This event will be structured around a series of conversations with invited guests, senior faculty and administrators from Washington University, as well as presentations from WashU scholars. The event will create a lively platform for our faculty to discuss their ideas and ambitions for undertaking truly innovative work in the humanities.

Co-organized by the Center for the Humanities and the Program in Public Scholarship, this event is designed to help humanities faculty and administrators think through how to move beyond traditional requirements for tenure dossiers in the humanities (e.g., monograph and articles) to encompass newer ways of doing humanities research — public humanities, digital humanities, creative practice. How do we enact systemic change to open up traditional ways of evaluating humanities research to allow scholars to produce this exciting new work while moving through the tenure and promotion processes?

This type of systemic change is essential for the health and future of the humanities as we search for new ways to engage with multiple publics and ensure equitable access to the processes of scholarly production to researchers from diverse backgrounds. This one-day event brings together national leaders in humanities organizations, scholars doing innovative work in the humanities, as well as thought leaders at both Washington University and other institutions committed to enacting these transformations.

Confirmed guests:

Kal Alston, Professor in Cultural Foundations of Education and Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University; Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the School of Education; Chair, Imagining America National Advisory Board; and President-Elect, Philosophy of Education Society
Ulrich Baer, Director, Center for the Humanities; University Professor, Departments of German and Comparative Literature, NYU
Antoinette Burton, Professor of History and the Catherine C. and Bruce A. Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies; Director, Humanities Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Alenda Y. Chang, Associate Professor in Film and Media Studies, UC Santa Barbara; Co-founder, Wireframe Digital Media Studio
Joy Connolly, President, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
Heather Hewett, Program Officer for Higher Education Initiatives, ACLS
Paula Krebs, Executive Director, Modern Language Association
Timothy Morton, the Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English, Rice University

RSVP to attend.