YEARCENTERHUMANITIESINREVIEW 2021–2022 10:30 a m ET Armenian Heritage Park, Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston
Join us for a guided visit to the Armenian Heritage Park, a memorial to the Armenian Genocide We will meet at the Sculpture The visit will be guided by Barbara Tellalian and Don Tellalian, the architects of the Armenian Heritage Park The link to the Heritage Park is here
1 From Director Lori Lefkovitz 2 A Celebration of Leadership Transition 4 Resident RetrospectiveFellowship2013–2022 5 Words of Gratitude Ángel David Nieves and Gabrielle Fiorenza-Hagopian 6 ResearchCollaborativeClusters 8 Faculty ProgressWorks-in-Series 10 Fall Events2021and Programs 12 Spring 2022 Events and Programs 13 Feminism for the Future Women’s and Gender Studies Annual Symposium 14 Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Programs 18 NEH InstituteSummer2022 20 Resident ReckoningsFellowship: 21 Fellowship Reflections Gavin Shatkin and Alanna Prince 23 Fellows Symposium with Joanna Brooks 24 Director and Advisory Board 2021–2022 YEAR IN REVIEW
FROM THE DIRECTOR
I am awed by the achievements of my colleagues who received support from the Humanities Center and the power of their collaborations across disciplinary, generational, and geographic boundaries. I am awed to have worked with the distinguished faculty who have served on the Advisory Board and who have shaped a remarkably full slate of programs characterized by excellence. Thank you for your friendship, thoughtful discussions, efficiency, generosity, and tireless goodwill.
I have taken special joy in finding our way to “yes” when colleagues asked for support for their important work. The humanities help us lead meaningful lives, fostering habits of reading and writing, encouraging understanding, empathy, critical thinking, and involvement. Thank you for your partnership in building the Humanities Center at Northeastern University.
As I reflect on the nine years during which I directed the Humanities Center at Northeastern University, my overwhelming emotions are awe and gratitude.
I am personally and deeply grateful for how much I have learned in this role, working with groups of faculty fellows and our finest graduate students in the annual resident fellowship program, most recently on the theme of “Reckonings,” under the leadership of Professor Ángel David Nieves the incoming Director. With expertise in Public History, Digital Humanities, Africana Studies, and more, Professor Nieves will sustain the work of the Humanities Center and lead us in promising new directions. Our regular faculty works-in-progress and other series and the annual events we sponsor — from the Women’s and Gender Studies Symposium (this year on the topic of “Feminism for the Future: Constructive Conversations on Lesbian and Trans Identities and Politics”) to the programs on Holocaust and Genocide Awareness — contribute to the intellectual vitality and activism on campus. Directing the Center has allowed me to swim in oceans of ideas and daily witness how knowledge is produced in conversation. Professor Patricia Williams has effected some of our most extraordinary collaborations, and we are delighted that she will be convening next year’s fellowship on the theme of “Re-imaging/Re-forming,” a theme born out of distress as we look at developments in the world and the need for creativity and hope.
LORI LEFKOVITZ Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Ruderman Professor and Director of Jewish Studies Program Professor, Department of English
LORI LEFKOVITZ
The board, the Office of the Dean, under the leadership of Uta Poiger, and our staff, especially Gabrielle Fiorenza-Hagopian, created the conditions and opportunities for our colleagues to do their best work.
I am proud of the nimble ways that our Center responded to world events, exemplified by the astonishing database of teaching modules created in response to the global pandemic. I am especially gratified by the development of a minor and an initiative in Health, Humanities, and Society, under the leadership of Professors Sari Altschuler and Chris Parsons, who have secured NEH grants to elaborate curricula in this vital interdisciplinary field. I am proud of our faculty fellows who won Guggenheim awards to complete projects that they developed at the Center, and Professor Shalanda Baker, who left our fellowship mid-course to join the U.S. Department of Energy. I want to thank those colleagues who followed up on the Humanities Center themed year on “Space and Place” by hosting successful NEH Summer Institutes on “Engaging Geography in the Humanities,” including this summer (p.19). Our Center has benefited from participation in international consortia, and we are pleased to have been among the founding centers in the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC). These wider circles of engagement have been personally delightful and enriching.
Celebration of TransitionLeadership
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GABRIELLE FIORENZA-HAGOPIAN I’m fortunate to have been a part of the Humanities Center since July 2018; as the sole staff member of the Center I gained immeasurable experience supporting the many events, programs, and research initiatives the Center housed. Working alongside Lori throughout the years has been a pleasure, whether she is doling out sage advice or leading the Center through the tumult that was the early days of the COVID pandemic, she has always led with intelligence, humor, and passion. I was introduced to Ángel in 2020 when he joined the CSSH faculty and was about to convene our “Reckonings” Fellowship group. I was immediately greeted by his signature warmth and witnessed his valuable insights and dedication to the humanities during our Fellowship meetings. As I move on to my next chapter within Northeastern University and reflect on the incredible individuals I’ve collaborated with, it is truly a bittersweet goodbye.
