2018-2019 humanities.princeton.edu This booklet offers a glimpse of the Humanities Council’s programs and activities. For a more comprehensive view, visit us at humanities.princeton.edu
Photo: Denise Applewhite
message from the chair
Welcome to the Humanities Council, which creates opportunities to traverse academic fields, to collaborate in ways that address the complexity of the human experience, and to articulate diverse ways of exploring and understanding what it means to be human.
The humanities provide skills and specialized knowledge essential for innovation and democratic citizenship in a world marked by uncertainty, stubborn violence, and seductive ignorance. But our work also speaks to the intrinsic value of studying the past, seeking truth, arguing about a text, interpreting a work of art, and putting distant cultures and intellectual traditions in conversation with contemporary Ruha Benjamin, African American Studies, is the inaugural Teaching Fellow in issues. That abiding commitment to this fragile ideal—expressed every the Center for Digital Humanities. day in the passionate work and intellectual rigor of our colleagues,
Photo: Denise Applewhite students and graduates—is Princeton at its best.
At a time when the humanities are under tremendous pressure, we offer you a window into the life of the Council and invite you to renew your engagement in our seminars, colloquia, lectures, grant and Our mission is to nurture the humanities locally and globally, fellowship opportunities, and all our efforts. engage diverse perspectives past and present, and enrich public dialogue with humanistic approaches. Eric S. Gregory chair; professor of religion
humanities council 2018–2019 1 A lively hub for innovation and collaboration, the Humanities Council is the academic home for more than 30 interdisciplinary centers and programs.
participating members Hellenic Studies, Stanley J. Seeger ’52 Center for humanities across campus
Hellenic Studies, Program in American Studies, Program in We connect people and ideas, within Humanistic Studies, Program in and beyond the humanities. Asian American Studies, Program in Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program Ancient World, Program in the African Studies in the Humanities Canadian Studies, Fund for African American Studies Irish Studies, Fund for Classical Philosophy, Program in Architecture Italian Studies, Program in Digital Humanities, Center for Art and Archaeology Journalism, Program in East Asian Studies, Program in Classics Judaic Studies, Program in European Cultural Studies, Program in Comparative Literature Late Antiquity, Committee for the Study of Film Studies, Committee for East Asian Studies Latin American Studies, Program in Gauss Seminars in Criticism English Latino Studies, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Program in French and Italian Linguistics, Program in German Media and Modernity, Program in History Medieval Studies, Program in Iran and Persian Gulf Studies Near Eastern Studies, Program in Lewis Center for the Arts Political Philosophy, Program in Music Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities Near Eastern Studies
Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Philosophy Committee on Religion Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Stewart Seminars in Religion Carolina Mangone and Beatrice Kitzinger, Art and Slavic Languages and Literatures Learning Shakespeare by Doing, taught by The University Center for Human Values Archaeology, in discussion at the Princeton University Leonard Barkan, Comparative Literature. Art Museum. South Asian Studies
Photo: Nick Barberio Photo: Isometric Studio Spanish and Portuguese
Translation and Intercultural Communication
2 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 3 Collaboration Large-Scale Initiatives Through our grants in Collaborative Humanities, we support faculty who seek to develop a collaborative area of focus and generate new research or teaching in emerging fields. Council-supported projects have included the Digital Humanities Initiative, the International Network for Comparative Humanities, and the Princeton & Slavery Project.
“New knowledge easily comparative antiquity Launched in 2018 as a Humanities Council Global crosses traditional Initiative, this three-year research and teaching collaboration will pursue the study of global antiquity. academic boundaries, and Extensive in geographical and chronological scope, the endeavor will catalyze innovative such work inspires new thinking and learning across diverse fields of study. Plans in the first year include reading groups, creativity in our faculty international workshops, digital bibliographic projects, conferences, and collaboration with and students.” other universities.
—Martin Kern, East Asian Studies; Director, Comparative Antiquity
princeton & slavery project
Begun in 2013 with a Magic Grant for an Rachael DeLue (standing), Art and Archaeology, American Studies, in conversation with Anne Cheng, innovative undergraduate course, this now English, American Studies, and Hendrik Hartog, History, at the Princeton University Art Museum. multi-year, collaborative research project Photo: Denise Applewhite continues to explore the University’s complex and unsettling ties to the institution of slavery. Grants from the Council supported four years of postdoctoral research fellowships, the creation of a public digital archive, and campus collaborations including a documentary film, We support innovative, team-based approaches to research, teaching, art installations, and theatrical performances. and public engagement. Visit the Project website for updates and events: slavery.princeton.edu James Collins Johnson, a fugitive slave freed after an 1843 trial in Princeton, became a prominent figure in town and on campus over the course of his many decades working at the then College of New Jersey.
