*Year in Review 2019 - 2021*

PANDEMIC PIROUETTE

HUMANITIES CENTER

20192020 20202021

2020-2021 PIVOT & PIROUETTE

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CSSH Pandemic Teaching Initiative

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Pandemic Teaching Initiative Module Library Ted Landsmark: The Pandemic as a Catalyst Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week Report on the Health Humanities Initiative Sari Altschuler and Elizabeth Maddock Dillon: The Humanities Coronavirus Syllabus

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2020–2021 Resident Fellowship Program: Disruption and Displacement

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2020–2021 Faculty Works-in-Progress Colloquium Series Fall 2020 Events and Programs Suzanna Walters: #Feminism: Gender and the 2020 Election Spring 2021 Events and Programs

2019-2020 YEAR IN REVIEW 20 22 25

Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 Events and Programs Michael Pollan: 2019 Ruderman Lecture

2019–2020 Resident Fellowship Program: Authority and Subversion

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Risa Kitagawa: Redirecting National Narratives Matthew Bowser: Misdirected Rage 2019–2020 Faculty Works-in-Progress Colloquium Series Collaborative Research Clusters 2021–2022 Resident Fellowship Program: Reckonings Directors and Advisory Board

F R O M T H E D I R E CTO R

LO RI LEF KOVITZ

ON PIVOTS AN D P I R O UE T T E S When we were halted in our tracks over a year ago, the Northeastern Humanities Center calendar of programs was full, my personal favorite a public conversation I had with Michael Pollan about psychedelics and spirituality. The ubiquitous verb was “pivot” as we swiveled to remote teaching and re-created events on Zoom. What I noticed after that first sharp turn, however, were more and more turns, more and more graceful accommodations, improvisations, pirouettes, as my colleagues — in their multiple configurations in the Humanities Center — modeled innovative moves, sustaining urgent conversations, opening new dialogues, and responding flexibly to new exigencies. I’m awed.

Always a site for creative interdisciplinary collaborations, the Center supported colleagues in

doing new work in new ways. You will read in these pages about the Pandemic Teaching Initiative developed across Centers and academic units, for which faculty teams created online modules accessible for shared use. Increasingly adept at new technologies, we beamed in distinguished guests from everywhere, and our reach widened: the residential fellows on “Authority and Subversion” hosted a panel on “whistleblowing” and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offered feminist perspectives on the election, both immediately in advance of a high-stakes vote.

Under the leadership of Professor Patricia Williams, expanded collaborations included a

co-sponsored series of conversations, “Composite Bodies,” with Harvard’s Mahindra Center; and an international conversation on “Pattern Recognitions” with London’s College of Communication and University of the Arts, and NU’s Center for the Arts. Hearing this pandemic as a scream from our planet, another ongoing international collaboration is a course on Desert Ecology and Environmental Diplomacy with Israel’s Arava Institute. With support from the NEH, the initiative on Health, Humanities, and Society showcases the contributions of the Humanities during this crisis.

We listened to faculty works in progress; our Fellows on “Disruptions and Displacements”

edited pre-circulated manuscripts on topics ranging from slave narratives to climate change and immigration, connecting meaningfully despite being confined to small boxes on the screen. When the streets exploded in rage and heartbreak, we took another dramatic series of turns, working for comprehensive change in pursuit of racial justice. Next year’s theme of Reckonings, under the leadership of Professor Ángel Nieves, will advance this work.

Convening our distinguished board is a singular privilege, and I remain grateful for

their vision, labors, and warmth. As ever, we are grateful to Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Uta Poiger, for every form of support. Profound thanks to Gabrielle Fiorenza-Hagopian, whose management skills have made pirouetting possible, enabling us to hear the music and see the performances.

PIVOTIN

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2020

FOR AND BEYOND

The CSSH Pandemic Teaching Initiative uses the radical disruption brought about by COVID-19 as an opportunity to deepen learning about pandemic-related issues from the perspective of the social sciences and humanities. Created by Northeastern University faculty, these modules, each of which contains approximately a week’s content for an academic course, explore topics related to pandemics — their disruptions and impacts — in the field of the faculty member’s expertise.

TEACHING MODULES INCLUDE: • Introductions with learning goals

• Resources and bibliographies

• Lessons and videos

• Suggested assignments

Access the modules at bit.ly/CSSH-pandemic-teaching Modules are available to the general public through a dedicated website, and to the Northeastern community and campus network — faculty, students, and alumni — and to other academics with access to the Canvas Commons.

PIVOTING

The library will grow over time as modules on new topics are added.

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LE ARNI NG

Module Library Pandemic Teaching Initiative

Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Closed Borders: How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Impacting Displaced People Serena Parekh, Associate Professor of Philosophy

Katy Shorey, Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy This module explores a method for reconstructing and evaluating standard statistical arguments.

This module looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted two of the most vulnerable populations on earth, namely refugees and asylum seekers.

Online Learning is Dead; Long Live Online Learning

The Stories We Tell about Epidemics and Why They Matter

Laurie Nardone, Teaching Professor in English

Sari Altschuler, Associate Professor of English This module is about the stories we tell about epidemics and why they matter. It demonstrates that science and the public have particular ways of telling stories about health.

The Tiger King, the GOAT, and the Celebrity Next Door: Viral Viewing as Panic Mediation Kelly Garneau, Teaching Professor of English Laurie Nardone, Teaching Professor of English This module discusses some of the qualities of viral viewing, its role during the COVID-19, and why Netflix’s “Tiger King” was a pandemic-perfect series. It then investigates the experience of watching ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries “The Last Dance,” as well as John Krasinski’s homespun “Some Good News” during the pandemic.

‘Disrupting’ School — COVID-19 and K-12 Public Education — Opportunity or Obstacle?

John Portz, Professor of Political Science This module focuses on two potential educational opportunities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic: Session (1) more student centered, “deeper” learning, and Session (2) greater collaboration among key actors – teachers, administrators, parents, and students – in public education.

The Pandemic and the Food System Christopher Bosso, Professor of Public Policy This module is about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food system. It discusses the food system before the pandemic, assesses the impacts of the pandemic on the food system, and then explores the “path ahead” for the food system post-pandemic.

Responses to COVID-19 in Latin America Daniel Noemi Voionmaa, Associate Professor of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies This module is based on the course called “Latin American culture.” Students undertook original research about COVID in Latin America. They chose a country, and decided whether to focus on one specific aspect or to provide a wider perspective.

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Statistics & Pandemics

Carolin Fuchs, Teaching Professor of German and English; Coordinator of Online Teaching and Learning This module introduces the concepts of Digital Literacies, Participatory Culture, and Social Presence, which are integral elements in online communities (Session 1). The module also explores the pandemic-related popularity of online learning communities such as YouTube’s #withme videos and Reddit’s IamA subreddits (Session 2).

The Social Epistemology of Coronavirus Don Fallis, Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science This module is about how the pandemic is affecting our ability to acquire knowledge through digital technology and how digital technology is affecting our ability to acquire knowledge about the pandemic.

The Global Cooperation to Defeat the Pandemic Denise Garcia, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs This module addresses the current organizations and systems that can facilitate global scientific cooperation to defeat COVID-19, specifically by examining to what extent these systems have adapted during the pandemic and how some organizations have researched treatments and solutions to the pandemic.

COVID-19 Pandemic in Prisons and Jails Megan Denver, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Natasha Frost, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; PhD Program Director This module is about the prison as an institution, its history, and its role in the spread of infectious diseases. It then turns more specifically to COVID-19 with sessions on: the scope of the problem in prisons and jails; federal, state and local responses to the pandemic; and the potential for persistent impacts.

Building Service-Learning and CommunityEngagement Projects in Online Environments Sarah Finn, Associate Teaching Professor in English Emily Avery-Miller, Assistant Teaching Professor of English This module represents community-engaged courses during the pandemic. It presents activities and assignments for remote service-learning for the first week of class and beyond.

Complete module library information is available online at cssh.northeastern.edu

Bilge Erten, Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs This module examines the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on the risk of experiencing domestic violence.

Balancing Liberty and Public Health: Civil Liberties in a Time of Pandemic

Measuring the Pandemic’s Reach and the Impact on the Economy Nancy Kimelman, Assistant Teaching Professor in Economics This module looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the economy, measuring and tracking the reach and reflecting on the overall impact.

Michael Tolley, Associate Professor of Political Science

COVID-19, Historical Pandemics, and the Challenges of Medical History

Claudia Haupt, Associate Professor of Law and Political Science

Christopher M. Parsons, Associate Professor of History

This module introduces the basic concepts of public health law in the United States.

This module examines how historians identify the diseases responsible for historical epidemics.