32021–2022REVIEWINYEARNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
WORDS OF GRATITUDE ÁNGEL DAVID NIEVES INCOMING DIRECTOR
I want to thank Dean Poiger and Dr. Lori Lefkovitz in their respective roles for their ongoing and uninterrupted support of the Humanities Center, and and for their ongoing and uninterrupted support of me as theme leader this past year for the fellowship under the broad framework of “Reckonings.” I also want to thank Gabrielle Fiorenza-Hagopian for coordinating our fellowship and events and making everything run so smoothly and beautifully. Uta and Lori’s support has allowed me to be an eyewitness to the ways in which interdisciplinary faculty work across multiple disciplines, demonstrating why the humanities have always mattered in the life of the mind and should continue to matter. It has been an honor to have been entrusted with the Fellows Program this past year. I can’t thank Lori enough for this opportunity. I have grown to admire and cherish my new friends and colleagues from this enriching experience. Lori has been one of the most welcoming people to Northeastern that anyone could ever imagine. She inevitably deciphered that I was from New York — my Flushing, Queens accent (which I have worked hard to keep hidden) was not so well hidden from her — and she began her many (some subtle, some not so subtle) ways of interrogating an individual without appearing to be asking a lot of questions. Very matter of fact, just graceful enough, in that motherly, but way too smart way that she has, that you might not notice how much she was really trying to glean from your answers and how she reframed the subsequent questions so as to garner even more info. We eventually got to talking even more, and the overlaps between our stories as children of immigrant parents were undeniable. Lori’s sense of humor, her deep intellect, and her vast knowledge of the humanities and how it intersects across fields, sub-fields, and disciplines are testament to the foundation she has laid for the Humanities Center today. The numerous awards, grants, and the Faculty Fellows Program make up only a part of the ways in which the Humanities Center has helped to shape a bold conversation about the importance of the humanities in today’s STEM-obsessed academy, one still too focused on a single-minded corporate finance model that has proven unreliable and unsustainable, as it espouses a quasi neo-liberal university laden jargon. The Humanities at NU have provided, and will continue to provide, a model for ways of looking at a critical university studies framework while also engaging in collaborative, sustainable, carbon-neutral, community co-created projects across all our fields so that we can come to terms with the sorts of inequalities we have helped to reinforce at institutions of higher education, and that we can similarly help to dismantle. Lori has given us a path, and the runway needed for this sort of critically engaged scholarship, for which I am grateful as the Center’s next Director.
RetroRetrospective Resident RetrospectiveFellowship[2013–2022 ] The Northeastern Humanities Center presents: 2016–2017FELLOWS displacementdisrupti FELLOWS The Northeastern Humanities Center presents: FELLOWS 2022–2023 Re-imagining/Re-forming NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER42021–2022REVIEWINYEAR
displacementtionand FELLOWS 2020 – 2021 2022–2023 Re-forming
The focus of this cluster is on critically informed speculation as a way of revising and remediating gaps in archival knowledge.
The cluster drew on literary scholar Saidiya Hartman’s idea of “critical fabulation,” using the practice of critically informed speculation as a way of addressing and accounting for archival gaps and absences. We aimed to explore critical speculation across three dimensions: theory, practice, and ethics. Critical fabulation offers a much-needed methodology for remixing and investigating the many silences and gaps in the colonial archive, opening avenues of research once thought to be inaccessible due to the power imbalances inherent in archive creation and perspective. The group scaffolded critical and scholarly conversation and practice on the broad topic of speculative knowledge and critical fabulation, work that is increasingly gaining traction in a variety of humanities disciplines that will benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration.
The Collaborative Research Clusters give faculty the opportunity for a range of interdisciplinary research collaborations. These Research Clusters bring together scholars and practitioners from different disciplines, both within and beyond the Northeastern University community, around a shared concern. This productiveprograminterdisciplinaryfacilitatesdiscussions and collaborations among the participants, with a view toward the development of joint projects, conferences, publications, and/or major grant applications.
Speculation in the Archive: Speculative Thought as Critical Intervention Convened by: Elizabeth Maddock Dillon and Nicole Aljoe
2021–2022 CLUSTERSRESEARCHCOLLABORATIVE
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The objective of this cluster is to bring together scholars and practitioners to reflect on contemporary developments in historic preservation and cultural landscapes in twentieth-century cities. This research cluster created opportunities for discussion among Northeastern colleagues and graduate students respectively pursuing research in architecture, history, urban studies, and digital humanities. It also placed them in dialogue with local practitioners in the field and area scholars committed to thinking through the challenges and opportunities that accompany efforts to preserve cultural landscapes in cities contending with gentrification, migration, traffic, and climate change. Finally, the cluster considered how tools in the digital humanities can be used effectively for these fields, and help to establish a network of scholars in the greater Boston area interested in the intersections between historic preservation and the digital humanities.
Convened by: Suzanna Danuta Walters
The theme of this cluster is the study of American culture, encompassing the Americas as a whole and bringing together methods from across the humanities and social sciences. The purpose is to identify broad trends in American Studies as conceived within that discipline, and to explore interdisciplinary and multinational ways of thinking about the study of the history, politics, society, art, and literature of the Americas. Our goal is to build community among scholars working in the field from across CSSH, to create a sense of a common conversation across departments about research in these fields. We also discussed how we might envision building a program to make Northeastern visible as a destination for study in these areas.
Convened by: Victoria Cain
American Studies Initiative
72021–2022REVIEWINYEARNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
Contemporary Feminist Theory Book Group
Convened by: Theo Davis
for
This choices Contemporary Feminist Theory Book Group
Preserving Twentieth-Century Urban Landscapes
year’s
The primary goal of this cluster is to read cutting-edge, interdisciplinary feminist texts in the context of interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching. Books were picked collectively and represent a wide range of feminist themes and debates.