Photo: Princeton & Slavery Project
4 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 5 Architecture professor Innovation Grants Beatriz Colomina is using Magic Project funds to generate new The Humanities Council supports projects that break new ground both intellectually research at Princeton and pedagogically and bring the humanities to wider public attention. and develop a “Floating University” in Berlin.
being human magic grants 2018–19
In November and December 2018, the Council The David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project supports will participate in an international festival ideas with the potential to change how the of humanities researchers and community humanities are conceived and taught. This year’s organizations, for a lively, hands-on exploration awards go to faculty in the following departments: of this year’s theme, “Origins and Endings.”
Architecture English; American Studies History; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; East Asian Studies Loosening the Bauhaus Indigenous/Settler: Conference The Story of Slag
Architecture; African American Environmental Studies Studies; English Music Bears Ears Monument: BiM Incubator of Architechnopoetics Undergraduate Break Trip Gustavo Dudamel at Princeton
Sound Knowledges Comparative Literature French and Italian
Archive Writing How to Read the Archive? Responses Psychology; Theater; Dance; Mechanical to Jacques Derrida’s Geschlecht III and Aerospace Engineering
A Sonorine collected for the ongoing Magic East Asian Studies Dancing with and Around Neurological project of Thomas Levin, German, and Adam German; Computer Science Motor Challenges Finkelstein, Computer Science, which aims Asia, Theory, Visuality to recover the voice messages from the surfaces Media Archaeology and the Magic of this near-forgotten technology. The Chinese Grand Canal in History, of Optical Audio Capture Religion Photo: Levin/Finkelstein Literature, and Art
Antioch from the Seleucids to Late Antiquity Workshop on Tang-Song Transitions History Community Engagement, Educational Justice, Intensive Courses in Near Eastern Studies and the Humanities faculty outreach English
The Council funds faculty who share their Alphabetographies History; Humanistic Studies Theater; American Studies; Gender and expertise with audiences beyond campus, Studying the Past by Digging Sexuality Studies; Latino Studies participating in events organized by public Frankenstein at 200 in the Dirt institutions or community organizations. Theater and Society Now
6 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 7 Research Communities Transformative Scholarship We help build research communities in which faculty present their work to peers who question, challenge, and test it.
old dominion research society of fellows professorships in the liberal arts
Old Dominion Professors are appointed for The Society seeks to support innovative a year of research leave in the Humanities Council, interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship where they engage the community in sustained and teaching in the humanities and humanities- and interdisciplinary discussions, launched every related social sciences. Its postdoctoral September with a colloquium for the University and faculty fellows meet regularly for seminars, community. formal and informal discussion, lectures, and reading groups. The 2018–19 Old Dominion Professors are Michael Flower, Classics; Simon Gikandi, English; Kim Lane Scheppele, Sociology, Woodrow Wilson School, and The University Center for Human Values; and Sean Wilentz, History.
Joshua Katz, Classics, and Anthony Grafton, History, examine early printed editions with students during a seminar.
Photo: Nick Barberio
The Council promotes innovative work in established academic disciplines as well as new projects that move across disciplinary boundaries.
Members of the Society of Fellows spend three years on Princeton’s campus, teaching courses, and conducting research. Pictured here: Nijah Cunningham, English, African American Studies; Stefan Eich, Politics; Grace Helton, Philosophy; Chloë Kitzinger, Slavic; Monica Huerta, English, American Studies.
8 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 9 Visiting Faculty Fellows Reading & Discussion Groups Our fellowship programs bring distinguished scholars to Princeton to contribute to the The Council’s interdisciplinary groups examine campus’s flourishing intellectual community approaches, assumptions, and methods of for a full semester or shorter periods. inquiry; explore new practices of reading across archives; and consider how objects and texts encounter diverse publics.
fall 2018 behrman facult y fellows
Sara Magrin (University of California, Berkeley) will We invite recently tenured humanities faculty to visit the Program in Classical Philosophy, teaching spend two years as Behrman Fellows, meeting in a course on “Plotinus’ Psychology.” monthly seminars that cultivate interdisciplinary Documentary photographer Susan Meiselas will be a Fall 2018 Visiting Belknap Fellow in the Humanities Council. thinking and collaboration.