Why Markets Fail: The Economics of COVID-19 James Dana, Professor of Economics and Strategy

Present Plagues of the Past: Lessons from Medieval & Early Modern Literature and Visual Art

This module introduces the concepts of economic efficiency and market failure, and uses them to analyze economic policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kathleen Coyne Kelly, Professor of English; Undergraduate Program Director

Religion in a Time of Corona Liz Bucar, Professor of Religion This module introduces the academic study of religion (Session 1). It then looks at how risk, contagion, and impurity (Session 2), challenges to communal gathering in a time of social distancing (Session 3), and protests for major structural change during a pandemic (Session 4), can all be better understood through attention to religion.

Writing and Responding to Trauma in a Time of Pandemic Laurie Edwards, Teaching Professor and Online Pedagogy Coordinator in English Mya Poe, Associate Professor of English; Director of the Writing Program This module gives writers tools to compose personal healing narratives, to frame their personal inquiries within a larger research context, and to position themselves within the larger community response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disease, Diplomacy, and Science in the Cold War: Lessons for Future Pandemics Gretchen Heefner, Associate Professor of History Philip Thai, Associate Professor of History This module discusses three global health crises of the Cold War era: Smallpox, the “Asian Flu” of 1957-58, and the “Hong Kong Flu” of 1968-69.

Access the modules at bit.ly/CSSH-pandemic-teaching

Erika Boeckeler, Associate Professor of English

This module examines, discusses, and analyzes a small selection of narratives and visual artifacts from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period.

A New Security for the Common Good: The Post-Pandemic World Order Denise Garcia, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs This module examines how states view their priorities when it comes to national security.

COVID-19, Corruption and Serious Misconduct Nikos Passas, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Co-Director, Institute for Security and Public Policy This module introduces the concept of “criminogenic asymmetries” in times of emergency and explores ways in which crises are constructed and potentially abused by those in authority.

COVID-19: A Catalyst for Sustainability Madhavi Venkatesan, Assistant Teaching Professor of Economics This module incorporates lifecycle assessment of consumption to highlight the true cost of consumption.

From Trauma toward Resilience: Mark Doty’s Heaven’s Coast and the AIDS Pandemic in America Bret Keeling, Teaching Professor in English This module explores the first year of AIDS in the United States and compares the similarities and differences between AIDS and the first year of COVID-19 in the United States.

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

PIVOTING

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Domestic Violence

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The Pandemic as a Catalyst for a New Renaissance TED LANDSMARK, M.ENV.D., J.D., PH.D.

Director, Kitty & Michael Dukakis Center for Urban & Regional Policy, Northeastern University, Boston

I grew up as a Black kid with polio in an East Harlem housing project. Limited mobility kept me away from trouble in the streets, guiding me instead to the public library where I read vociferously. Polio and Blackness shaped my life for the better, creating the opportunity to envision something other than what I might have become. Reading gave me a perspective on how epidemics and race have transformed history. Diseases have devastated societies, as when 16th-century Europeans brought deadly viruses to the Americas. Pandemics have also cathartically catalyzed reflection and social improvement, as the tragedy of the Black Death led to the humanism of the Italian Renaissance, and as arduous polio vaccine research informed the search for a medical solution to AIDS.

PIVOTING

This past summer I worked with Northeastern scholars recruited by the School of Public Policy for the Global Resilience Institute and a federal agency to propose planning strategies for a post-pandemic New England. We quickly saw the inter-connectedness of health, education, public safety, increased diversity and racial justice, housing, commerce, culture, public service, transportation, economic disparities, and human value challenges raised by the pandemic. Beyond providing short-term economic relief to enable cities and towns to re-open schools, support small businesses, reduce evictions and homelessness, and build broadband infrastructure, what longer-term goals and values might be considered for an equitable and inclusive regional recovery?

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I also worked on curriculum changes to incorporate the community-based values of people of color. I questioned what “normal American” white supremacist society is.

The inter-connectedness of potential relief

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

strategies was underlined by the values expressed by demonstrators who catalyzed discussions of strategies to address centuries of state-sanctioned segregation and racial injustice. Black Lives Matter’s urgent advocacy has raised our consciousness in a time needing empathetic leadership. My scholarly colleagues and the general public are reflecting on longer-term approaches to addressing racial injustice, resilience, criminal justice, homelessness, cultural representations, and income inequalities.

From Boccaccio to Camus, humanities texts have chronicled the social, cultural, and political effects of health crises that transform societies. We understand that the mortality embedded in plagues can be a catalyst for re-considering the kindness, sharing, trust, faith, resilience, and forgiveness that enable us to overcome tragedies, and to neutralize our tendencies toward avaricious greed and untruthfulness. Other than becoming more innovative, resilient, and self-sustaining, what do we want to be as a culture? Ought we not to look to humanistic community values as guides to what lies ahead in the post-pandemic world?

My work this summer reinvigorated an awareness of what is ultimately important in life, i.e., values shaped by our immersion in the humanities. Equitable and inclusive humanistic values are the bedrock of the technical and commercial enterprises that drive our hopes, ambitions, and actions in a mercantile culture.

The humanities are existential reflections on the values that make us human. Northeastern’s Humanities Center is a font of commitment to veritus, and I am pleased to work in a community with colleagues who express that humanistic commitment. Carpe diem.

Other than becoming more innovative, resilient, and self-sustaining, what do we want to be as a culture?

Ought we not to look to humanistic community values as guides to what lies ahead in the post-pandemic world?

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HO NOR I NG

HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE AWA R E N E S S W E E K

PIVOTING

Annually, since 1977, the committee of Northeastern faculty, students, and staff who constitute the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee have deliberated thoughtfully on how best to honor the commitment to commemorate the losses of the Holocaust and importantly, how to fulfill the mandate to learn from the history of genocides, ever wrestling with the question of what it might take to avoid repeating history’s most devastating tragedies. These conversations begin with an assessment of where we are now in the world, as my colleagues ask one another, “What are our most urgent concerns? What do we need to be thinking and educating about this year?” In recent years, we trained our eyes on historical turns to fascism and aggressive nationalism. In the fall of 2019, still innocent of the pandemic that was about to disrupt our routines — an experience of disruption that will in all likelihood inform our programs in future years — we talked about examples of heroism, optimism, activism, and the changing nature of hate, as exemplified JESSIE SIGLER, THE 2019 RUDERMAN by anti-Semitism.

SCHOLAR, AND YAEL SHEINFELD, THE As always, we were 2019-20 GIDEON KLEIN SCHOLAR AND CLASS OF 2021 HUNTINGTON planning an interrelated 100 INDUCTEE. set of programs, from invited speakers, including survivor testimony, to performances and films, and showcases for the original research and creative expressions of students and faculty.

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Two students worked energetically on their projects. Jessie Sigler worked with Northeastern’s library to create searchable transcriptions of all the committee-sponsored survivor talks since 1993, which dramatically

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

improved the accessibility and user experience of the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee Archives. Yael Sheinfeld, recipient of the Gideon Klein Scholarship that supports student work at the intersection of music and the Holocaust, produced an animated film based on the book The Children’s Tree of Terezin which tells the story of how children incarcerated in a concentration camp were encouraged by their teacher to plant a tree. The tree survives until today, with saplings planted the world over, a story about wresting hope from despair. On September 24, 2020, Jessie and Yael presented their projects virtually to the larger community.

In March 2020, the university hosted a photographic and informational exhibit entitled “Beyond Duty, Diplomatic Heroism during the Holocaust,” sponsored by the General Consulate of Israel to New England. This exhibit featured a series of floor-to-ceiling panels, each highlighting the story and heroism of a wartime diplomat who took great personal risks to save Jewish lives.

Each biography is moving, and the exhibit, which was mounted along the walls of Northeastern’s International Village — in the well-trafficked corridor of a building that includes classrooms, dorm rooms, and a cafeteria — beckoned passersby, students, in particular, to be inspired by the bravery of people who resisted; people who used their power to break rules and save lives.

Then the pandemic struck, and we retreated to our private spaces, learning on a small scale how danger can take us by surprise and force us to adjust.

PHOTOGRAPHIC AND INFORMATIONAL EXHIBIT “BEYOND DUTY, DIPLOMATIC HEROISM DURING THE HOLOCAUST”

Read more about the HAGAW 2021 events at News@Northeastern

This April Kalah Karloff, recipient of the 2020–21 Gideon Klein Scholarship, presented her work “Music and the Holocaust: ‘We Made Music in Hell’” followed by Professor Emeritus Joshua Jacobson who presented “Music and the Holocaust: A Retrospective on the Gideon Klein Award.”

Karloff’s project examines how music was used as a form of torture by the Nazis in concentration camps and how the effect of music on the human body can change with its context. Professor Jacobson provided a retrospective of the many musical projects fostered by the Gideon Klein Award, with his own commentary.

