUAL REPORT
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T H E N E W YORK U N IV ERS ITY C EN TER F OR THE HU M AN ITIES
CONTENTS
WELCOME
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COMMUNITY
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Strengthening relationships among students, faculty, and staff in the humanities at NYU
ENGAGEMENT
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INNOVATION
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Connecting with the public by hosting intellectually stimulating events
Experimenting with projects and programs to celebrate the humanities in new ways
ALLIANCES
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Supporting deep humanities awareness and education through external partnerships
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A N N UA L REPORT 2014 -15
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WELCOME
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T H E N E W YORK U N IV ERS ITY C EN TER F OR THE HU M AN ITIES
At NYU, the humanities are not confined to one school or location. Instead, humanities scholars and students teach, conduct research, and study in many of the University’s schools, institutes, and centers. They come to NYU precisely because of the presence of other humanistic scholars and projects located across the full range of NYU’s offerings, and they all look for the conversation, exchange, and debate that are an essential part of humanistic traditions. Many of our faculty and students work and study together collaboratively and thus create new links between their programs in the quest to deepen our understanding of the human condition and to connect with other disciplines. In 2007, and through the vision of Professor Jane Tylus and the commitment of Provost David McLaughlin, NYU established the Humanities Initiative to foster this kind of collaborative and inter-school work through resources, physical space, and a host of programs. We are pleased to announce that the newly named Center for the Humanities has now received a major gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. During the past year, the Center continued many of its signature projects, initiatives, and events: Authors’ Cocktails where we celebrate the great scholarly productivity of our faculty, the Great New Books in the Humanities series, the summer-long Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative, the yearlong Fellows’ lunches, and a successful spate of team-taught courses. The intent of our programs is to create a space where deep and critical thinking and discussion can occur among engaged peers. During last year’s weekly Fellows’ lunches, faculty and advanced doctoral students presented their work. We also discussed topics that embroil the culture at large, and that have particular bearing on the humanities: freedom of expression in the wake of the murders of several writers and editors at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, and the call for a boycott of Israeli institutions to affect political change that is being debated among many academics. Universities are places where the discussion of challenging topics can and must be assured, and the Center often serves as a venue where difficult ideas can be debated with respect and knowledge. We added new programs that you’ll read about in these pages. We are especially proud of the efforts of our undergraduates this past year, who as Humanities Ambassadors produced an impressive volume, Field Notes, that attests to the ongoing influence of humanities education and inquiry in the lives of young people as they prepare for life after college. There is no doubt that the humanities offer a significant, and particular entry point into the world, and that humanities education plays a particular role in shaping our graduates’ lives. In Field Notes professionals with
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humanities backgrounds describe the significance of the humanities in their post-graduate experiences, and outline their ongoing interests in the creative life of the mind. With the gift from the Mellon Foundation, we will appoint an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow from an underrepresented group to teach and conduct research at NYU, with the direct intent to train the new generation of diverse humanities scholars. We will link a cluster of freshman seminars under the rubric, “On Being Human,” inspired by the eponymous course taught by CAS Dean Gabrielle Starr and Jane Tylus in the fall of 2013. We will launch more programming in spring 2016 to engage more undergraduate students in the humanities. And we look forward to two lecture series: on the Environmental Humanities with distinguished scholars, activists, writers, and filmmakers, and on Criticism in Contemporary Culture. As always, we are grateful to our terrific staff – Gwynneth Malin, Chris Alexander, and Deni Valentin – and want to thank Shari Wolk for her work during the past year. And, of course, we are thankful for our funding from Provost David McLaughlin, for the support of President John Sexton, and for a vibrant NYU community that provides us with the real source of our riches. Our doors are open to welcome you to our events and discussions, and we are here to respond to your suggestions to further strengthen and support the humanities at NYU. ULRICH BAER Vice Provost for Faculty, Arts, Humanities and Diversity Acting Faculty Director 2014 - 2015 Faculty Co-Director 2015 - 2016 JANE TYLUS Professor of Italian Studies and Comparative Literature Faculty Director 2014 – 2015 (on leave) Faculty Co-Director 2015 - 2016 OUR TEAM GWYNNETH MALIN Director CHRIS ALEXANDER Media and Communications Coordinator DENELIA VALENTIN Administrative Aide SHARI WOLK Graduate Student Assistant
