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A Message from the Inaugural Director
In our post-pandemic Fall semester, Georgetown Humanities finally got a taste of campus life. It has been incredibly energizing to be able to host some events in person, to rediscover the pleasure of face-to-face discussions, to feel once again part of a community in real spaces.
We have been proud to showcase humanities projects sponsored by the first round of GHI Booster Grants and to promote intellectual exchange around faculty members’ research work through the Junior Faculty Book Manuscript Workshops and the Faculty Work in Progress series. We look forward to offering additional support for humanities interdisciplinary and collaborative initiatives in the near future.
The year that is coming to an end has seen complex alarming events unfold, from domestic and international threats to democracy and human rights to forced migration, environmental crises, and the devastation of the war in Ukraine in a world already wounded by numerous other conflicts, at times more silent yet no less destabilizing. As Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhsko claimed in her conversation with us, in times of war tanks are, sadly, more effective than words.
However, it is precisely when we face crises and uncertainty that the humanities can offer tools to contextualize challenges and understand their complex underlying histories. Humanistic methods of inquiry allow us to bear witness not by providing figures and statistics but, rather, by telling individual stories, highlighting the uniqueness of each human experience and our shared vulnerabilities. As we cultivate human connections and imagination, we foster empathy and enable change.
We hope you will continue to follow our updates on upcoming events by subscribing to our newsletter and to our mailing list.
Warm wishes for the holiday season and the new year,
Nicoletta Pireddu, Ph.D.
Inaugural Director, Georgetown Humanities Initiative
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Professor Julia Watts Belser launches “Disability and Climate Change: A Public Archive Project”
We are thrilled to announce the completion of the first project sponsored by a Georgetown Humanities Initiative Booster Grant, supporting interdisciplinary humanistic research with a collaborative and public-facing component.
On November 7, Professor Julia Watts Belser launched Disability and Climate Change: A Public Archive Project. The site chronicles the wisdom and expertise of disabled activists, artists, and first responders working for climate justice, with whom Prof. Belser has had deep conversations over the past two years. After the release of the first nine pieces, new contributions will be added over the years to come, with the ongoing collaboration of Georgetown undergraduate research assistants.
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 Georgetown Humanities Initiative Junior Faculty Book Manuscript Workshops
With the aim of supporting the career development of humanities pre-tenure faculty members, the Georgetown Humanities Initiative has made grants available for Junior Faculty Book Manuscript Workshops. The program covers travel and other expenses associated with bringing experts to Georgetown to review and offer guidance on humanities junior faculty’s monographs in progress with the goal of securing a publishing contract.
Learn More >> |
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Global Humanities Seminar Series “Understanding and Including Forced Migrants and Refugees: Responses from the Humanities”
Thanks to a grant from the Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement, the Georgetown Humanities Initiative and the Initiative for Multilingual Studies organized the year-long Global Humanities Faculty Seminar Series "Understanding and Including Forced Migrants and Refugees: Responses from the Humanities". Spanning the AY 2022-23, this series of interdisciplinary events are co-organized by Profs. Nicoletta Pireddu (Georgetown Humanities), Lourdes Ortega (Initiative for Multilingual Studies) and Anna De Fina (Department of Italian Studies) with the assistance of Negar Siyari (Ph. Candidate in Applied Linguistics), and offer humanistic perspectives on the social, moral, aesthetic, and linguistic experiences of refugees and migrants.
Read more >>
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Georgetown Humanities Faculty Work in Progress Series
Earlier this semester, Profs. Joseph Johnson and Laura Benedetti presented their current research for the Georgetown Humanities Faculty Work in Progress Series.
 Prof. Joseph Johnson (French and Francophone Studies) shared his exploration of one of the most graphically violent and disturbing tales in all of medieval literature– "Philomena," an Old French translation and adaptation of the story of Philomela from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Prof. Laura Benedetti (Italian Studies) focused on the relationship between historical events, literary representations, and the transmission of memory in one of the first episodes in the Italian resistance to Nazi-Fascism, drawing from classified documents that have only recently become available.
We are currently planning for the Spring. If you are interested in presenting your current research, please contact pireddun@georgetown.edu.
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 Georgetown Humanities Initiative Student Advisory Board Members at Majors Fair
We are delighted to welcome the 2022-23 members of the Georgetown Humanities Student Advisory Board and the HALC Fellows.
We wish to thank them for representing the humanities at the Fall 2022 Majors Fair and for sharing with their peers the opportunity to study for one semester at the Georgetown Capitol Applied Learning Lab, Georgetown immersive innovation hub in Downtown DC.
Meet the Fellows >>
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- Global Humanities Seminar Series “Understanding and Including Forced Migrants and Refugees: Responses from the Humanities” Part II
- Voices on the Environment: “Rivers and Water: Connecting People, Places and Nature”
- 15th GRAPHSY (Graduate Portuguese and Hispanic Symposium): "Encuentros con el cuerpo: actitudes, performances y los sentidos," February 17, 2023.
- 2023 Global Medieval Studies Lacay Lecture for 2023: Bruce Holsinger (University of Virginia), "On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age," March 20, 2023, 4:00 p.m.
Stay tuned for more events and updates!
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The Georgetown Humanities Initiative is a member of
the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes
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