We also heard from Esther Adler who talked about her experience fleeing Germany as a teenager after experiencing the events of Kristallnacht. The annual Morton Lecture by Professor David Nirenberg, Dean of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, discussed “Does the Past History of Anti-Semitism Tell Us Anything about Its Future?” Professor Nirenberg has spent his career exploring the different ways that Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities have related to one another. The Morton Lecture, in addition to the very popular annual survivor talk, highlight to students and the public the importance of Holocaust education in understanding the past and present.

In my role as committee chair, I am especially proud of how student engagement ensures the continued vitality of this important work, which forces us, year after year, to confront the paradox of the human capacity for both beauty and destruction.

The 28th Annual ROBERT SALOMON MORTON LECTURE

Does the Past History of

ANTI-SEMITISM

Tell us Anything about

ITS FUTURE? DAVID NIRENBERG

David Nirenberg, whose many books include Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, is the Dean of the Divinity School and the Deborah R. and Edgar D. Janotta Distinguished Service Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

W E D N E S D AY, A P R I L 7 , 2 0 2 1 7:00–9:00 PM • VIRTUAL PRESENTATION

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC • REGISTRATION REQUIRED For more information, a full schedule of Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week events, and to register please visit http://bit.ly/HAGAW2021.

— Simon Rabinovitch Associate Professor of History

Presented by the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee, the Jewish Studies Program, and the Humanities Center, in partnership with the Office of the Provost.

REGISTER

Sponsored by the Robert S. Morton Lecture Fund at Northeastern University.

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G ROWI NG Health, Humanities, and Society: Report on the Northeastern Humanities Center Initiative

BY SARI ALTSCHULER, Associate Professor of English and Associate Director of the Northeastern Humanities Center AND CHRIS PARSONS, Associate Professor of History

The Health, Humanities, and Society (HHS) minor is designed for students who would like to learn how to think capaciously and creatively about health using the rigorous, precise, and flexible skills trained by the social sciences and the humanities. The social sciences teach students to think about the social, economic, and political factors that structure health conditions and outcomes in particular societies, while the humanities train students to navigate the complexities of interpersonal interaction and their ethical implications, to relate the micro to the macro and texts to contexts, to historicize encounters, to communicate accurately and effectively across a variety of media, and to engage in creative analytical thinking about healthcare.

PIVOTING

The pandemic in which we find ourselves has demonstrated the fundamental necessity of the humanities to prepare healthcare workers of the future for the unprecedented ethical challenges and novel aspects of healthcare that await our students. Better training in the history, philosophy, and narratives of health, as well as the social determinants of health, offer new perspectives and additional ways of knowing that are sorely needed always, but especially during times of great change and uncertainty. Now more than ever, the creative analytical skills trained by humanities fields, and new forms of interdisciplinary, out-ofthe-box thinking, are critical to the future of healthcare.

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The students themselves have clamored for this kind of training, and the program is thriving. We have attracted more students

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to our minor each year. This year we won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to expand our course offerings and develop a “Digital Health Humanities” focus within the minor, and we launched the Health, Humanities, and Society Initiative as an undergraduate research opportunity that supports students in developing their own research projects or joining existing research led by faculty experts.

The National Endowment for the Humanities grant for curriculum development and our Health, Humanities, and Society Initiative are particularly exciting. Faculty on campus will work with experts in the field to develop our offerings in the Digital Health Humanities — a new area of research through which we plan to address the history, ethics, and cultures of health data to better prepare our students for the rapidly changing future of health.

The Health, Humanities, and Society Initiative is likewise flourishing. This program is focused on expanding undergraduate and intergenerational research opportunities in HHS areas using money generously donated by a graduate’s family in 2018. The projects we funded brought undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty together to discuss the humanistic and social science aspects of health. Among the opportunities we funded this year were eight competitive grants awarded to students to complete humanistic and social science research with faculty advisors. The topics range from quantitative analysis of interviews, to digital humanities projects, to the economics of

(L TO R) PORTRAIT OF DR. SAMUEL D. GROSS (THE GROSS CLINIC) PAINTING BY THOMAS EAKINS”; “FOURTH MUSCLE MAN. 16TH CENTURY. BY VESALIUS DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA LIBRI SEPTEM. (WELLCOME LIBRARY, LONDON. WELCOME IMAGES); HHS STUDENTS

health. Such opportunities promise both to provide these students with valuable research skills as well as to produce new research that – because of these students’ interests – foregrounds the diversity of health experiences historically and in the United States today. We also provided money to support graduate students and faculty to meet and share research in the history of medicine, and we were proud to support a late-breaking effort that enables undergraduate students to contribute to the creation of an online COVID-19 archive that will capture rapidly emerging (and disappearing) material about our shared experience of this pandemic.

Finally, the Health, Humanities, and Society minor/initiative is delighted to collaborate in the coming year with our new colleagues at the New College of the Humanities in London on a grant awarded for “Future Developers and the Humanities,” which dovetails in exciting ways with our successful NEH grant for program building in the digital health humanities; as with the NEH grant, this project seeks to develop a humanities dimension to the education that health sciences and engineering students receive about digital health. Such funding has never been more crucial, as the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates. We will work together to address challenges related to health, justice, and education. Collaborations are scheduled to occur on both sides of the Atlantic in the coming year (COVID-19 permitting), resulting in new digital health ethics educational tools and curricula.

ALTSCHULER WINS AWARD The Northeastern Humanities Center is pleased to announce that our Associate Director Sari Altschuler has won the American Literature Society’s 1921 Prize for Best Essay in American Literature for her essay “Touching The Scarlet Letter: What Disability History Can Teach Us About Literature” published in 2020.

The prize is awarded to a peer-reviewed essay in any field of American Literature that appeared in 2020 in one of the following journals: African American Review; American Literary History; American Literary Realism; American Literature; American Periodicals; American Quarterly; Callaloo; Early American Literature; ESQ; J19; Journal of Ethnic American Literature; Legacy; MELUS; Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS); Resources for American Literary Study; Studies in American Fiction; and Studies in American Indian Literatures.

Read the full article on Duke University Press’ website (institutional credentials required for access).

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CRE AT I NG

The Humanities Coronavirus Syllabus

BY SARI ALTSCHULER, Associate Professor of English and Associate Director of the Northeastern Humanities Center AND ELIZABETH MADDOCK DILLON, Distinguished Professor of English and Co-Director, NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks To help us think and teach about contagion, global health, and community in a time of social distancing and fear, Professors Sari Altschuler and Elizabeth Maddock Dillon created a crowdsourced syllabus, the “Humanities Coronavirus Syllabus” in March 2020, just as instructors around the country were shifting from in person to online teaching. The syllabus — now more than 32 pages long with contributions from around the world — is, in effect, an annotated bibliography of sources in literature, history, philosophy, religion, film, and art, that concern pandemics and how society and culture respond to them.

Plans for the syllabus began when Professor Altschuler was scheduled to give a talk in Paris on Friday, March 13, and woke up March 12, to find that the US had issued a travel ban starting the next day. She left Paris immediately and on the flight back to the US, Professor Dillon emailed to suggest starting the syllabus. The syllabus is based on other syllabi created in response to timely events and, like those syllabi, aims to respond quickly to very rapidly changing events but to do so through a humanities lens that focuses on broad contexts, histories, and creative engagements with crises.

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Although there is often a default tendency to respond to disease as primarily a scientific and medical issue, the reality, as we see more every day during this pandemic, is that a crisis of this magnitude is one that challenges our existing ways of thinking about the world, including how we inhabit the world, how we connect with others, what we eat, and where we work.

The magnitude of imagining new worlds, and of thinking analytically and creatively about matters that were not on our radar just a few short months ago, is something that literature and the humanities excel at. The syllabus now includes zombie movies, Greek classics, science fiction novels, and histories of the bubonic plague and the Spanish flu; many sources also help us to train our attention on issues such as environmental justice and racial health disparities that are very much part of both our pandemic moment and the history of disease. As a collective endeavor, the syllabus builds community among scholars and brings humanities resources to the fore, making them easily accessible to teachers and students in a time of emergency.

2020-2021 RESIDENT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

disruption and

displacement F E L L O W S 2 02 0 – 2 02 1

Displacement, a term in physics that evokes material dislocation, can also refer to political, emotional, and aesthetic disruptions.

Literature and art can function as disruptive cultural or political interventions. Aesthetic innovations, such as new genres, and innovations in business may purposely disrupt. Mindful of the current refugee crises, displacements caused by climate change, cultural appropriations and re-appropriations as forms of displacement, and translation as one example of a strategy that might ease the effects of displacement, our goal was to encourage cross-disciplinary conversations to deepen our understanding of disruption and displacement.