The Faculty Works-in-Progress Series 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. 2021–2022 FACULTY WORKS-IN-PROGRESS SERIES FALL CollaborativeOCTOBER20214 Complex Systems Modeling For Social Sciences and Humanities: An Interactive Demonstration Moira LearningOCTOBERZellner18From The Work of CSSH Multi-Generational Research Teams Daniel Aldrich Natasha Frost Ángel David Nieves Jessica Linker Chris Parsons Jennie Stephens NOVEMBER 1 Democratic Resilience: What Today’s Backsliding Democracies Can Learn From 1970s India Emily NOVEMBERClough 15 The Politics of Collecting: Property and Race In Aesthetic Formation Eunsong DECEMBERKim Reckonings13Fellowship 2021-2022 Suzanna Danuta Walters Chris Parsons Alanna Prince 8
SPRING 2022 JANUARY PopularConcluding24Thoughts:Economiesand Pandemic Fraud In Indonesia Doreen FEBRUARYLee Revolutionizing7 The City: Black Youth and the Fight For Civil Rights In Boston Kabria ReckoningsFEBRUARYBaumgartner28Fellowship 2021-2022 Allison Chapin Jordon Bosse Libby Adler Kara Swanson MARCH Artificial28Intelligence as Social Power Chad ReckoningsAPRILLee-Stronach11Fellowship 2021-2022 Gavin Shatkin K.J. Rawson Jessica Linker N. Fadeke Castor 92021–2022REVIEWINYEARNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
RUDERMAN LECTURE SERIES 10
Cristina Groeger Assistant Professor of History, Chair of Urban Studies, Lake Forest College
This year’s Morton E. Ruderman Memorial Lecture took the form of a series of lectures on the theme of Colors, Cultures, and Flavors of the Jews. The first two lectures ran in collaboration with the Fall 2021 Open Classroom at Northeastern University “Repairing a Divided America.”
in a nation organized around the
“Black”
MORTON
The CenterHumanitiescontinued to offer hybrid events and programs which created publicthatandcollaborationsforopportunitiesexcitinginternationalpartnershipsreachedalargeaudience.
FALL
Kabria Baumgartner Dean’s NortheasternofAssociateandProfessorAssociateofHistoryAfricanaStudies;DirectorPublicHistory,University
ERIC L. GOLDSTEIN is Judith London Evans Director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, where he is also Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies. He is the author of The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity (Princeton University Press, 2006) and, with Deborah R. Weiner, On Middle Ground: A History of the Jews of Baltimore (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018). From 2007 to 2012, he was the editor of the scholarly journal American Jewish History KABRIA BAUMGARTNER is Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies as well as Associate Director of Public History at Northeastern University. She is a historian of African American life and culture in the nineteenth-century United States. She is the author of In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America and is writing a book about the history of civil rights in nineteenth-century Boston. THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT. REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. IN PERSON ATTENDANCE IS LIMITED TO NORTHEASTERN STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF. LIVE-STREAMING ATTENDANCE IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Registration, more information and live-stream details: bit.ly/RudermanSeries-1 FOR ANY QUESTIONS CONTACT d.levisohn@northeastern.edu E.
Morton E. Ruderman Memorial Lecture Series
Zoe Burkholder Professor, StateFoundations,EducationalMontclairUniversity Jarvis Givens Assistant Professor of Education, Faculty Affiliate, African ofHarvardAfrican-AmericanandStudies,GraduateSchoolEducation
OCTOBER–DECEMBER Savage ConfrontingInequalities:Histories of Educational Inequity The “Savage Inequalities: Confronting Histories of Educational Inequity” speaker series examined the history of activists’ attempts to confront inequities in the U.S. education system. The lunchtime speaker series celebrated the 30th anniversary of renowned education writer Jonathan Kozol’s book Savage Inequalities, a searing examination of the inequity and racial injustice in the nation’s schools. These inequalities regularly break along the lines of race and class and have done so for generations. Why and how have these inequalities developed and persisted? What has been and should be done to remedy these disparities? The series featured four leading scholars of education and history whose work wrestles with these questions. Event Organizer: Victoria Cain, Associate Professor of History 2021
SPONSORED BY Open Classroom on Repairing a Divided America: cssh.northeastern.edu/policyschool/events/open-classroom/open-classroom-fall-2021/ THE PRICE OF WHITENESS: Jews, Race, and American Identity WED • OCTOBER 6, 2021 • 6-8 PM IN CONVERSATION WITH ERIC GOLDSTEIN Associate Professor of History, Emory University BAUMGARTNERKABRIA Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, Northeastern University What has it meant to be Jewish categories of and How have the ambiguities of Jewish identity complicated ideas of race in America?
OCTOBER 6 AND OCTOBER 20
The first lecture, on October 6 featured Professor Eric Goldstein of Emory University in conversation with Professor Kabria Baumgartner of Northeastern, discussing The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity. They discussed what has it meant to be Jewish in a nation organized around the categories of “Black” and “White.” How have the ambiguities of Jewish identity complicated ideas of race in America? The second Ruderman conversation was on October 20, part of a panel on Asian Americans in a MultiRacial and Multi-Religious Democracy. Speakers included Ruderman lecturer Rabbi Mira Rivera, the first Filipina-American Rabbi, ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Rivera was in conversation with Northeastern Professors Phil Thai, Matt Lee and Lily Song Rabbi Mira Rivera
OPEN LECTURECLASSROOMLINKS
“White”?