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COMMUNITY
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Strengthening relationships among students, faculty, and staff in the humanities at NYU
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ADVISORY BOARD Our Advisory Board consists of faculty and administrators chosen from among NYU’s many schools that offer a humanities curriculum. The Advisory Board meets throughout the year to guide the strategic vision of the Center. Board Members are appointed by the Provost and serve for a three-year term. 2014-2015 MEMBERS JANE TYLUS
(NYU Florence Fall 2014, sabbatical Spring 2015)
Chair, Advisory Board and Faculty Director, Center for the Humanities; Professor, Department of Italian Studies, and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts & Science ULRICH BAER Acting Faculty Director, Center for the Humanities; Vice Provost for Faculty, Arts, Humanities & Diversity; Professor, Department of German and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts & Science THOMAS AUGST Acting Director of Digital Humanities; Associate Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Science ERIC BANKS Director, New York Institute for the Humanities BENOÎT BOLDUC Associate Professor and Chair; Department of French, Faculty of Arts & Science JOY CONNOLLY Dean for Humanities; Professor, Department of Classics, Faculty of Arts & Science J. M. DELEON Ph.D Candidate, Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts 8
STEPHEN HOLMES Professor, Department of Politics, Faculty of Arts & Science; Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law AISHA KHAN Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology; Associated Faculty, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science PERRI KLASS Professor and Academic Director, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute; Professor, Department of Pediatrics, NYU School of Medicine
MICHAEL STOLLER Director of Collections and Research Services, Division of Libraries DIANA TAYLOR University Professor; Founding Director, Hemispheric Institute; Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Faculty of Arts & Science; Professor, Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts THELMA THOMAS Associate Professor, Institute of Fine Arts JEROME C. WAKEFIELD (on sabbatical 2014-15)
ERIC KLINENBERG Director, Institute for Public Knowledge; Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts & Science
University Professor; Professor of Social Work, Silver School of Social Work Professor of the Conceptual Foundations of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine
CHRISTOPHER LESLIE Lecturer; Co-Director, Science and Technology Studies Program, School of Engineering
BARBARA WEINSTEIN Silver Professor and Chair, Department of History, Faculty of Arts & Science
GWYNNETH MALIN Director, Center for the Humanities
(sabbatical Spring 2015)
SUSAN MURRAY Associate Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication; Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development
SUSANNE WOFFORD Dean, Gallatin School of Individualized Study; Associated Faculty, Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Science
T H E N E W YORK U N IV ERS ITY C EN TER F OR THE HU M AN ITIES
RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
for DOCTORAL STUDENTS AND FACULTY Each year, our faculty and graduate fellows come together to create a scholarly community.
2014-2015 FELLOWS JENNIFER BAKER Faculty Fellow Department of English Project: American Romanticism and the Victorian Concept of Life WAFAA BILAL Faculty Fellow Department of Photography & Imaging Project: Dynamic Encounters FAYE GINSBURG Faculty Fellow Department of Anthropology Project: Disability, Personhood and the “New Normal” in 21st Century America ALEX P. JASSEN Faculty Fellow Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies Project: Violence, Power, and Resistance in the Dead Sea Scrolls DOMINIQUE JEAN-LOUIS Public Humanities Fellow Department of History Project: “But Which Ones?”: Caribbean Immigrants, Race, and Education in Post-Civil Rights Era New York City
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During the course of the fellowship year, fellows exchange feedback on their colleague’s work at our weekly lunches and engage in intellectual discussions about topics relevant to the humanities within and beyond the academy. Projects of this year’s cohort ranged from an examination of violence and resistance in the Dead Sea Scrolls, to an investigation of healing cults and healthcare in classical Greece, to tracing the history of Caribbean immigration to New York after the Civil Rights Era.