Susan Meiselas, a leading documentary old d ominion facult y fellows photographer, will co-teach “Alphabetographies” Falko Daim (Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Faculty from across the University’s divisions— for the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Mainz), an archaeologist focusing on the nomadic humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and the Humanities and participate in the Council’s societies of Eurasia, will participate in the engineering—assemble each month to discuss topics Belknap Global Conversation in October. Comparative Antiquity collaboration during his visit of common interest. to the Program in Medieval Studies. Moscow Red Square Book Festival
telling stories with data Photo: Simon Morrison Andrew Nicholson (SUNY–Stony Brook) will visit the Department of Religion, offering a seminar Michael Kleiner (University of Göttingen) is For 2018–19, the Council offers a Gilburne Faculty on “Hindu Ethical and Political Thought.” rendering the Kebra Nagást, Ethiopia’s “national Seminar, in partnership with the Center for Digital translating antiquit y epic,” into English. An Africanist and Arabist, he will Humanities, to consider humanistic approaches visit the Department of Comparative Literature. to data and storytelling. A branch of the Postclassicisms initiative, this group spring 2019 extends reception studies to consider transnational
Sarnath Banerjee, an artist, filmmaker, and graphic comparative antiquit y and interdisciplinary configurations. novelist engaged with the global South Asian Pascal Rambert, a director, choreographer, Reading groups convened under this umbrella experience, will visit the Department of History and and playwright, will co-teach an undergraduate historical poetics include “Textuality, Materiality, and Reading the Program in South Asian Studies. theater course, “Others,” for the Department Practices,” “Comparative Diplomatics,” and the This year focuses on “Comparative Archaisms” in of French and Italian. founding group, “Comparative Antiquity.” a transatlantic, nineteenth-century context.
Candis Callison (University of British Columbia) bodies of knowled ge postcolonial humanities will be hosted by Canadian Studies for the full Garrett Stewart (University of Iowa) has taught academic year. She will teach a course called fiction, film, and textuality. His course for the Faculty, staff, and graduate students explore the Humanities scholars engage with service, activism, “Indigenous Journalism,” with a focus on media Department of English is entitled “The Long Media humanistic dimensions of medicine, including and interdisciplinary research on the repercussions practices and platforms. Century: Victorian to Modern.” illness, health, and the body. of imperial history.
10 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 11 Cross-Disciplinary humanities collo quium The Council’s annual colloquium brings together Old Dominion Research Professors with campus Conversation and community members to explore compelling issues facing the humanities. This year’s event, on September 20, is “Capturing the Human.”
belknap global conversations
These events bridge the creative arts and humanities Student protesters in the streets of Paris, May 1968. in a global context. On October 18, “Humanitarian Photojournalism: A History of the Present” focuses on the reporting of war and atrocity. first peoples and the environment
Canadian Studies and the Humanities Council will host a two-day public conference this December, featuring scholars, journalists, and artists.
gauss seminars in criticism
Instituted in 1949, the Gauss Seminars in Criticism provide a forum for discussion, study, and the exchange of ideas in the humanities. The Fall 2018 seminars feature Wendy Brown, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
1968/2018: cities on the ed ge
This year-long series on the tumultuous events of 1968 features talks on Paris, Berlin, Mexico City, Tokyo, Simon Gikandi, English, will be an Old Dominion Each fall, the Humanities Council hosts an annual colloquium that brings together members of Professor in the Humanities Council this year. Newark, and is jointly sponsored by the Humanities the University community in cross-disciplinary conversation. Council and the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Photo: Denise Applewhite Photo: Isometric Studio Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities.
provocations: a conference on faber lectures bl ack poetry and poetics
The gift of Eberhard L. Faber IV supports lectures, The Humanities Council joins the Department of Our public lectures, seminars, and colloquia build community colloquia, workshops, and discussions in the English and the Lewis Center for the Arts to present across the campus, encouraging cross-disciplinary discussion criticism, history, and theory of literature. this major conference on February 14–16. and debate. thinking cinema frankenread
A series of lectures illuminating the history, theory, The Humanities Council and Department of English and criticism of film, the initiative was launched in celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s 2017–18 by the Committee for Film Studies. novel with a series of events.