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
Event Organizer: Caitlin Thornbrough, Associate Teaching Professor in English 112021–2022REVIEWINYEAR
FILM SCREENING DECEMBER 2 In Their Shoes: Film Screening and Panel on Mass Incarceration, Addiction, and Recovery Cast member Stephen Crivellar, Producer Cheryl Buchanan, and Drug Court probation officer Christine Pancyck joined Associate Teaching Professor Caitlin Thornbrough at Northeastern University to discuss incarceration, addiction, recovery, and literature in unconventional spaces. The film “In Their Shoes” focuses on the men whose lives intersect in a prison reentry and addiction recovery creative writing program. The film was created to give voice to the unheard, disempowered, and often vilified populations in the drug crises, the easiest targets caught in the most difficult cycles. The event was designed not only to inspire policy change and sentencing reform, but to promote public education regarding drug use and overdose prevention.
Space Diplomacy and The Overview Effect
The Space Diplomacy Workshop welcomed space philosopher Frank White, author of the book The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution. Based on this book, the film “Overview” has had more than 8 million views on Vimeo. As part of a Special Issue workshop on Space Diplomacy for the Hague Journal of Diplomacy (Spring 2022), guest-edited by Professor Mai’a K. Davis Cross, White explained the dramatic cognitive change astronauts experience when traveling to space and seeing the earth not for its parts but as a whole in the midst of the universe. Their experiences shift the way they perceive themselves, the human race, and the many ‘differences’ that define politics and world affairs on earth today. White shared stories from his threedecades-long scholarly endeavor defining and expanding the concept of the Overview Effect, his encounters with astronauts and cosmonauts, and his thoughts on the future of space exploration. As space exploration is moving out of a selective field of experts into the realm of space tourism — or ‘citizen astronauts’ — White’s talk was an exciting opportunity for students and faculty interested in space as the next great, and final, frontier of international relations, diplomacy, and wonder.
NOVEMBER 18
FILM SCREENING
Event Organizer: Mai’a K. Davis Cross, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, Diversity and Inclusion; Director of the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures; Dean’s Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Diplomacy
SPRING 2022 APRIL 5 The Sustainability Worldview: A Documentary Project A Humanities Center Events and Programs grant supported the project entitled “The Sustainability Worldview,” which funded the production and screening of Plastic Linings on April 5, 2022, a documentary short film. Additional support for the film was provided by the Department of Economics, Northeastern University, Sustainable Practices (501(c)3 non-profit), and 25 student organizations. The film was screened at Blackman Auditorium to a live audience of 300 students and an online audience of an additional 150. The program included both the documentary and a panel discussion and ended with a call to action for Northeastern University. The production of the film formed the basis of Sustainable U productions, a student initiative to promote sustainability on the University’s Boston campus and potentially beyond. Event Organizer: Madhavi Venkatesan, Assistant Teaching Professor of Economics FILM SCREENING MARCH 25 Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Annual Women’s History Month Symposium (see pg 13 for complete details) NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER12
Last year’s virtual Symposium was a seamless success, but it was wonderful to return on March 25, 2022, to our inperson format and our usual venue: the beautiful and inviting Cabral Center. As usual, I enlisted our Executive Committee to help pick a general topic and then a smaller Symposium committee convened to hammer out the details. We aim for something a bit different with our Symposium: a highly curated, invitation only event where we strongly encourage an expressive, engaged style of presentation. In other words: no reading of papers! We typically invite a mix of scholars and activists and journalists/pundits but this year members of the committee made a strong argument to invite only scholars to speak at this event. We departed from tradition in large part because it was our belief that part of the problem with the current discussion of the relationship between trans and lesbian identities and politics was that it was carried out too much on Twitter and other fast food social media sites. In other words, we needed to bring our scholarly depth, historical reflection, and analytic rigor to bear on a topic that was too often discussed in tirades and name-calling jeremiads. We made the right call. In fact, many felt that this was our most interesting and enlightening symposium yet. Comments like “I really learned something” and “I never thought of it that way” were commonplace even amongst those of us whose stock in trade is feminist and queer praxis. We had a robust, nuanced conversation that took for granted the shared fate of lesbian and trans activism and then proceeded to delve into connections, disconnections, histories, fears and fantasies in order to imagine a more productive engagement in these discussions of identity and politics.
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS)
SUZANNA DANUTA WALTERS Professor and Director, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies; Editor, Signs, College of Social Sciences and Humanities A CLOSER LOOK >>>
Feminism for the Future: Constructive Conversations on Lesbian & Trans Identities & Politics
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The sold-out symposium brought in over 120 people over the course of the day, including Northeastern faculty, staff, and both graduate and undergraduate students. Speakers included preeminent trans historian Susan Stryker, Canadian legal theorist Brenda Cossman, sociologist Tey Meadow, and radical feminist activist and scholar Finn Mackay from the UK. Always cognizant of Signs/WGSS synergies, this year’s symposium also featured a number of Signs authors, including Emily Owens, Mairead Sullivan, V. Varun Chaudhry, and Stimpson prize winner Cameron Awkward-Rich. To a one, the speakers were engaging and thoughtful, pushing the audience to think deeply about belonging, about the relationship of feelings to identity, about lesbian and trans fears of erasure in a world in which both identities are often marginalized even within progressive queer communities. The speakers and moderators (Libby Adler, K.J. Rawson and myself) also modeled a kind of generosity of spirit that provided a welcome antidote to the often-acrimonious ways in which these communities have interacted. In true WGSS fashion, the conversation was thoughtful, vibrant, interdisciplinary, multigenerational, and multicultural: all the hallmarks of our own faculty and curriculum. A truly inspiring event made even more meaningful in the context of the ongoing attacks against women, trans folk, and the queer community.