DANIEL KANHOFER Doctoral Student Fellow Department of History Project: “The Chimerical Scheme of a Canal”: Controlling Land, Water, and People in MidAtlantic North America, 1720-1830 ZACHARY LOCKMAN Faculty Fellow Department of Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies Project: Field Building: the Origins and Trajectory of Middle East Studies in the United States NICOLA LUCCHI Doctoral Student Fellow Department of Italian Studies Project: Auto Discipline: the Fiat Lingotto Factory and Italian Modernity AMIR MOOSAVI Doctoral Student Fellow Department of Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies Project: Reimagining a War: Negotiating Ideology and Disenchantment in Literary Narratives of the Iran-Iraq War JOSÉ MIGUEL PALACIOS Public Humanities Fellow Department of Cinema Studies Project: Exile and Cultural Memory: Chilean Cinema 1973-2013 A N N UA L REPORT 2014 -15
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ANNA REIDY Doctoral Student Fellow Department of Music Project: Sawt Tanjah: A Historical Ethnography of Ethics, Acoustics and Civic Life in Modern Tangier DYLON ROBBINS Faculty Fellow Department of Spanish & Portuguese Project: ‘En via de transe:’ Trance and Political Subjectivity in Brazil (1889-1971) CALLOWAY SCOTT Doctoral Student Fellow Department of Classics Project: Asklepios on the Move: Cult and the Institutions of Health Care in Classical Greece LYTLE SHAW Faculty Fellow Department of English Project: Narrowcast: Poetry as Sonic Research RAPHAEL SIGAL Doctoral Student Fellow Department of French Project: Artaud: Reading and its Double
N Y U HU M AN ITIES.ORG
WORKING RESEARCH GROUPS ALSO KNOWN AS RESEARCH COLLABORATIVES
Our Working Research Groups bring together NYU faculty and graduate students to discuss topics in the humanities that benefit from new and interdisciplinary approaches. The Center funds each Working Research Group for a two-year period. Conferences, special events, new curricular offerings, collaborative projects, and publications result from the interactions of our Research Collaborations, as they extend their work into broader academic communities NEW 2014-2015 GROUPS Autism: Exploring Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Positive Life-Trajectory The current project represents a collaborative effort between the Department of Communicative Sciences (Speech-Language Pathology, SLP) and the Department of Occupational Therapy. Their goal was to develop the development of interdisciplinary courses, focus on student mentoring, and engage in student and faculty projects involving research in the area of communication and education in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The prevalence of ASD has increased over the past two decades, rising from 2 per 10,000 in 1990 to between 1 in 50 and 1 in 88 children, according to reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meetings were attended by faculty who are active in researching and teaching about ASD and who came from across the university. Research presentations by faculty and students, guest lectures, and the planning of new initiatives characterized the group’s many projects. Post-1945 Research Collaborative This Working Research Group brings together faculty and graduate students across schools and departments to consider world historical transformations since 1945. The collaborative examines topics including the rise of global institutions and the shaping of governmentality, the reshaping of local economies and ecologies by state power and mobile capital, the rise of finance and transformations of industry, the economic and ideological shift from social democracy to neo-liberalism, the effects of decolonization and post-colonialism, newly independent nations and imperial centers, global migrations of people, disease, and commodities, and the translation of ideas and culture across national lines.