2020-2021 FELLOWS

Shalanda Baker Professor of Law, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs School of Law

Energy Justice in a World on Fire Baker Appointed Senior DOE Staff for Biden-Harris Administration

Bilge Erten Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Syrian Refugee Inflows, Infectious Disease Outbreaks, and Vaccination Response in Turkey

Daniel Faber Professor of Sociology College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Climate Justice and Migration: The Global Climate Refugee Crisis

READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT

Laura Kuhl Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Urban Affairs, and International Affairs College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Delivering Transformation in Practice: Competing Priorities Across Scale in Adaption Finance

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon Distinguished Professor of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Geographies of Reproduction: Gender and Racial Capitalism in the Atlantic World

CONVENER

School of Law

Native-Born: Race, Immigration, and Birthright Citizenship, 1868-2018

Heather Streets-Salter Professor of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities

The Chill Before the Cold War

Elicia Cousins PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Reproducing Invisibility: Contested Narratives About Radiation Health Effects After Fukushima

William Bond PhD Candidate in the Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Daemonic Allure: Material Experiences in Nineteenth-Century American Poetry

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

PIVOTING

Rachel Rosenbloom Professor of Law

Lori Lefkovitz Professor of English, Ruderman Professor and Director of the Jewish Studies Program and Director of the Humanities Center

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2020-2021

FACULTY WORKS-IN-PROGRESS COLLOQUIUM SERIES The Faculty Works-in-Progress Colloquium is sponsored by the Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Northeastern Humanities Center. Faculty members share their current research with colleagues and benefit from questions and discussion.

FALL 2020

SPRING 2021

SEP T E MB E R 21, 2020

N OV EM BER 2, 2020

FEB RUARY 1, 2021

MARCH 22, 2021

Dark Pastoral: Nazis at the Round Table at Wewelsburg Castle

Balancing Liberty and Public Health: Civil Liberties in a Time of Pandemic

HUMANITIES CENTER FELLOWS GROUP, “DISRUPTION AND DISPLACEMENT”

HUMANITIES CENTER FELLOWS GROUP, “DISRUPTION AND DISPLACEMENT”

Featuring:

Featuring:

Kathleen Coyne Kelly

Michael Tolley

Professor, Department of English

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science

Bilge Erten

Daniel Faber

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

O CTOB ER 19, 2020

THE PANDEMIC AND DIGITAL DATA COLLECTION

A Journal of a Plague Year: An Archive of COVID-19 Victoria Cain Associate Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Claudia Haupt

William Bond

Laura Kuhl

Associate Professor of Law and Political Science

PhD Candidate in English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs

Rachel Rosenbloom

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Humanities School of Law

School of Law

HUMANITIES CENTER FELLOWS GROUP, “DISRUPTION AND DISPLACEMENT” Featuring:

COVID in Boston Database for Teaching and Research

Professor, Department of History

Dan O’Brien

PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Elicia Cousins College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon Distinguished Professor, Department of English; Co-Director, NULab for Text, Maps, and Networks

PIVOTING

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

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Professor of Law

APRIL 5, 2021

DEC EM BER 7, 2020

Heather Streets-Salter

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Professor of Sociology; Director, NU Environmental Research Collaborative

and

and

Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs Criminology and Criminal Justice Director, Boston Area Research

Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Privacy Law as Performance Ari Ezra Waldman Professor of Law and Computer Science College of Social Sciences and Humanities

MARC H 8, 2021

The Spatial Histories of AntiApartheid Activism: The Soweto Uprising and Critical Digital Platform Making Ángel David Nieves Professor of Africana Studies, History, & Digital Humanities Director of Public History and Public Humanities College of Social Sciences and Humanities

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

Disease, Diplomacy, and Science in the Cold War: Lessons for Future Pandemics Gretchen Heefner Associate Professor of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities and

Philip Thai Associate Professor of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities

FAL L 2020 E V E N TS In response to the pandemic restrictions, all Fall 2020 events were held virtually.

Faculty and staff met the challenges associated with shifting platforms and successfully adapted their events to the new online environment.

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Composite Bodies Series Co-sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University

Race, Gender, and Technology Learn more about the Composite Bodies Series online.

“We have to have our eyes on the prize.

How can we advance the humanities?

These collaborations showcase how the shared expertise of humanists contribute to a better understanding of our current circumstances.”

In a moment where our collective health depends on technological innovation – including “contact tracing” through the collection and storage of cell phone data – visual, biometric, and other forms of surveillance collect us as pinpoints of data. Composite Bodies takes up questions of technology, surveillance, embodiment, and power, from an intersectional feminist lens. Through critical engagements with law, philosophy, art, history, bioethics, criminology, and advocacy, this series addresses how the machine measurement and tracking of bodies is reconceptualizing notions of privacy while complicating the boundaries of the body as an integrated whole, reproducing and reinforcing biases based on race, class, gender, and other historically disabling taxonomies.

Composite Bodies is a partnership between the Northeastern University Humanities Center, Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard. It is convened by Patricia Williams (University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities, Northeastern University) and Caroline Light (Senior Lecturer on Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University).

SEPT EMB ER 16, 2020

Michelle Goodwin in Conversation with Caroline Light and Patricia Williams Caroline Light is Senior Lecturer on Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University

Patricia Williams is University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities at Northeastern University

N OVEMB ER 18, 2020

Vigilare: Visible Justice and the Active Image MAX HOUGHTON, LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION

– Lori Lefkovitz, Northeastern Humanities Center Director

FEB RUARY 3, 2021

Toxic Speech and Damaged Bodies LYNNE TIRRELL, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

MARC H 10, 2021

PIVOTING

Read the entire CHCI interview about the Humanities Center center-to-center collaboration

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Entangled Nuclear Colonialisms, Matters of Force, and the Material Force of Justice KAREN BARAD, UC SANTA CRUZ

APRIL 21, 2021

Carte Blanche: The Erosion of Medical Consent HARRIET A. WASHINGTON, CENTER FOR BIOETHICS, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

A CLOSER LOOK >>>

The Seventh Annual Women’s History Month Symposium

#Feminism: Gender and the 2020 Election SUZANNA WALTERS

Professor and Director, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS); Editor, Signs, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

The seventh annual women’s history month symposium — the signature event for WGSS — this year transitioned with the pandemic pivot to a virtual format and was postponed from spring to October 30, making the topic of feminism and the 2020 election urgent and immediate. Anxious as everyone was, the symposium was surprisingly hopeful about our ability as feminists to organize and resist; the day left us uplifted by the presence of ever more women involved in multiple ways in electoral politics, by Kamala Harris breaking yet one more glass ceiling, by the convergence of racial justice and feminist justice in contemporary intersectional organizing. Zerlina Maxwell — pundit extraordinaire, TV host, and newly-minted author of The End of White Politics — set the tone in her reflections on changing demographics and the increased power of people of color to determine the outcome of elections. She explained that the demonization of identity politics and the recourse to rightwing cheating — which we have seen shamelessly in the weeks since Biden’s election — is because they no longer have the support or the numbers to win.

The symposium brought together scholars, activists, and policy makers to discuss critical questions around gender, social media, and electoral politics. Panelists commented that Kamala Harris’s identity as a woman of color was relatively underplayed before the election and expected that post-election, we will be freer to celebrate this milestone. A younger generation of feminist activists advocated for digital community. Feminist mediamaker, Carmen Rios described digital space as a place where otherwise marginalized individuals “can feel what it is like to wield social power,” noting that “radical change can be effected in digital space.” Many of us

were impressed not only by the energy and powers of articulation of this rising generation of feminists but by their sophistication about social media and emerging platforms for organizing. The conversations reminded us of how invigorating intergenerational feminist engagement can be, whether we are talking about theory, analysis, or activism.

With able technical assistance from Gaby Fiorenza and Kiki Samko’s gracious and competent organizing skills, the symposium was a resounding success. So close to what was arguably the most consequential election in US history, the interest was high, and the stakes heightened. Every speaker seemed to feel the tension of the moment and offered feminist insight and feminist hope for these troubled times. Indeed, the weight of this historical moment brought together the “academic” analyses with the more pragmatically political in a conversation that was simultaneously informative and inspiring.

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2021 PIR The Humanities Center transitioned events and programs to virtual platforms, which created exciting opportunities for international collaborations and partnerships and reached a larger public audience than in-person events JANUARY 21, 2021

Pattern Recognition: An Interdisciplinary Colloquium Democratic values such as those contained in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and human rights conventions, are increasingly being sidelined, as print media and verbal communication shifts to digitized visual vocabularies and quantitative methods of prediction. Insidious technological and discursive shifts impose new and often impermeable categories of race, gender, and class, that reinforce existing lines of segregation, while their decision-making power operates outside the traditional realm of accountability defined by jurisprudential notions of human agency.

Our aim is to decipher the norms embedded in the syntax and semantics of justice as a system of governance, and to expose the hidden violence operating in these new genres of expression.

INFODEMIC (ALGORITHMICALLY GENERATED VIDEO STILL) 2020. IMAGE COURTESY OF DEREK CURRY AND JENNIFER GRADECKI.