12 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 13 Program in Humanistic Studies Innovative Teaching In our interdisciplinary certificate, students chart their own intellectual journeys, creating bridges from their concentration to another discipline, thereby illuminating one field with insights and approaches from another. They participate in a specially designed team-taught capstone seminar.
integr ated approach
In our yearlong sequences—“Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture” and the “East Asian Humanities Sequence”—faculty teach in pairs or teams to offer an intensive and integrated exploration of literature, philosophy, history, music, and art from antiquity to today.
communit y
Students join a vibrant intellectual community that meets regularly for discussions, lectures, meals, and cultural activities. Humanities Mentors offer peer advising and host undergraduate symposia. The Behrman Undergraduate Society of Fellows is a monthly forum for intellectual exchange among juniors and seniors from across the University.
international and experiential curriculum Humanistic Studies students visit the Great Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece during a fall break study trip. Our funds support global and comparative approaches and innovative field experiences. We sponsor course-related undergraduate and graduate travel across the world, including to China, Peru, Cuba, Brazil, Greece, Italy, France, Canada, Japan, England, Bosnia, and India. Courses have also taken break We develop cross-disciplinary and team-taught courses and create trips to locations within the United States, including Los Angeles, New York City, the Utah Spiral Jetty, opportunities for learning beyond the classroom. and New Orleans.
Graduate student examines papyrus at the Papyrology Summer Institute, Princeton.
14 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 15 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities (IHUM)
The Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities (IHUM) offers a joint PhD in collaboration with the humanities departments. The program’s 27 doctoral students receive an additional year of fellowship for research in areas beyond the boundaries of their fundamental disciplinary training. They graduate with a joint degree from their home department and from the Council.
rese arch re ading groups
IHUM students become core members of a research A dozen interdisciplinary reading groups are open Claude Willan, Comparative Literature, community that convenes seminars, workshops, to all graduate students and faculty. Topics include teaches a session of Introduction to conferences, reading groups, and other events. On Ethnography, Film and Media Theory, Queer Cultures, Digital Humanities. sequence facult y 2018–19 September 24, IHUM will host a Faber Lecture Social Philosophy, Race and Psychoanalysis, and Black Photo: Denise Applewhite featuring Lauren Berlant, Professor of English at Studies and the Black Radical Tradition. Yelena Baraz, Classics the University of Chicago. Daniel Heller-Roazen, Comparative Literature
Beatrice Kitzinger, Art and Archaeology courses – fall 2018
Matthew Larsen, Religion; Humanities Council IHUM courses, often team-taught, are open to all graduate students at the University, placing the Rhodri Lewis, English humanities in dialogue with the arts and sciences Benjamin C. Morison, Philosophy and testing the conventions of intellectual exchange. Peter Brooks and Brigid Doherty IHUM also cross-lists courses with humanities Efthymia Rentzou, French and Italian Persons, Selves, Fictions departments. Anna M. Shields, East Asian Studies
D. Graham Burnett Michael Wachtel, Slavic Languages and Literatures Jeff Dolven and Majel Connery Interdisciplinarity and Antidisciplinarity Natalie Prizel, English; Humanities Council Voice
Alexander Nehamas, Philosophy;
Comparative Literature Daniel Garber and Nigel Smith Angela Creager and Paul Durst Hobbes and Milton: The Commonwealth, new undergraduate courses Transformative Questions in Biology the Person and the Nature of Language 2018–19
Nathan Arrington and Rachael DeLue Nasser Abourahme Eduardo Cadava and Susan Meiselas Battle Lab: The Battle of Princeton Camp/Prison/Border Alphabetographies
Jonathan Gold and Elaine Pagels Nora Benedict “Legible Pompeii,” an installation curated by Lucia Allais, Architecture, Acting Director of IHUM 2018–19. Jesus and Buddha Introduction to Digital Humanities
16 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 17 Program in Journalism
Building on 60 years of excellence, our journalism seminars forge new generations of distinguished journalists, writers, and policy makers.