132021–2022REVIEWINYEAR
Annual Women’s History month symposium back in person!
PROGRAMS What does reparation and justice look like for surviving generations of families with brutal histories who experienced immeasurable losses? Are there lessons for America to be learned from the German reparations that Holocaust survivors received? MARGARET BURNHAM University Distinguished Professor of Law and Director, Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, Northeastern University MENACHEM KAISER Author of Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure about his family’s efforts to recover property left behind in Poland after the Holocaust IN CONVERSATION WITH REPARATIONS,PLUNDER,&RESTORATIVEJUSTICE Registration for either in-person or bit.ly/OpenClassroom-Reparationsvirtual: THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT. REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. IN PERSON ATTENDANCE IS LIMITED TO NORTHEASTERN STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF. LIVE-STREAMING ATTENDANCE IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. FOR ANY QUESTIONS CONTACT d.levisohn@northeastern.edu CollegeBoston3Gof Arts, Media and Design College of Social Sciences and Humanities Africana Studies Program Department of English Department of History Humanities Center Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee Jewish Studies Program Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy Open andSchoolClassroomofPublicPolicyUrbanAffairs WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021 • 6-8 PM ET
In the fall of 2021, the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee co-sponsored, as part of the Myra Kraft Open Classroom, a program on Plunder, Reparations, and Historical Justice, which featured Menachem Kaiser, author of the book Plunder, in conversation with Margaret Burnham, the Director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project. This year’s Open Classroom — a program in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs that invites public participation in a Northeastern class around theme of current interest — was organized by Ted Landsmark (Director of the Dukakis Center) and Jonathan Kaufman (Director of the School of Journalism) in consultation with Lori Lefkovitz (Director of Jewish Studies) on the theme of Repairing a Divided America. Mr. Kaiser explained the motivations behind his efforts to seek restitution of property owned by his family in Poland before the Holocaust and had a lively discussion with Prof. Burnham about philosophical questions relating to the purpose of restitution and how or whether restorative justice is something that can be achieved.
From left: Simon Rabinovitch, Lori Lefkovitz, Menachem Kaiser, Margaret Burnham, Uta Poiger, Ted Landsmark, and Jonathan Kaufman
The Northeastern students, faculty, and staff who make up the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee — a Northeastern committee that has planned Holocaust commemorative and educational programming since the 1970s — felt an acute need this year to make the university the physical center, again, for our community of learning. After pivoting to online programming during the pandemic, Northeastern’s Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee returned in 2021-22 to a robust calendar of in-person and hybrid events. Gathering together in a shared space is an important part of learning, and an activity we were thankful to be able to do again. The shift to hybridity also opened up new possibilities to include members of the Northeastern community and public who could not make it to campus, and to bypass geographical limits and reach hundreds of friends and colleagues around the world.
HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE AWARENESS
Years of pandemic have taken a toll on everyone, and 2022 has seen new sources of stress, not least Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting refugee crisis. At the same time, many feel strongly that antisemitism in the United States and globally is on the rise and gaining legitimacy.
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Drawing upon archival acclaimedmaterialshistorianJeffreyVeidlingershowsforthefirsttimehowthiswaveofgenocidalviolencecreatedtheconditionsfortheHolocaust.
The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front The men of the Christian Front imagined themselves as crusaders fighting for the spiritual re-conquest of the nation. AntiSemitic and anti-Communist, they created an undetected Nazi spy ring headquartered in the Copley Square Hotel and conducted some of the most damaging espionage against the US during WWII. Nazis of Copley Square is a grim tale of faith perverted to violent ends.
SALOMONROBERTPress.
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Jeffrey Veidlinger is Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. Professor Veidlinger is the author of In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust and the awardwinning books, In the Shadow of the Shtetl: Small-Town Jewish Life in Soviet Ukraine, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage and Jewish Public Culture in the Late Russian Empire Veidlinger is the chair of the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History, a member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy for Jewish Research, a member of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and a former vicepresident of the Association for Jewish Studies.
IN THE MIDST OF CIVILIZED EUROPE: THE POGROMS OF 1918-1921 AND THE ONSET OF THE HOLOCAUST
VEIDLINGERJEFFREY
From left: Morgan Knight (student), Laurel Leff, JodyGallagher,Lefkovitz,Rabinovitch,SimonLoriCharlesandKipnis
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Please adhere to NU visitor guidelines For more information about this, and other 2022 Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee events, please visit bit.ly/HAGAW2022
NAZIS SQUARE:COPLEYof
For more information about this, and other 2022 Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee events, please visit bit.ly/HAGAW2022
The Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee has long relied on the generosity of the Giessen and Morton families in sponsoring what is the keynote lecture of our annual Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week, the Robert Salomon Morton Lecture, which showcases a prominent scholar or public figure working in the fields of antisemitism research, Holocaust history, or genocide prevention. This year we expanded the Morton program into a lecture series, featuring the work of three prominent historians doing important work on antisemitism and historical memory. The first lecture was by Jeffrey Veidlinger, Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, who talked about his new book, In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust. Prof. Veidlinger gave his lecture on February 28, just four days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and was able to explain not only how anti-Jewish violence during Ukraine and Russia’s civil war operated as a precursor to the Holocaust, but Prof. Veidlinger also led a broader discussion on how much Ukraine has changed in the decades since the end of the Soviet Union. The second Morton Lecture for 2022 was by Charles Gallagher, Professor of History at Boston College, who spoke about his new book, Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten History of the Christian Front, 1939-1945. Prof. Gallagher told the story of how Catholic theology fueled both antisemitic violence and a Nazi spy ring in Boston during the years of World War II and the Holocaust, and he did so from the perspective of both a historian and a Catholic priest.