This colloquium is a collaborative venture between London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, the Visible Justice collective, and Northeastern University’s Humanities Center (CSSH) and Center for the Arts (CAMD)

FE B R UA RY 28 TO M AY 9, 2021

Re-envisioning the Middle East Ecosystem: Desert Ecology and Environmental Diplomacy The Jewish Studies Program has joined with the Arava Institute, the Center for Creative Ecology – Kibbutz Lotan, and with the Marine Science Center and the Humanities Center at Northeastern University, for a 9-week Sunday seminar which examines and discusses sustainable living, renewable energy, cross-border collaboration, peace-building through environmental education, activism, policy and diplomacy. The series runs for nine Sundays, from 1:00-2:30 pm (ET), starting February 28, 2021, and features an international array of experts in these fields, including from Jordan, Israel, the UK, and the US.

Re-envisioning the Middle East Ecosystem: Desert Ecology and Environmental Diplomacy Sundays from February 28 to May 9

• 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Join international experts for 9 weeks of learning and conversation at the intersections of desert ecology, environmental science and activism, and peacebuilding in Israel and Palestine.

Topics include:

• Climate crisis and the hyper-arid environment • Renewable energy for off-grid Bedouin village

• Cross-border water management and reuse in Israel, Palestine, and their neighbors • Biomimicry

Certificate of completion to participants who join for 7 or more sessions

Register by February 19, 2021, on Zoom

PIVOTING

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READ MORE ABOUT STUDENT EXPERIENCES IN THE NEW NORTHEASTERN JEWISH STUDIES BLOG

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

bit.ly/2LwHCRc

ADDITIONAL EVENT DETAILS AVAILABLE HERE

For more information contact Dr. Rebeca Rosengaus at r.rosengaus@northeastern.edu

OUETTE M AR CH 18, 2021

Black Feminist Health Science Studies Symposium The first Black Feminist Health Science Studies Symposium was an introduction to the field and collective that claim the name. The symposium focused on the need to integrate Black feminism into science, medicine, technology, and health. BFHSS event organizer: Moya Bailey, Assistant Professor, Africana and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Northeastern University.

WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EXCITING EVENT HERE

Generously supported by MIT and Northeastern University

MAY 14-16, 2021

APR I L 5-8, 2021

Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week 2021 Northeastern University’s commitment to remembrance and awareness of the Holocaust is long and deep.

Since 1977, the University has hosted an annual weeklong series of events dedicated to remembering the Holocaust. The Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee was organized in 1991, made up of Northeastern students, faculty, and staff of various religious and ethnic backgrounds.

Sponsored by: The College of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Northeastern Humanities Center, the Jewish Studies Program, the HAGAC committee, in partnership with the Office of the Provost.

A PR I L 8, 2021

Digital Health Humanities: A Critical Intervention for a ‘Data-Driven’ Pandemic The Humanities Center and Health, Humanities and Society at Northeastern were delighted to host Professor Kirsten Ostherr from Rice University for an engaging discussion around digital health humanities and the pandemic.

Black Feminist Health Science Studies Collaboratory: Racial Geographies of Health and Wellness This 3-day interdisciplinary collective laboratory (collaboratory) endeavors to bring together scholars, creatives, organizers, and activists working to highlight the importance of the incorporation of social justice into the medical sciences. The collaboratory serves as a space for conversation, exchange of ideas, workshopping ideas, designated writing time, community and collaboration building, as well as community care, networking, and capacity building.

This first BFHSS Collaboratory will center on the theme of Racial Geographies of Health and Wellness. BFHSS event organizer: Moya Bailey, Assistant Professor, Africana and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Northeastern University ADDITIONAL EVENT DETAILS AVAILABLE HERE

This event was part of a series generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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YEAR IN REV FALL 2019 & SPRING 2020 EVENTS AND PROGRAMS

Humanities Center events

FEB RUARY 8, 2019

and programs bring

WINTER GATEWAY SPEAKER SERIES

together organizers and audiences from diverse disciplines, both within and beyond the Northeastern community, and invite wide public participation.

These partnerships build relationships across university units and with

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019–2020

other institutions and

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produce exciting and timely educational events.

April Ryan: Under Fire The annual Winter Gateway Series is an effort organized

by Northeastern Crossing, a cross-departmental initiative that seeks to improve neighborhood relations through meet-and-greets, local artist exhibitions, gateway mixers, and more. This year’s event featured journalist, political analyst, and author April Ryan discussing excerpts from her latest book, Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House. She shared her thoughts on the state of the nation and her experience as a black reporter in the Trump White House. NBC 10 Boston and NECN news anchor Latoyia Edwards joined as moderator of the public conversation and Q&A session. A post-event book signing was held following the event in Gallery 360.

Sponsored by: Northeastern Crossing, City and Community Affairs, Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, Center for Intercultural Engagement, Center for International Affairs and World Cultures, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Cultural, Residential and Spiritual Life, Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies, Dukakis Center, Humanities Center, John D. O’Bryant African American Institute, Latino/a Student Cultural Center, NULawLab, School of Journalism, Social Impact Lab, and Scholars Program & Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

2019 2020

N VIEW

OCTOBER 18, 2019

SIXTH ANNUAL ISRAEL STUDIES LECTURE

The Religionization of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: From Myth to Reality by Dov Waxman

F E B R UARY 20, 2019 SAID SPEAKER SERIES

An Evening with Michelle Alexander The CIE-SJRC Peace and Social Week series featured a number of events calling Northeastern students to action through community engagement. The events ran February 19-26, with an event held each day of the week. This was the main event organized by Students Against Institutional Discrimination (SAID) and featured a public conversation with highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar Michelle Alexander discussing her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The award-winning book has been featured for over 250 weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller List and is celebrating its tenth year of publication.

Sponsored by: The Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern Humanities Center, and Students Against Institutional Discrimination

The Annual Israel Studies Lecture is the centerpiece of Israel Studies programming at Northeastern University. There has long been a popular misconception that the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has been driven by religion. This is historically inaccurate, but religion, particularly religious extremism, is having an increasing impact on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict today. This talk explored the growing role of religion in the conflict and the implications this has for making peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Sponsored by: The Middle East Center, Northeastern Humanities Center, and Jewish Studies Program

FROM L TO R: DEAN UTA POIGER, PROFESSORS BERNA TURAM, TOM VICINO, DOV WAXMAN, AMILCAR BARRETO, LORI LEFKOVITZ, COSTAS PAPADOPOULOS

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A REPORT ON THE SEPTEMBER 24,2019 MORTON E. RUDERMAN MEMORIAL LECTURE:

12 Western Avenue, Petaluma, CA 94952

tel: 707.773.0654

fax: 707.778.1868

www.barclayagency.com

Mic hael Pol l an

Michael Pollan, What Can Psychedelics Teach Us About Spirituality?

P ho t o : Je anne t t e M o nt go me r y B ar r o n

Bestselling Author & Sustainable Food Advocate

SEBASTIAN STOCKMAN

Associate Teaching Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

For the past thirty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect:

“Michael Pollan [is a] distin-

AGENCY on our STEVEN plates, inBARCLAY our farms and featuring gardens, and in the environment.

Pollan is the author of eight books, six of which have been New York Times bestsellers; three of them (including his latest, How to Change Your Mind) were immediate #1

guished author and designated repository for the nation’s food conscience.”

— New York Times

New York Times bestsellers. Previous books include Cooked (2013), Food Rules (2009), In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008) and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), which

was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by both the New York Times and the Washington Post.

It also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

A revised, Michael Pollanyoung readers’ edition of Omnivore’s Dilemma was published in 2015. Pollan’s 2001 book, The Botany of Bestselling Author & Sustainable Food Advocate Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, also a New York Times bestseller was recognized as a best book www.barclayagency.com toll free the US 888-965-7323 of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon.com.707-773-0654 Pollan isoralso thein author of A Place of My Own (1997) and Second Nature (1991). An expanded edition of Food Rules, with original illustrations by Maira Kalman, was published in 2011. How to Change Your Mind was named one of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2018.

A four-hour Netflix miniseries based on Cooked premiered in February 2016. PBS presented a twohour special documentary based on The Botany of Desire in fall 2009 and a two-hour documentary based on In Defense of Food was broadcast nationally in December 2015. Pollan also appeared in the Oscar-nominated documentary Food Inc., which was partly based on The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019–2020

A contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine since 1987, Pollan’s writing has received numerous awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003; the John Burroughs prize (for the best natural history essay in 1997); the QPB New Vision Award (for his first book, Second

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Journalist, author, and sustainable-food celebrity Michael Pollan was on campus to discuss his latest book with Ruderman Professor and Director of Jewish Studies (and Director of the Humanities Center and Professor of English) Lori Lefkovitz.