Students conduct interviews outside new certificate the Parthenon in Athens for JRN 465: visiting journalists 2018–19 Reporting on the Front Lines of History In 2018–19, the Humanities Council will launch in Greece. Distinguished practicing journalists visit campus an undergraduate certificate program in Journalism. for a semester and teach a course that draws from their Students will progress through a coordinated immediate professional experience. curriculum, from gateway courses in media literacy and journalistic ethics to practical experiences reporting in the field. The capstone experience entails Michael Calderone, Politico Mike McIntire, The New York Times the presentation of research in an interdisciplinary Determined Press, Skeptical Public, and Investigative Journalism senior colloquium. the Next Presidential Race
ferris professors in residence Stacey Vanek Smith, NPR’s Planet Money Nick Chiles, journalist and author The journalism seminars rely on the expertise of Audio Journalism three accomplished Ferris Professors in Residence. The Media and Social Issues
The program is directed by Joe Stephens, a long-time
investigative reporter for The Washington Post. Deborah Sontag, formerly The New York Times Will Englund, The Washington Post Writing About Immigration Joe Stephens, Program Director Covering Hostile Governments
Investigative Journalism
Pico Iyer, journalist and author path-bre aking courses and global reporting initiative John McPhee ’53, The New Yorker The Literature of Fact For the past three years, a summer Journalism Creative Nonfiction seminar has taken students to Athens and Lesvos, Kira Kay, Bureau of International Reporting Greece, to cover the global refugee crisis. In the Joe Stephens, long-time investigative journalist at coming year, seminars will include field-reporting Deborah Amos, NPR News Reporting After War: Post-Conflict The Washington Post, teaches a Ferris Seminar. experiences in Phoenix, Arizona, to cover contested Nation Building in Bosnia International News: Migration Reporting Photo: Isometric Studio mid-term elections; Winnipeg, Canada, to follow migration stories; and Sarajevo, Bosnia, to report on
post-conflict nation building. Kathleen McCleery, PBS NewsHour Covering the 2018 Elections
18 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 19 Executive Committee Council Faculty and Fellows Yelena Baraz, Classics
Leonard Barkan, Comparative Literature faculty Rubén Gallo, Spanish and Portuguese Alexander Nehamas, Edmund N. Carpenter II Eric S. Gregory, Religion; Council Chair Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities; Philosophy; Comparative Literature Emmanuel Kreike, History Peter Brooks, Humanities Council; French AnneMarie Luijendijk, Religion and Italian Federico Marcon, East Asian Studies; History Thomas C. Leonard, Humanities Council; Economics Benjamin Morison, Philosophy Byron Ahn, Linguistics Linguistics faculty Laura Kalin and Byron Ahn host the inaugural Princeton Symposium on Syntactic Esther Schor, English Theory, a two-day conference featuring speakers from across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Laura Kalin, Linguistics
Florian Lionnet, Linguistics Administration behrman facult y fellows society of fellows in the in the humanities 2018–2019 liberal arts old dominion research professors Lucia Allais, Architecture Michael Gordin, Director Eric S. Gregory, Chair Michael Flower, Classics Nathan Arrington, Art and Archaeology Beate Witzler, Executive Director Kathleen Crown, Executive Director Simon Gikandi, English Emmanuel Bourbouhakis, Classics Rhea Dexter, Program Manager Karyn Zucker Greco, Department Manager Kim Lane Scheppele, Sociology, Woodrow Wilson School, The University Center for Human Values Marshall Brown, Architecture Guangchen Chen, Comparative Literature Margo Bresnen, Program Manager Sean Wilentz, History Donnacha Dennehy, Music Nijah Cunningham, African American Sara Brooks, Professional Specialist Studies; English Karen Emmerich, Comparative Literature Susan Coburn, Office Coordinator Stefan Eich, Politics postdoctoral fellows Katja Guenther, History Luke Eelman, Computing Support Specialist Monica Huerta, English Nasser Abourahme, Princeton-Mellon Initiative Javier Guerrero, Spanish and Portuguese Judith Ferszt, Program Manager in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities Janet Kay, History Brian Herrera, Lewis Center for the Arts Candice Kessel, Program Coordinator Jim Casey, Center for Digital Humanities; English Matthew Larsen, Religion Paize Keulemans, East Asian Studies Barbara Leavey, Program Manager Sunwoo Jeong, Linguistics Benedito Machava, History Joshua Kotin, English Stephanie Lewandowski, Program Manager Nicholas Rolle, Linguistics Bernadette Pérez, History; American Studies Federico Marcon, East Asian Studies; History Sarah Malone, Communications and Justin Perez, Anthropology Events Manager Michael Meredith, Architecture behrman professors in Alice Pisani, Astrophysical Sciences Jeannine Pitarresi, Event Coordinator the humanities Yair Mintzker, History Natalie Prizel, English; Humanistic Studies Min Pullan, Communications Manager Jeff Dolven, English Moulie Vidas, Religion Ava Shirazi, Classics; Humanistic Studies Debbie Puskas, Budget Manager Efthymia Rentzou, French and Italian Christy Wampole, French and Italian Maria Josefa Velasco, Music Yolanda Sullivan, Program Manager Yelena Baraz, Classics Wendy Warren, History
20 2018–2019 humanities council humanities council 2018–2019 21 joseph henry house
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (609) 258–4717 [email protected] humanities.princeton.edu
22 2018–2019 humanities council