The Humanities at UT: Advancing Scholarship through Collaboration.
The UT Humanities Center (UTHC) is a research center that supports advanced study of the arts and humanities, fosters interdisciplinary research that includes humanistic inquiry, and advocates for the value of the arts and humanities to solving complex problems in our world today. At our core are the departments of Art, Classics, English, History, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Theatre, and World Languages & Cultures—but we create collaborations also with fields such as architecture, law, ethnic and cultural studies, gender studies, anthropology, geography, civics, and digital computing.
The Humanities Center’s Mission
The UTHC provides UT faculty and graduate fellows with vital writing and research time, space, and funding to complete books and large research projects. We provide opportunities for faculty and graduate students to prepare grant proposals, to vet book manuscripts through an external review process, and to bring renowned scholars to campus. We offer internships and research education for graduate students. We also provide support for research and conference travel as well as book subventions for faculty.
The UTHC also promotes the humanities through its public outreach programs and community collaborations. We are a member of the global Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) and of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA), and an affiliate of Humanities Tennessee, and we regularly partner with local as well as national arts and humanities organizations.
The Value of The Humanities
More relevant today than ever before, the humanities are a vibrant territory of research about human cultures and values. The humanities are evident when we see a sublime landscape and try to communicate its spiritual power; when we ask about the meaning of life; when we encounter new languages, cultures, and customs; when we ask about the history behind our present realities; when we seek to defend democracy in a complex global context. The arts and humanities today at UT Knoxville need your support as we consider the past, the present, and the possible.
UTHC History
We are a relatively young research center on the University of Tennessee’s flagship campus. A committee of department heads and administrators began work toward establishing the center in 2009 and it was officially established in July 2011. The UT Humanities Center began its first full term of operation in academic year 2012-13, under the leadership of Thomas Heffernan. Amy Elias has been the Humanities Center’s director since 2017.
UT ranks tenth in the country among all universities, public and private, in the number of NEH fellowships received between 2004 and 2022.
Graduate students chosen to spend a year in the UTHC working on their dissertations graduate, on average, 1.5 years sooner, publish their first book sooner, and receive better job offers than other students in the humanities.
Faculty who spend a year at the University of Tennessee win NEH and other awards and publish award-winning books and research projects more quickly.