Pollan’s book, How to Change Your Mind, is a departure from his focus on food, as you can tell from the subtitle: “What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.” That about covers it!

Make all the “whooooa, the colors, man” jokes that you want, but once you get that out of your system, Pollan has some pretty profound points to make.

Pollan told us that he got interested in psychedelics while doing “a pretty straight piece of journalism” for The New Yorker. That piece examined the use of psilocybin (you might know them as “’shrooms”) in the treatment of patients with terminal illnesses. The results were startling. For many, psilocybin “made death seem less horrible.” As it “expanded their notions of connection,” many of the patients “had lost their fear of death completely.”

Pollan was taken with the idea of “a six-hour journey into your mind that could shift your outlook on something as profound as death.”

He then went looking for the semi-underground (because technically-illegal) network of therapists who administer psychedelics as treatment. After interviewing a few therapists who were either “too crazy or too casual about it,” Pollan found one who fit, and became “a very reluctant psychonaut,” and, to judge from his remarks, a cautious convert to the therapeutic use of these substances.

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

In a controlled environment under the guidance of therapists (which he stressed was crucial), Pollan had some experiences that changed his “understanding of what the word ‘spiritual’ means.”

He described an “applied mysticism” that provided an experience of “the spiritual absent the supernatural,” including one in which his self “burst into little Post-it notes. I was spread out like a coat of paint, or butter, on the ground. It was almost like I had consciousness without self.”

It’s hard to traffic in metaphors like these and still be taken seriously, but Pollan, by dint of his distinguished career, has credibility to spare.

While he doesn’t consider this book advocacy journalism, he does believe psychedelics should be decriminalized, if for no other reason than for the purpose of further study.

“We don’t know everything about how they work,” he said. “But we know even less about some psychotropic drugs that psychiatrists now legally prescribe.”

“Psychedelics dislodge mental habit. As we get older we come up with serviceable algorithms for dealing with the problems that life presents ... A lot of mental suffering is the result of minds that have grown too rigid.”

(Did you get that? Don’t take these drugs until you’re my age.)

Professor Lefkovitz (who, fun fact, went to high school with Pollan and was his creativewriting classmate in 11th grade) and Pollan noted that “reading, movies, concerts, dance, playgoing,” and even crossword puzzles can help us get out of these ruts, too.

Not all of Pollan’s experiences were positive.

There was one, with something called

5meO-DMT, that Pollan called “a category five mental hurricane.” 5meO-DMT, as the half-dozen students near me who raised their hands when Pollan asked if anyone had heard of it already knew, is the “smoked venom of the Sonoran Desert Toad.” The trip sounded terrifying: “There was no matter, there was no form, there was no space,” Pollan said. “The best thing, it only lasted 10 minutes. I felt gratitude that there was something rather than nothing.”

On the other end of the intensity spectrum, Pollan was unsure what to make of microdosing, or the practice of taking a very small daily dose. He noted that Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, microdosed and lived to be 102. But that’s anecdotal. There aren’t great studies on it, though it is a Silicon Valley fad “as something that can make you calmer and more productive.”

“It’s so of our time,” Pollan said. “That we’re taking this transcendent experience and turning it into a productivity drug.”

PROFESSOR LEFKOVITZ AND MICHAEL POLLAN

See the complete video of the event

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2019 2020 D EC E MB E R 2, 2019

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

TED LANDSMARK

EUNSONG KIM AND SOMY KIM

Turning Up the Heat: Climate Resilience and Community Engagement The goal of the Turning Up the Heat conference was to bring together knowledgeable people from multiple disciplines, and community stakeholders, to engage in discussions and a planning charrette around how communities can be better engaged in resilience planning, and the development of green jobs training. Resilience planning linked to community engagement combines community planning, infrastructure development, health and wellness, architecture and urban policy development, youth training, place-making and art, data analysis, social psychology, law, and engineering in ways that enhance collaborative urban policy-making.

Sponsored by: The School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, in partnership with the UMass Boston Sustainable Solutions Lab

Multi-Ethnic Coalitions: What is Possible?

The impetus for this program comes from conversations with colleagues, classroom discussions, as well as campus events that have highlighted the ongoing racial problems we experience at Northeastern and in the city of Boston.

It also stems from students who have been concerned about the case Asian-American groups have leveled against affirmative action, and the problems of the single-axis issue.

This program hoped to generate (and sustain) a conversation about the historical complexities of coalition building, while also offering a portrait of some of the recent strategies suggested by scholars and activists to students, faculty and staff at Northeastern.

Sponsored by: The Department of English and Northeastern Humanities Center

Launched in Fall 2013, the Contemporary Issues in Security and Resilience Studies series is presented by the Northeastern Center for International Affairs and World Cultures, the Department of Political Science, and the Northeastern Humanities Center. The College of Social Sciences and Humanities offers an MS in Security and Resilience Studies, which explores both the policies and systems behind improving national security and societal resilience.

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND WORLD CULTURES, THE NORTHEASTERN HUMANITIES CENTER, AND THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE PRESENT

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan’s 3/11 Disasters

Renewable Transformation for Climate Resilience

DANIEL ALDRICH, Professor of Political Science, Director of the Security and Resilience Program, Northeastern University

JENNIE STEPHENS, Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy, Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University

FALL 2018

DECEMBER 3, 2019 NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY Can Caribbean Environmental History Teach

OCTOBER 15, 2019

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Lessons Learned in Building Collaborative Cyber Defenses

Us Anything About Resilience?

MICHAEL FIGUEROA, Independent Executive Security Advisor and former Executive Director of the Advanced Cyber Security Center

REINALDO FUNES-MONZOTE, Professor of History, University of Havana; Visiting Professor in the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies

SEPTEMBER 11 Is Cyber Resilience Possible?

JOHN MANFERDELLI

NOVEMBER 6 The Networked Digital Earth for Climate Adaptation and

2019-2020 RESIDENT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

>

Authority and subversion are mutually inextricable. Authority and associated terms such as authorship and authoritarianism express different forms and degrees of power. Subversion also comes in various forms and may be positively or negatively disruptive.

Environmental degradation, technological complexity, global shifts, and the collapse of clear ideological divides between left and right-wing discourses invite reconsiderations of relationships

CONVENER Lori Lefkovitz Professor of English, Ruderman Professor and Director of the Jewish Studies Program and Director of the Humanities Center

between authority and subversion. The Humanities Center welcomed applications from scholars across disciplines whose projects consider, for example: literary or artistic strategies for claiming or subverting authority; authoritarian or subversive political or social movements; or breakdowns of consensus around

and

authority

subversion F E L L O W S 2 019 – 2 02 0

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019–2020

ideological, aesthetic, or cultural values.

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A CLOSER LOOK >>>

Humanities Center Fellow 2019-2020 “Authority and Subversion”

Recasting National Narratives: A Text Analysis of Truth Commission Testimonies RISA KITAGAWA

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, International Affairs Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019–2020

The project that I worked on during my Humanities Center Fellowship year investigated how truth commissions are used to reckon with past violence. Truth commissions — fact-finding bodies that provide a public forum for “truth-telling” to uncover a history of human rights abuses — are a ubiquitous feature of societies emerging from political violence. They are often credited with promoting national reconciliation. So goes Desmond Tutu’s adage, popularized by South Africa’s 1995 Truth and Reconciliation Commission as the state emerged from apartheid: “there is no healing without truth.”

Despite this often sanguine view of truth-telling, we still have much to learn about whether these commissions do indeed help reunite a society where state-led violence has all but destroyed social and political trust. To what extent does “truth-telling” forge consensus around some historical truth? Are citizens equally prepared to reconcile with one another? And do they agree on what “justice” entails?

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Addressing such questions required a sustained look into the testimonies collected by truth commissions. Offered by survivors, perpetrators, and witnesses of gross human rights abuses, these intimate testimonies provide a novel source of data to explore public opinion. Over the course of the fellowship, I scraped tens of thousands of truth commission records in Sub-Saharan Africa to create an original digital corpus of testimonies and analyzed this content using automated text analysis methods. My initial findings from Sierra Leone and Kenya indicate a great deal of heterogeneity in citizens’ views about violence, justice, reconciliation, and societal needs. This depends in part on the roles that individuals played during the conflict, but also underscores how deep-rooted inequalities across social

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

groups, such as gender and ethnicity, shape preferences about accountability and reconciliation. These findings contrast markedly with the way global policy circles currently portray truth commissions. Far from being a unifying initiative, the much messier reality is that these forums are a site of contestation and competing narratives about what justice requires.