Charles R. Gallagher, S.J., is an Associate Professor of History at Boston College. In 2017, he was the William J. Lowenberg Memorial Fellow on America, the Holocaust, & the Jews, at the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. In 2009, his book, Vatican Secret Diplomacy: Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII (Yale, 2008), won the American Catholic Historical Association’s John Gilmary Shea Prize. Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front was published in September 2021 by Harvard University
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
CHARLES GALLAGHER,R.S.J.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022 5:30 PM MUGAR 201 • FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Co-sponsored by Department of History Holocaust and Genocide
Between 1918 and 1921, over a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine and Poland by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Aid workers warned that six million Jews were in danger of extermination.complete
SALOMONROBERT MORTON LECTURESERIES
MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 5:30 PM • MUGAR 201 EVENT WILL BE LIVESTREAMED Co-sponsored by Department of History Holocaust and Genocide
MORTON LECTURESERIES
THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2022 6:00–7:30 PM • WEST VILLAGE F020 • IN PERSON & LIVESTREAMED JAN GRABOWSKI is a Professor of History at the University of Ottawa and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Professor Grabowski’s book: Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in GermanOccupied Poland has been awarded the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for 2014. In 2018 he co-edited and co-authored Dalej jest noc to be published later this year in English. His most recent book, On Duty: The Role of the Polish “Blue” Police in the Holocaust was published in Poland in March 2020. Holocaust denial has recently been replaced with Holocaust distortion. In Poland, and in other countries of Eastern and Central Europe, it entails admitting that the Holocaust happened while denying, against the historical evidence, the widespread complicity of the members of one’s own national or ethnic community. Particularly alarmingly, in Poland, Holocaust distortion is sponsored by the state. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Please adhere to NU visitor guidelines For more information about this, and other 2022 Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee events, please visit bit.ly/HAGAW2022
The State-Sponsored Attack on the Memory of the Holocaust in Poland REQUIRED
AWARENESS WEEK
Presented by the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee, the Jewish Studies Program, and the Humanities Center. Sponsored by the Robert S. Morton Lecture Fund at Northeastern University.
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The 29 th Annual ROBERT SALOMON MORTON LECTURE FROM HOLOCAUST DENIAL TO HOLOCAUST DISTORTION
HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE
Our final Morton Lecture, held during Holocaust and Genocide Awareness week, featured Jan Grabowski, Professor of History at the University of Ottawa and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Prof. Grabowski spoke about the dangers of a new form of Holocaust distortion spreading through Eastern Europe, where countries admit the Holocaust happened but deny and repress evidence of complicity in the event. Prof. Grabowski discussed his own first-hand experience of facing legal action in Poland for his research and publishing. Each of these fascinating Morton Lectures dealt with an aspect of how the Holocaust is remembered, not remembered, or distorted to specific political or national ends; the corrective work these scholars shared left our community enriched and better informed about the challenges of sustaining an accurate history of the events of the Holocaust.
The programming of Holocaust and Genocide Awareness week in 2022 similarly highlighted questions of memory and justice. One of the highlights of each Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week is always the exposition of student work through a presentation by the Gideon Klein Scholar, a student selected to receive a scholarship supporting their work on music, the arts, and the Holocaust. Zachary Richmond, a graduating senior in the Music Industry Program in the College of Arts, Media, and Design, gave a gripping presentation and performance called Syncopating Freedom: The Third Reich’s Use of Jazz as Propaganda, in which he walked the audience through instances when the Nazis appropriated and distorted the work of jazz musicians for their own propaganda, and performed the original works live with his own band. The Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee is thrilled that the continuation of the Gideon Klein Scholarship has been assured by a new and generous endowment established through a gift of the Holocaust Legacy Foundation, founded by Todd Ruderman and Jody Kipnis
Gideon Klein Scholar Zachary Richmond, on drums
Read more about the HAGAW 2022 events.
Presented by the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee, the Jewish Studies Program, and the Humanities Center.
PHILIP N. BACKSTROM JR. SURVIVOR LECTURE ADVOCATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, ANTI-PREJUDICE AND EQUALITY Dr. Kaposi is a Hungarian-born British engineer, educator and author. In 2020, she published her autobiography Yellow Star-Red Star about her life as a child in Hungary before and during the Second World War and under Communist rule, and her subsequent escape to Britain. She earned her PhD in Computer Aided Design and led the electrical engineering department at what is now London South Bank University and consulted in engineering around the world. She became the third woman in UK history to have been elected as Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2021, Queen Elizabeth awarded her the honor of Member of the British Empire for her work in Holocaust education.
Students and faculty were led on a guided visit to the Armenian Heritage Park, a memorial to the Armenian Genocide on the Greenway, and were introduced to the park and memorial by its architects, Barbara and Don Tellalian
The importance of the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee’s work seems only more urgent each year, as members of the generation who experienced or bore witness to the Holocaust leave us, and humans continue to demonstrate their capacity for hate and violence. As committee chair, I continue to feel particular pride in our students’ engagement in Holocaust education, and their energy and commitment to study, learning, and memorialization. With all of the difficulties our world faces, we can take a measure of solace from the seriousness, compassion, and intellect of the next generation.
Simon Rabinovitch Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies, Chair, Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee Register Here!