CHRISTINA REUTERSKIOLD Associate Professor & Chair Communicative Sciences and Disorder KRISTIE PATTEN KOENIG Associate Professor & Chair Occupational Therapy
ANDREW NEEDHAM Associate Professor Department of History GUY ORTOLANO Associate Professor Department of History GEORGE SOLT Assistant Professor Department of History KIMBERLY PHILLIPS-FEIN Associate Professor Gallatin School of Individualized Study
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T H E N E W YORK U N IV ERS ITY C EN TER F OR THE HU MAN ITIES
TEAM-TEACHING STIPENDS The Team-Teaching program fosters dynamic teaching across humanistic disciplines and often generates new courses and new teaching formats. Preference is given to proposals which bring together colleagues and, ideally, students from different departments, disciplines, and schools. This year, the Center supported four team-teaching pairs from various academic disciplines. 2014-2015 TEAM TEACHING RECIPIENTS Papyrus to PDF: An Introduction to Book History Now [Spring 2015]
American Splendor: The Possibilities and Problems of American Life in Hollywood Films [Fall 2015] BRETT GARY Associate Professor, Media, Culture & Communication Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
PAULA MCDOWELL Associate Professor, English Faculty of Arts & Science CHARLOTTE PRIDDLE Librarian for Printed Books & Faculty Fales Library and Special Collections NYU Libraries
YEMANE DEMISSIE Associate Professor, Film & Television Tisch School of the Arts Literacies of Listening [Spring 2015]
Value [Fall 2014] MARY POOVEY Samuel Rudin University Professor in the Humanities; Professor, English Faculty of Arts & Science CAITLIN ZALOOM Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis Faculty of Arts & Science
DEBORAH KAPCHAN Associate Professor, Performance Studies Tisch School of the Arts MARTIN DAUGHTRY Associate Professor, Music Faculty of Arts & Science
TEAM TEACHING HIGHLIGHT: PAPYRUS TO PDF Students learned about digitization projects and the interplay of modern technology and historical documents. At the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the New York Public Library, students examined masterpieces of Western literature alongside early Chinese and Latin American books that attest to the global nature of book history. This new course funded by our Center was recently granted a permanent course number by the College of Arts and Science. Now to be called English 732: Introduction to Book History, this course will be open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors in any major and is being offered in the fall of 2015.
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GRANTS-IN-AID for
BOOK PUBLICATION SUBVENTIONS
Our Grants-in-Aid funding serves to defray certain costs involved in the publication of a monograph or edited collection. All full-time faculty with book contracts in hand are eligible to apply once every five years for awards of up to $1500. Preference is given to junior faculty. Below is a selection of some of the forthcoming books that were awarded grants during this academic year.
2014-2015 AWARDEES JOYCE APSEL, Liberal Studies Program Introducing Peace Museums EMILY APTER, Department of French Politics small p: Essays on the Society of Calculation ARLENE DAVILA, Department of Anthropology El Mall: The Spatial and Class Politics of Shopping Malls in Latin America
[TOP] Introducing Peace Museums by Joyce Apsel [RIGHT] Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela by Alejandro Velasco
ECKART GOEBEL, Department of German Esmeralda: German-French Affairs in Thomas Mann’s Novel Doctor Faustus KOSTIS KORNETIS, Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, Children of the Dictatorship: Student Resistance, Cultural Politics, and the “Long 1960s” in Greece
ALEJANDRO VELASCO, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela
SINCLAIR THOMSON, Department of History The Bolivia Reader: History, Politics, Culture
LEIF WEATHERBY, Department of German Transplanting the Organ: Romantic Organology from Leibniz to Marx
PHILLIP JOHN USHER, Department of French The Epic Poet and the Geographer (L’aède et le géographe)
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MUSERREF YETIM, Department of Politics: Program in International Relations, Bargaining for International Water Rights: The Euphrates and Tigris Basin
T H E N E W YORK U N IV ERS ITY C EN TER F OR THE HU MAN ITIES
COCKTAILS for
NYU AUTHORS IN THE HUMANITIES
On March 4, 2015, the NYU Press and the Center for the Humanities hosted our 8th annual Authors’ Cocktails. This festive event celebrates humanities faculty who published a book during the previous year. Our book exhibit featured over 75 books in humanities-related fields, and many authors generously donated a copy of their book to our Graduate Student reading room.
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ENGAGEMENT
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Connecting with the public by hosting intellectually stimulating events
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PANEL DISCUSSIONS Yo rk , NY h fl r, Ne w Sq ua re , 5t 20 Co op er
These interdisciplinary events allow groups of speakers to engage in discussion around an important topic in the humanities. Here are two highlights from this year.