My project owes its existence to my cohort of Fellows and the clear-eyed guidance of Lori Lefkovitz. Our cohort hailed from chemistry, criminology, history, literature, philosophy, and political science, and from different stages in our professional careers. This multilevel diversity was a unique strength of the Fellowship program. Every week, I left the room having learned something new, and with a hint for my own work. Politics lives in the spoken and written word, and there is a lot of it; the challenge for political scientists is to make sense of this enormous volume of text without losing its meaning in the numbers and statistics. In this, I am indebted to the Fellows, particularly in the humanities, who pushed me to think seriously about the normative and affective content of the powerful testimonies I was processing. As a result, while my data collection began with modest goals, it is now part of an ongoing, much broader research project. By leveraging recent advances in text analysis methods, it may eventually aid practitioners and policymakers with synthesizing and designing better policies out of the vast amounts of information that truth commissions produce. That there was, among others, a biographer, a chemist, and a moral philosopher in the early life of this project speaks to what can come from scholars getting together over lunch, and over conventional disciplinary divides, to talk big ideas.

2019-2020 FELLOWS

Ekaterina Botchkovar Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice College of Social Sciences and Humanities

War Exposure and Degradation of Morality: The Case of Ukraine

Risa Kitagawa Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, International Affairs Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Recasting National Narratives: A Text Analysis of Truth Commission Testimonies

Matthew Bowser Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Misdirected Rage: The Anti-Immigrant Response to Co-Colonialism and Capitalism in Myanmar and the Origins of Burmese Islamophobia, 1930–1947

Patricia Mabrouk Professor, Department of Chemistry College of Science

Them and Us: The Impact of Power and Privilege on Chemistry Doctoral Students’ Ethical Decision Making about Authorship

Candice Delmas Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Department of Political Science

Carla Kaplan Distinguished Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Resistance from the Margins

Queen of the Muckrakers: Jessica Mitford and the Arts of Activism

Julia (Summer) Marion Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science

William F.S. Miles Professor, Department of Political Science

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Purchasing Power?

Philanthropy and Policy Influence in Global Governance

Faith-Based Subversion of Western Democracy

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

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A CLOSER LOOK >>>

Humanities Center Fellow 2019-2020 “Authority and Subversion”

Misdirected Rage: The Anti-Immigrant Response to Co-Colonialism and Capitalism in Myanmar and the Origins of Burmese Islamophobia, 1930-1947 MATTHEW BOWSER

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019–2020

I decided to pursue my PhD in History because I wanted to understand, from a global context, how ideas of race and racism become ingrained in modern societies.

These interests drew me to work with Professor Heather Streets-Salter at Northeastern University, whose work has primarily focused on race and colonial rule in the British Empire in South and Southeast Asia. Following her example, I wanted to explore the development of ideas of race and racism — and their connection to justifying and upholding power, domination, and inequality — through a colonialera case study in southern Asia.

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Sadly, in 2016, my subject came to me when the Burmese military began to perpetrate the Rohingya genocide in Burma/Myanmar, an ongoing atrocity that stands as one of the worst human rights violations of the twenty-first century. I undertook the project of looking at colonial Burma and the political movements that surrounded and shaped its decolonization from British rule. I found that a Burmese fascist movement had intentionally associated Indian migrants, the religion of Islam, and Burmese Muslims like the Rohingya into a racialized category in order to create a political scapegoat for Burmese poverty, unemployment, and economic collapse in the 1930s. Although the ideas of this movement were initially not widely accepted, by the late 1930s and early 1940s as British power in Asia began to slip away, the British worked with the fascists, assisted them into power, and used them to eliminate the much more threatening leftists, leading to a Burmese politics where these fascist ideas and the racial scapegoating of Indians and Muslims dominated. My intervention has significant implications for history and understanding of the present: most notably, that the

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

“containment” policies of the United States during the Cold War, which preferred rightwing nationalist over left-wing governments in the Global South, were merely a continuation of European colonial policies. Racism in the Global South was often amplified by Western imperialism for its own ends.

My experiences in the archives in London, Yangon, and New Delhi and the data I gathered there were of course critical to leading me to my conclusions. But much of the interpretative work and my understanding of its most crucial contributions to my field came from my experience sharing my writingin-progress with the scholars in the Humanities Center fellowship cohort. Scholars from a range of fields, the fellows gave me a broad perspective on my work and a great deal of constructive criticism. I saw the story I was telling through the eyes of political scientists, sociologists, literary scholars, and even a chemist, who pushed me to define precisely what my intervention was and its importance to a wider readership. This interdisciplinary exchange was reinforced by the opportunities I had to critique the work of my colleagues as a representative historian. I developed a practice of inquiry and strategic analysis from multiple disciplinary avenues.

I completed a dissertation about the ongoing murderous consequences of racism across the world — and the surprising motives for perpetuating racism — at a moment when racial injustice was in the daily headlines at home.

In our conversations about our own projects, I saw the unique value in the great variety of expertise that my colleagues in the humanities and social sciences bring to the urgent concerns of our time and place.

2019-2020

FACULTY WORKS-IN-PROGRESS COLLOQUIUM SERIES

The Faculty Works-in-Progress Colloquium is sponsored by the Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Northeastern Humanities Center. Faculty members share their current research with colleagues and benefit from questions and discussion.

SEPTEM B E R 16, 2019

N OV EM BE R 14, 2019

JANUARY 27, 2020

Feminism: A Love Story

Algorithmic Fairness in Predicting Opioid Use Disorder using Machine Learning

Testing a Stigma Remediation Strategy in the Employment Context: The Interaction of Positive Credentials and Criminal Records

Suzanna Danuta Walters Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities

O CTO B ER 10, 2019

Unthinking the Politics of Fear Patricia Williams University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities College of Social Sciences and Humanities School of Law

Angela Kilby Assistant Professor, Department of Economics College of Social Sciences and Humanities

DEC EM BER 2, 2019 HUMANITIES CENTER FELLOWS GROUP, “AUTHORITY AND SUBVERSION”

Megan Denver Assistant Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Featuring:

FEBRUARY 10, 2020 HUMANITIES CENTER FELLOWS GROUP, “AUTHORITY AND SUBVERSION”

Matthew Bowser

Featuring:

PhD Candidate, Department of History

Ekaterina Botchkovar

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Carla Kaplan Distinguished Professor, Department of English

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Patricia Mabrouk

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Professor, Department of Chemistry

William F.S. Miles

College of Science

Professor, Department of Political Science College of Social Sciences and Humanities

PATRICIA WILLIAMS IN CONVERSATION WITH CSSH FACULTY AND DEAN OF THE LAW SCHOOL JAMES HACKNEY

JA N UA RY 13, 2020

Writing Across Contexts: CSSH Writers at Work Chris Gallagher

O CTO B ER 28, 2019

Trajectories of Hate: Mapping the Development of Racism and Misogyny on Social Media

Vice Chancellor for Global Learning Opportunities and Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

MARC H 9, 2020 HUMANITIES CENTER FELLOWS GROUP, “AUTHORITY AND SUBVERSION” Featuring:

Candice Delmas Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Department of Political Science College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Risa Kitagawa Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, International Affairs Program

Nicholas Beauchamp

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science

Summer Marion

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science College of Social Sciences and Humanities

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2019-2020

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH CLUSTERS

The Collaborative Research Clusters give faculty the opportunity for a range of interdisciplinary research

The Dragon Prayer Book

collaborations. These Research

Convened by: Erika Boeckeler

Clusters bring together scholars and practitioners from different disciplines, both within and beyond the Northeastern University community, around a shared concern. This interdisciplinary program facilitates productive discussions and collaborations among the participants, with a view toward the development of joint projects, conferences, publications, and/or major grant applications.

YEAR IN REVIEW 2019–2020

Learn more about Collaborative Research Clusters on our website

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NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

This research cluster brought together scholars from across the University for a Snell Library-wide exhibit on display in Fall 2019 that centered on an alternate reality game (ARG) showcasing and encouraging interaction with our research on the Dragon Prayer Book, Northeastern’s only medieval manuscript. The primary goal of this research cluster was to adapt our existing research – conducted over the past three years — on the text, music, provenance, and physicality of the prayer book, into a highly interactive Snell Library exhibit. This process will require ongoing, dialectical interdisciplinary exchange: everyone who participated in the various directions of the project was in conversation with the narrative designer — CAMD undergraduate Kieran Sheldon — in order to generate the specifics of the game and ensure that the game faithfully represents the Dragon Prayer Book team’s research and duplicates bibliographic methodologies.

Dr. Celia Pearce, Associate Professor of Game Design at Northeastern, served as a creative advisor on this project.

As part of her participation, Dr. Pearce made available to the project a new augmented reality app, the “Hidden Histories App,” created in CAMD’s game design program specifically for constructing game experiences around historical themes using archival documents. This app allowed the game to seamlessly interface with the manuscript and other historical materials to augment them with digital content. This is the first Snell exhibit of its kind and therefore a pilot project for future installations. We will be exchanging ideas with Dean of Libraries Dan Cohen and Facilities Manager Ethan Bren about the library as an interactive exhibit space and how this exhibit is part of the way Snell envisions its changing role and changing relationships to its holdings within a higher education system in flux.