REQUIREDREGISTRATION
APRIL 5, 2022 NOON EDT • ONLINE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. For more information about this, and other 2022 Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee events, please visit bit.ly/HAGAW2022.
Finally, Northeastern’s Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee has worked to expand its mission to commemorate and understand all forms of genocide
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
Students and faculty also learned in a lunch seminar from Nicole Fox, the author of After Genocide: Memory and Reconciliation in Rwanda, about her experiences on the ground in Rwanda as a scholar documenting ordinary Rwandans’ efforts to memorialize genocide.
Student and Faculty Visit to the Armenian Heritage Park 172021–2022REVIEWINYEAR
Wednesday April 6 2022 10:30 a m ET Armenian Heritage Park Rose Kennedy Greenway Boston Join us for a guided visit to the Armenian Heritage Park a memorial to the Armenian Genocide We will meet at the Sculpture The visit will be guided by Barbara Tellalian and Don Tellalian the architects of the Armenian Heritage Park The link to the Heritage Park is here
Dr. Agnes Kaposi delivered virtually from London the 2022 Philip N. Backstrom Jr. Survivor Lecture. Dr. Kaposi spoke about her childhood in Hungary, how she survived the Holocaust there, her reasons for immigrating to the United Kingdom from communist Hungary, and the problems with Holocaust memory in Hungary today. Dr. Kaposi is very prominent in the UK, both as as an engineer and a Holocaust educator: she was only the third woman elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and in 2021 Queen Elizabeth awarded her the honor of Member of the British Empire for her work in Holocaust education. We also featured a “Third Generation Student Presentation,” as Northeastern student Randall Evers spoke about his late grandfather George, and we listened to a recording of George Evers telling his story of survival in and after Auschwitz.
FEATURING DR. KAPOSIAGNES,MBE, RFEng
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER182021–2022REVIEWINYEAR
The poet Walt Whitman writes that in the urban environment we see “the past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable together.” Inspired by this idea, this three-week Summer Institute, “Engaging Geography in the Humanities,” used our location in Boston to explore the layered nature of space and place and consider its implications for our teaching, research, and writings in the humanities. The Institute welcomed 20 scholars in the humanities (and related fields) who currently engage themes of space and place in their work, as well as those interested in learning how to do so. Through a series of workshops, participants gained exposure to the emerging field of digital humanities and some of its possibilities for spatial representation and analysis. Participants were exposed to digital projects and receive handson training on tools such as 3D modeling, web mapping, and Geographical Information System (GIS). In addition to providing practical skills, sessions, and workshops, we critically examined the meanings of maps and the uses of digital technology in humanistic inquiries. The successful series of workshops were led by institute leaders, Dr. Liza Weinstein, Dr. Ángel David Nieves, and Dr. Serena Parekh who ensured that participants gained an understanding of Boston through local food tours and walking tours of neighborhoods, alongside critical engagements with Boston’s histories of enslavement through tours of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, The Black Heritage Trail, Faneuil Hall, and much more.
JUNE 13 – JULY 1, 2022 NEH 2022 SUMMER INSTITUTE: ENGAGING GEOGRAPHY IN THE HUMANITIES LEARN MORE 19NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
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. Nieves Professor of Africana Studies, History, and Digital Humanities; Director of Public Humanities
Lori Lefkovitz ofProfessor,StudiesandRudermanHumanitiesNortheasternCenterProfessorDirectorofJewishProgramDepartmentEnglish
ÁngelCONVENERDavid
Director,
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER202021–2022REVIEWINYEAR
ReflectionsCenterHumanities
As a Humanities Center Fellow this past year, I experienced a series of ‘aha’ moments the likes of which I have rarely had in my career as an academic.
GAVIN SHATKIN
When I first applied to be a Humanities Center Fellow, I was thinking it would afford me the time to dive deep into my project. The full year to focus solely on my dissertation would be a real privilege — something not many others receive, and I was excited at the possibilities of what my project could become. When I was awarded the fellowship I was overjoyed — after a long period of tough news during the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it got me excited about my scholarship all over again. I spent the summer ahead of the Humanities Center collecting material to focus on, contacting my subjects for interviews, and getting ready to put together a strong dissertation. The project, “Luminous Black: On Making Time, the World, and the Self in Black Women’s Poetry” focuses on contemporary Black women’s poetry, and how these poets use their art to tell stories about history, from a feminist and decolonized perspective. This includes doing archival research, but also leaning into the spectral, the intuitive, and the unknowable. I argue that this work is not just accurate, but that it tells a truth that is lacking from common history books. This fellowship provided me with the privilege and luxury of being able to take my work to a new level. But it is not just my work that was enhanced by this fellowship. I was also lucky to join an active community of scholars once again. Even prior to our first meeting I was thoroughly impressed by my co-fellows. I was thankful that they treated me as a colleague and intellectual. Throughout our meetings, I watched as they offered one another feedback, sometimes with passion and fervor, other times with grace and compliments, but always with compassion and respect. It was what turned out to be one of my greatest lessons of the experience — how to give direct and thoughtful feedback, feedback that is effective and not just a perfunctory gesture of “here are my thoughts.” That was an invaluable skill to learn.
In all, the Fellowship year was both humbling and inspiring. It transformed how I think about the social impact of my work, and about how my scholarship connects to other disciplines. My own project on Urbanization in Southeast Asia would never have progressed as far as it has without the rich conversations and invaluable input of my fellow Fellows. I am so grateful to them, and to the Humanities Center, for this career-altering experience.