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T H E N E W YORK U N IV ERS ITY C EN TER F OR THE HU MAN ITIES
GREAT NEW BOOKS in the HUMANITIES We hold at least one signature book event each month to highlight NYU faculty and their most recent publications.
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EXERCISES IN CRITICISM: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF LITERARY CONSTRAINT Louis Bury MAKING FIGURES: REIMAGINING BODY, SOUND, AND IMAGE IN A WORLD THAT IS NOT FOR US Bruce Bromley COMMUNAL LUXURY: THE POLITICAL IMAGINARY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE Kristin Ross
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ROADS TAKEN, THE GREAT JEWISH MIGRATIONS TO THE NEW WORLD AND THE PEDDLERS WHO FORGED THE WAY Hasia R. Diner
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SPECIAL EVENTS COS PON SOR
On October 16, 2014, we celebrated the publication of Whitman Among the Bohemians, edited by Joanna Levin and Edward Whitley, and we honored the re-launch of the digital archive related to Whitman and his bohemian friends. As the editors reflected on Whitman as a Brooklynite and as a Manhattan bohemian, they inspired us to think about how new scholarship emerges when once-hidden archives are made available. Members of Whitmania attended this packed event, including one person dressed as Walt himself. The evening concluded with Professor Karen Karbiner leading a walking tour to the site of one of the poet’s former haunts, the Vault at Pfaff’s.
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RED BY CO -SPONSO S HUM ANITIE L A IT NYU DIG YO R K , N Y H FLR, NEW SQ UA R E, 5 T 2 0 CO O P E R
S
ANITIE DIGITAL HUM EVENT
M AY
5
5:15 PM
S E I G O L O N H TEC of MEMORY URE N & THE FUT IO T A IZ IT IG D TURY TEENTH CEN OF THE NINE
FFER ANDREW STAU
ES or, Director of NIN Associate Profess astructure for (Networked Infr ic tron Elec tury Nineteenth-cen versity of Virginia Scholarship), Uni
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MATTHEW GO
or of English and Associate Profess cer, ies, Executive Offi Digital Humanit Liberal Studies M.A. Program in of New York ity vers Uni City
On May 5, 2015, three experts in the field of Digital Humanities, Andrew Stauffer, Matthew Gold, and Marion Thain, participated in a panel called “Technologies of Memory: Digitization and the Future of the Nineteenth Century.” This panel discussed Andrew Stauffer’s “Book Traces” project, which explores the marginalia and other markings in nineteenth-century books and contemplates the uses to which they have been put. Making the case for the preservation of multiple copies of a single text, Stauffer has helped change the nature of current debates on book digitization.
N
MARION THAI
of Digital Associate Director ulty of Arts and Humanities (Fac k University Science), New Yor
e contours in the wak be its content and evidence of reading? What will the of at t, ory firs hist ns: ury in two directio e of the 19th-cent aries ns, this talk looks What is the archiv demic research libr ress these questio ng nature of aca itization? To add h-century ond, at the changi ent sec , ete of wide-scale dig and nin ks lity, boo ury r paper qua nineteenth-cent of fragile due to poo use in individual tem. As scenes -rare, and often new media ecosys t of copyright, non y imperiled in the larl s. after Google. Ou ticu tion par lec col and our library both richly served the digitization of printed books are and occluded by at once exposed evidence, they are
THIS EV
THE PUBL ENT IS FREE TO
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N TO IC | RECEPTIO
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TIVE.ORG ANITIESINITIA Andrew Stauffer, Associate Professor, Director of NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-century Electronic Scholarship), University of Virginia
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EVENTS FOR WRITERS floo r sq ua re , 5t h 20 co op er nY , ne w Yo rk
nt 11 special eve
d ec
2:00 pm 3:45 pm
This year, we offered two panels specifically designed to serve our community of writers. The first, held on December 11, 2014, featured Susan Ferber, senior editor from Oxford University Press, and Ellen Chodosh and Eric Zinner from NYU Press, in a discussion about how to publish your first book. They were joined in a lively discussion by NYU humanities faculty and administrators Joy Connolly, Ulrich Baer, and Lauren Benton.
