Fall 2023 Director’s Note
by
Fall 2023 Director’s Note
December 13, 2023
What an amazing semester it has been! As I look back, I am astounded by how much we’ve accomplished!
This fall we hosted the 3-day, groundbreaking “One Health and Humanities Days” in collaboration with the UT One Health Initiative (OHI), launching 10 events organized by faculty from numerous departments that addressed human, animal, and planetary health. It was so wonderful to work with Deb Miller and Alyssa Merka throughout the summer and fall in what we hope will be a long-lasting collaboration between OHI and the Humanities Center!
But that was not all. We hired a full-time GRA to provide training in humanities center program management and offered research and travel funding for other UT graduate students, including this year’s UTHC Graduate Fellows. For arts and humanities faculty, we offered funding competitions for a visiting Fulbright Fellowship, small grants for conference and symposium support, a sponsorship for training in humanities computing technologies, a $40,000 research seed grant program in collaboration with One Health, and research mentoring programs. We supported four research seminars, including a new seminar in Native American and Indigenous Studies. Three “Conversations & Cocktails” talks showcased research by UT humanities faculty, while four Distinguished Lectures brought visiting scholars from other universities for public lectures on topics ranging from Renaissance bees to Afrofuturism!
Additionally, our outstanding Faculty and Graduate Student Fellows presented at our Chandler Seminar luncheons about the research that won them coveted places in our fellowship residency program, getting presentation experience and feedback from other fellows.
And we know that you appreciate all of this work: for Big Orange Give, we raised more than $10,000 in one day through matching gifts! We are so grateful for your generosity, because it is what allows us to offer support in turn for arts and humanities research and programming at the University of Tennessee, in our state and region, and nationwide.
On behalf of all of our team at the UTHC, I thank you and wish you a restful break, and peace and hope for the New Year. We look forward to seeing you at our public programs and at our new location in Cherokee Mills in the spring!
Wishing you holiday cheer, with thanks,
Amy J. Elias