Life, Labor, and Debt in the New Economy Convened by: Doreen Lee

Meaningful Measurement: Tools for Assessing Teaching

This research cluster focused on the rapidly changing nature of everyday life, labor conditions, and social relations under the auspices of “new economies.” The term “new economy” has come to indicate a series of futuristic revolutions linked to neoliberal reform, access to venture capital, and development through technology. The growing ubiquity of start-up culture, self-entrepreneurship, and technological innovations are transforming social, urban, and financial landscapes across the world, impacting individuals and communities in uneven ways. From the individuals who are mired in debt as a result of new lifestyle patterns and expanded credit regimes to the powerful corporations that are consolidating their monopolies on basic goods and services, there are numerous examples of how technological innovations and legal-financial instruments restructure daily life. While the financial, technological, and real estate sectors connected to the new economy report astounding growth in value, individuals and communities are often caught in more ambivalent and precarious situations concerning their ability to work, find shelter, and aspire to social mobility.

This cluster drew together the research expertise of faculty at Northeastern who are conducting research on these economic transformations, as seen in high-tech automated multinational ports in West Africa, post-industrial workplace relations in US cities, the freelancing precariat and its debt relations in Indonesia, and the contested emergence of an exploitable digital working class in Boston.

Convened by: Katy Shorey

Integrated Interdisciplinary Teaching Initiative: Beyond Humanics

Re/Producing the Urban

Convened by: Laurie Nardone

The focus of this interdisciplinary research cluster was to study the processes driving and shaping the production, reproduction, transformation, and deconstruction of urban spaces. Approaching this theme — and often just properly formulating the questions around it — requires collaboration across disciplines. Because there is no distinctive methodology for researching diverse phenomena at the urban spatial grain, a crucial task is to find strategies for fruitful, cross-disciplinary communication. Such strategies should both (1) facilitate knowledge transfer and (2) help participants to think across methodologies. This cluster aimed to develop such strategies, and consequently help to invigorate transdisciplinary collaboration.

The National Academy’s report on integrated interdisciplinary teaching identified substantial benefits of integration of humanities and arts with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching. The report called for not only integrated interdisciplinary teaching but also institutional frameworks to support it and assessment methods to evaluate the benefits. With this report in mind, our research cluster investigated the foundations for developing, assessing, and ensuring sustainability of integrated interdisciplinary teaching. In the process, we applied for a Teagle Foundation Grant, which aims “to strengthen teaching and learning in the arts and sciences. To that end, we support concrete changes in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and faculty professional development that ultimately improve and enliven the educational experience of undergraduate students.” This interdisciplinary research cluster explored the efficacy of interdisciplinary teaching at Northeastern. Our cluster was predominantly interested in creating novel interdisciplinary courses that integrate humanities and the arts with STEM within core required courses, individual electives, and dual majors.

The purpose of this collaborative research cluster was to bring together researchers at Northeastern from across disciplines to investigate tools for measuring instructor effectiveness. Currently, student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are the primary tools for measuring instructor effectiveness. There is a large and growing literature documenting two major problems with SETs: (1) student evaluations of teaching demonstrate bias with respect to gender, race, as well as other factors unrelated to teaching (e.g. perceived age of the instructor, perceived attractiveness of the instructor, perceived difficulty of the course, whether the course is required/elective, time of day the course is scheduled, etc.) and (2) SET ratings don’t correlate strongly with student performance or student learning. These findings have motivated a national conversation about measurement of instructor effectiveness and the meaningfulness of statistical data collected from student evaluations. In response, there is a movement throughout higher education toward alternative measurement tools. This topic is both important and timely for Northeastern University, especially given this institution’s reputation for both research and teaching excellence. Our cluster aimed to (1) investigate the alleged problems with SETs and then (2) conduct a comparative evaluation of alternative measurement tools, considering their ability to supplement or replace SETs in departmental evaluations of teaching effectiveness.

Convened by: Matthew Smith

Global Surveillance and Urban/Local Territories: a South-North Dialogue Convened by: Daniel Noemi Voionmaa

This research cluster studied the current practices of surveillance and their manifestations and impact at specific spaces (urban, suburban, and regional), with focus on the notions of security, capitalism, and eco-governmentality. It discussed the features of our society of control (and/or its beyond) and the characteristics of controlled or subdued territories. The cluster aimed to analyze cultural modes of resistance and transgressions that have emerged.

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FELLOWSHIP THEME 2021-2022

RECKONINGS

RECKONINGS CONVENER Ángel David Nieves Professor of Africana Studies, History, and Digital Humanities; Director of Public Humanities

The Northeastern Humanities Center invites proposals on the theme of Reckonings. The term reckoning suggests an intersectional, multidimensional process of truth-telling and accountability around all forms of systemic oppression, from the intimate and familial, to the social and political, to the planetary and cosmic.

Reckoning calls for accountability through narration of harms, adjudication of rights, and acts of judgment, but it may also imply transformative possibilities of amnesty, forgiveness, reconciliation, and reparation. Reckonings may be literary, juridical, political, ethical, aesthetic, and/or emotional, expressed through imaginative as well as political consciousness. Reckoning — whether paying debts or cogitating — implicates questions of time and place.

The year 2020 has been popularly described as a moment of racial reckoning.

Other recent reckonings include those around misogyny; climate justice; social welfare and economic inequality; spiritual community, and global interconnection.

We welcome proposals from all disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.

2021-2022 FELLOWS Libby Adler Professor of Law and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Jordon D. Bosse Assistant Professor, School of Nursing Bouvé College of Health Sciences

School of Law

N. Fadeke Castor Assistant Professor of Religion and Africana Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Jessica Linker Assistant Professor of History

Christopher Parsons Associate Professor of History

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

K.J. Rawson Associate Professor of English and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities

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Gavin Shatkin Director, MS in Urban Planning and Policy & MA, International Affairs; Professor of Public Policy & Architecture

Kara Swanson Affiliated Faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and History; Associate Professor of Law

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

School of Law

Allison Chapin PhD Candidate in History

Alanna Prince PhD Candidate in English

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER

Suzanna Danuta Walters Professor of Sociology; Professor and Director of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities

DIRECTORS

DIRECTORS

Lori Lefkovitz

Sari Altschuler

Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Ruderman Professor and Director of Jewish Studies Program Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Associate Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Associate Professor, Department of English Director, Health, Humanities, and Society Minor College of Social Sciences and Humanities

2019-20 AND 2020-21 ADVISORY BOARD

STAFF

Aziza Ahmed

Ángel David Nieves (2020-21)

Associate Professor of Law School of Law

Professor of Africana Studies, History, and Digital Humanities, Director of Public Humanities College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Gabrielle Fiorenza-Hagopian

Nicole Aljoe (2020-21) Director of Africana Studies Program, Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Martin Blatt (2019-20)

Richard L. O’Bryant Director, John D. O’Bryant African American Institute

Ronald Sandler

Professor of the Practice, Department of History Director, Public History Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Chair and Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion Director, Ethics Institute College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Elizabeth Bucar

Thomas J. Vicino

Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Victoria Cain Associate Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Laura Green Associate Dean of Teaching, Learning, and Experiential Education Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies Professor, Department of Political Science, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Suzanna Danuta Walters Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Liza Weinstein

Associate Professor, Media Arts College of Arts, Media and Design

Chair, Department of Sociology Associate Professor, Department of Sociology College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Ted Landsmark

Patricia Williams

Sarah Kanouse

Distinguished Professor, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs Director, Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Events and Administrative Operations Manager, Northeastern Humanities Center and College of Social Sciences and Humanities Office of the Dean

University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities College of Social Sciences and Humanities School of Law

SPECIAL THANKS The Dean’s Office in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities Graphic Design: Victoria Sax Photography: Jarvis Chen, Adam Glanzman, Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

LINK TO HUMANITIES CENTER ADVISORY BOARD

ABOUT THE NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY

HUMANITIES CENTER Critical and reflective study of human cultures and people’s artistic and intellectual achievements develops acumen, heightens sensitivity to experience, and enhances our sensibilities. Founded in 2008, the Northeastern Humanities Center supports faculty and student research in the humanities and social sciences; facilitates collaboration across disciplines; and presents humanistic and social scientific research to the wider university community and the general public. Through working groups, forum discussions, symposia, seminars, workshops, informal dialogues, conferences, and joint projects, the Center supports a wide-ranging interdisciplinary exchange of ideas in an atmosphere of respect for different perspectives, experiences, and expertise. By offering various opportunities for engagement with art, literature, philosophy, history, and social and political formations, the work of the Humanities Center strengthens the foundation from which we can respond meaningfully to one another and the needs of our world.

Please visit our website and subscribe to our email list for information on upcoming events and programs.

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northeastern.edu/humanities

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