er SUSan FerBpress oxford universit
y
SH eLLen CHodo er & erIC ZInn
rsity press
new York unive
LLy Joy Conno nities,
ma Dean for the hu rsity new York unive
ULrICH Baer
faculty, arts, vice provost for Diversity, humanities and rsity new York unive
on LaUren BenT school of
Dean, Graduate arts and science, rsity new York unive
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er fall semesT day of The en The lasT 5. dayS beTwe January 201 in er esT There are 44 The spring sem e firsT day of or arTicle. ok bo 2014 and Th ur gress on yo e To make pro use This Tim
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session on how to ed nt ie or ntio ac and history. Join us for this the humanities in ok bo st fir ur lars. publish yo , deans, and scho rs ito ed s es pr ty si hear from univer rg iniTiaTiVe.o s ie iT n a m u rsVp aT h
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FLOO R SQ UA RE, 5T H 20 CO OP ER NY , NE W YO RK
EN V E L A I C E P S 14 M AY
T
12:00 PM 1:30 PM
J U M P S TA R T
On May 14, 2015, Susan Ferber returned to the Center along with NYU Press editor, Jennifer Hammer, Professor Pamela Newkirk, and writing coach, Teresa MacPhail, to help faculty and graduate students strategize for a productive summer of writing.
R YOUR SUMME
WRI T ING &
TO LE ARN HOW
PUBLISH
YOUR BOOK
d sustain your how to kick-off an on on ssi se d te tion-orien ed book. Join us for an ac cript into a publish turn your manus to w a ho d an g ished author, and summer writin itors, an accompl ed — rts pe ns. ex tio of es l ers to your qu Hear from a pane nce and get answ rie pe ex eir th ua t ou lty and grad te writing coach—ab mmer count. Facu su is th ing ak m vice on attend. Get practical ad lds are invited to s and related fie itie an m hu e th students in
A RSVP AT HUM
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TIVE.ORG NITIESINITIA
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INNOVATION
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Experimenting with projects and programs to celebrate the humanities in new ways
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PUBLIC HUMANITIES CONFERENCE at NYU FLORENCE, OCTOBER 9-10, 2014
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La Pietra and nYU CeLebrating 20 Years: sir HaroLd’s Vision reaLized
La Battaglia di Anghiari, Vittoria Chierici
Artists, activists, playwrights, administrators, and scholars from all over the world gathered in October at NYU’s campus in Florence at Villa La Pietra to talk about the public and global reach of the humanities. Hosted by Ellyn Toscano, Director of NYU Florence, and Jane Tylus, who taught at the Villa last fall, the conference touched on issues that concern us all: in particular, how to enhance our interactions between the academy and the public? One panel addressed the exciting role played by public humanities and featured the Center’s first public humanities graduate student, Cara Shousterman as well as our Director Gwynneth Malin, both of whom are engaged in long-term projects focusing on New York City. Florencebased faculty Gabriel Horvath and Davide Lombardo explored the connections between politics and humanities in recent European history, while artist Vittoria Chierici’s moving discussion of Leonardo’s lost frescoes of the Battle of Anghiari stressed the importance of being able to imagine our past. All in all, these two bracing days of connections suggested paths forward to thinking in precise and important ways about humanities research and its global impact. This symposium was part of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of NYU Florence.
PUBLIC HUMANITIES OCTOBER 9, 2014 I 9:30 a.m. - 5:45 p.m. I OCTOBER 10 I 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. How do we translate tHe “Humanities” into italian - or into contexts outside of tHe university? scHolars from botH sides of tHe atlantic join togetHer at la Pietra for two days to discuss tHe “Human” in Humanities, as it relates to issues sucH as education, public policy, and human rights
KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
GREG GRANDIN I Professor of History, NYU The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World PETER BROOKS I Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Scholar, Professor, University Center for Human Values, Department of Comparative Literature, Princeton University
VITTORIA CHIERICI I Visual artist GIULIANO DA EMPOLI I Italian writer and journalist GABRIELA DRAGNEA HORVATH I NYU Florence Faculty DAVIDE LOMBARDO I NYU Florence Faculty GWYNNETH MALIN I Director, The Humanities Initiative, NYU MONA MANSOUR I Playwright LEAH K. NAHMIAS I Program Officer, New York Council for the Humanities NATHALIE PEUTZ I Assistant Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies, NYU Abu Dhabi ROBERT QUINN I Executive Director, Scholars at Risk, NYU CARA SHOUSTERMAN I Ph.D. candidate, Department of Linguistics, NYU JANE TYLUS I Faculty Director, The Humanities Initiative at NYU, and Professor of Italian Studies RSVP at lapietra.dialogues@nyu.edu / 055 5007 202 NYU Florence, Villa La Pietra (Villa Sassetti) Via Bolognese 120, Florence
T H E N E W YORK U N IV ERS ITY C EN TER F OR THE HU MAN ITIES
CONQUERING THE MASTER’S THESIS This was the first-ever collaborative video series between faculty, research specialists, and our Center. Faculty presented their inside tips on the writing and research process for the Master’s thesis and we shared these videos with MA students through our YouTube channel. Essential Strategies to Prepare for the Writing Process with Mosette Broderick Finding New Perspectives Through Research: Approaches to Thinking About Scholarly Debate with Andrew Lee Enhancing Connections: Using a Firstperson Narrative with Perri Klass Tools & Technologies: Resources To Organize Your Writing Process with Margaret Smith Writing, Rewriting, Wrapping Up: Navigating the Home Stretch with Stéphane Gerson VIEW THE ENTIRE VIDEO SERIES HERE:
http://bit.ly/mastersthesisvid SCAN TO WATCH ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE
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FIELD NOTES Field Notes is a new publication created by the Humanities Ambassadors. Featuring interviews, essays, poems, and images, Field Notes engages with a range of disciplines including art history, education, the performing arts, creative writing, public policy and visual arts. The Humanities Ambassadors reached out to individuals doing compelling work within their fields and asked them how the humanities inform their work. Field Notes is their response. It is a testament to the energy of writers, teachers, artists, poets, and students‌ the thinkers, seers, and doers of the humanities. WRITERS & CONTRIBUTORS Joseph Ackley William Adams Chris Alexander Zen Alnuweiri Cacayo Ballesteros Lara Blackman Sara Brady John Casteen David Fox Jay Hartwell Tom Hartwell Brock McIntosh Paul Muldoon Naomi Shihab Nye Josh Paige Olivia Pepper Tyler Richards
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EDITORS Thomas Collins Alexandra Taylor
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Zachary Fine Alyssa Matesic
The Humanities Ambassadors created a print and online publication featuring interviews, essays, poems, and images.
T H E N E W YORK U N IV ERS ITY C EN TER F OR THE HU MAN ITIES
A peek inside FIELD NOTES Interview with William Adams
In a December 2014 interview in Humanities, you describe your entrance into the study of the humanities as having to do in part with your experiences as a soldier. One of our other contributors, Brock McIntosh, describes how he experienced a philosophical shift toward nonviolence that led to his current work as a community organizer, and he also relates that to his humanities education. Can you elaborate on how the humanities transcend
academia and provide insight into larger questions of the human experience? I see it from a couple of perspectives. You mentioned my personal experience, which had to do with having been in the armed forces for three years, and experiencing during
Mud Pond, Kamuela Thomas Hartwell
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Mud pond past the fence of eucalyptus: storm gray stretches from makai to the observatories. They should gleam, high noon, sparkling eyes looking towards heaven. God—it is modest today.
Azealia Ink on acid free paper Josh Paige
FI ELD NOTE S
My father tells me a beast lives in the pond.
FI ELD NOTE S
A fish, the size of a dog, with poisoned fangs, stony scales.
“I don’t know how long it’s been there but I’ve seen it.”
Field Notes attests to the richness of the humanities in its broad and creative reach to humanities graduates who are now working in a number of different professions. Much like the interdisciplinary curriculum of a Humanities department, the journal operates with the belief that putting a variety of disciplines in conversation with one another enriches the creative output produced by them all. We hope that Field Notes will facilitate dialogue among individuals across academic and professional specializations. 29
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I throw stones, and stones. “Don’t try to disturb it. Respect its home.”
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ALLIANCES
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Supporting deep humanities awareness and education through external partnerships
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PUBLIC HUMANITIES FELLOWSHIP
Dominique Jean-Louis, a doctoral candidate in U.S. history worked on her project “But Which Ones?”: Caribbean Immigrants, Race, and Education in Post-Civil Rights Era New York City. José Miguel Palacios, doctoral candidate in the Department of Cinema Studies, worked on his project Exile and Cultural Memory: Chilean Cinema 1973-2013. Jean-Louis and Palacios were the 2014-2015 Public Humanities Fellows at the Center for the Humanities.
The Graduate Student Public Humanities Fellowship was developed in partnership with the New York Council for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and seven humanities centers at universities in New York State. This fellowship encourages emerging humanities scholars to conceive of their work in relation to the public sphere. Fellows train in public scholarship methods and explore the public dimensions of their research by working with community organizations and seeking to reach audiences beyond the academy. This past year we were delighted to welcome our two public humanities graduate fellows, Dominique JeanLouis and José Miguel Palacios to take part into our fellows’ community at the Center.
The Humanities Centers Initiative of the
PARTNER INSTITUTIONS The City University of New York The Center for the Humanities Columbia University Heyman Center for the Humanities Cornell University Society for the Humanities New York University Center for the Humanities State University of New York at Buffalo Humanities Institute State University of New York at Stony Brook Humanities Institute Syracuse University Humanities Center
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LEADERSHIP ALLIANCE MELLON INITIATIVE (LAMI) For the past four years, the Center for the Humanities has been pleased to sponsor the NYU-LAMI Summer Research Program for undergraduates from historically underrepresented groups. This nine-week intensive summer program prepares outstanding undergraduates for doctoral study in the humanities. Students conduct their own research under the supervision of NYU faculty mentors in their fields of study. Students participate in a writing course, a research methodology course, and a GRE preparation course. Most importantly, students each design and execute an original research project for presentation at the Leadership Alliance National Symposium in July. 2014 COHORT [LEFT COLUMN]
Jovanna Jones [TOP], Emily Rogers, Kenyetta Lowery, Erica Sterling, Max Jacobs. 2015 COHORT [RIGHT COLUMN]
Christopher Mendoza [TOP], Cynthia Marrero-Ramos, Ouma Amadou, Oscar Hurtado, Cassandra Flores-Monta単o.
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NATIONAL ENDOWMENT for the HUMANITIES (NEH) The NEH Summer Stipends Program is a national program that provides awards for individuals to pursue scholarly work in the humanities during the summer. Projects may contribute to scholarly knowledge in a particular discipline or to the general public’s understanding of the humanities, and they may address broad topics or focused research in a single field. Recipients typically produce scholarly articles, books, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly tools in either traditional print or electronic formats. NYU may submit proposals from two faculty members to the NEH, and the Center coordinates this nomination process each summer. A total of 90 scholars received the NEH Summer Stipend in 2015. We are pleased to announce that one NYU faculty member was among them. 2015 NEH SUMMER STIPEND RECIPIENT
STEPHEN ROSS DUNCOMBE Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study Democratic Persuasion: Arts, Culture and Communications of the New Deal
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NYUHUMANITIES.ORG Created in 2007, the NYU Center for the Humanities draws on the talents and energies of our faculty and students across the University to provide a forum for cross-disciplinary discussion and collaboration in the humanities and arts. To foster and enhance the humanities community at NYU, the Center sponsors a number of endeavors aimed at promoting interdisciplinary dialogue, teaching, and research. Funding for the NYU Center for the Humanities is provided by Provost David McLaughlin and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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