The opportunity to engage the work of a diverse and brilliant group of scholars thinking from different disciplines, and working on varied social issues and historical periods, led to myriad insights into common themes in the reckoning of injustice around questions of race and racialization, gender, sexual orientation, class, and other forms of difference. We engaged in rich discussions on questions of representation and positionality, of the methodological challenges of dealing with silences in the archive, of the continuing struggle for academic freedom, and of the reluctance of our disciplines and associated professional fields to fully confront their own complicity in historical and contemporary injustice. These discussions were all the richer because of our interdisciplinarity, which allowed us to transcend the narrowness of disciplinary debates and approach each other’s ideas with curiosity and a sense of wonder.
Hearing from historians, lawyers, anthropologists, and rhetoricians, among others — all with their own brilliant perspectives and knowledge bases — brought my work to a new level. Not only did it make it more legible to those outside of my own field, it actually allowed me to call more scholars into the conversations that I wanted to have about the subjects of my work. I am forever grateful for my time at the Humanities Center and what it gave me, and I am excited for all of the new cohorts of scholars who will embark on this opportunity next!
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Effective feedback from the fellows is in part what made my own project so much stronger. Having spent a lot of time away from my scholarly community during the lockdowns kept me mostly in my head — previously I had been spending my days in Holmes Hall, bouncing ideas off of my cohort mates and peers in the department. But without that camaraderie, I had been blind to the shortcomings and good qualities of my own work.
ALANNA PRINCE
It was apparent from the start that the Fellowship theme of “Reckonings,” with its connotations of historical wrongs, entrenched injustice, and the imperative of restorative action, opened important new ways of thinking about scholarship in my field of urban planning.
Allison Chapin PhD DepartmentCandidate,ofHistory College of Social Sciences and Humanities
K.J. Rawson Associate Professor of English & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Coordinator of Digital Integration Teaching Initiative College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Alanna Prince PhD Candidate, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities Luminous Black: On Making Time, the World, and the Self in Black Women’s Poetry
Suzanna Danuta Walters Professor of Sociology; Professor and Director of Women’s, Gender, SexualityandStudies College of Social Sciences and Humanities
N. Fadeke Castor Assistant Professor of Religion and Africana Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities When Black Spirits Matter: A Reckoning 2021-2022
Reckoning the Urban: The Urbanization of the State and the Politics of Claims-making in Southeast Asia Kara Swanson Associate Professor of Law; Affiliate Faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies & History School of Law College of Social Sciences and Humanities
FELLOWS 22
Libby Adler Professor of Law & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies School of Law College of Social Sciences and Humanities Governing the Terrain Called Beauty
Inventing Citizens: Race, Gender, and Patents
aFeminist,Communist,Therapist:MemoirofMyMother
Christopher Parsons Associate Professor of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities Of Race and Roses
Jordon Bosse Assistant Professor, School of Nursing Bouvé College of Health Science Moral Reckoning with Nurses’ Actions, Inactions, and Silence that May Perpetuate Health Inequity Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People
Gavin Shatkin Professor of Public Policy & Architecture; Director, MS in Urban Planning and Policy & MA, International Affairs College of Arts, Media, and Design College of Social Sciences and Humanities
RepresentationsInequitable in the Digital ArchiveTransgender
Materializing Humanity: Colonial Violence and HumanitarianismImperial on Display in 1880-1925Britain,
The Fruits of Their Labor: The Work of Early 1750-1860ScientificAmericanWomen,
Jessica Linker Assistant Professor of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
2022 FELLOWS SYMPOSIUM APRIL 25, 2022 Bringing it Home: Soul Searching, White Supremacy, and the Academic Humanities Watch Recording Here 232021–2022REVIEWINYEARNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
Dr. Joanna Brooks, who holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, is a proud fourth-generation Southern Californian. At San Diego State University, she leads faculty development and student academic support efforts at that large, public, and research-intensive Hispanic-serving Institution of higher education as its Associate Vice President for Faculty Advancement. She is a founder of SDSU’s Digital Humanities Center, its Shared Governance Leadership Institute, and the Inclusive Leadership Initiative. She is also a public intellectual and an award-winning author or editor of ten books on race, religion, gender, social movements, and American culture. She has appeared in global media outlets including the BBC, NPR, the Daily Show, CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post. She is an innovator who harnesses digital tools and new technologies to advance the narratives of BiPOC communities. She facilitates “Podcasting the Humanities,” a collaboration with the National Humanities Center and SDSU’s DH Center.
LoriDIRECTORLefkovitz
BOARD
Laura Green Associate Dean of Teaching, Learning, and Experiential
Suzanna Danuta Walters Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Thomas J. Vicino Associate Dean of Graduate Professor,StudiesDepartment of Political Science, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Liza Weinstein Chair, Department of Sociology Associate andCollegeDepartmentProfessor,ofSociologyofSocialSciencesHumanities
Professor of Africana Studies, History, and Digital Humanities, Director of Public Humanities College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Elizabeth Bucar Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Graphic Design: Victoria Sax Photography: Jarvis Chen, Adam Glanzman, University,Modoono/NortheasternMatthewJennaOry
Sarah Kanouse Associate Professor, Media Arts College of Arts, Media and Design
Professor,Education Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
2021-22DIRECTORSADVISORY
Assistant Director of Events and Public Humanities Initiatives, HumanitiesNortheasternCenterOffice of the Dean, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Ángel David Nieves
Richard L. O’Bryant Director, John D. O’Bryant African American Institute
Patricia Williams University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities College of Social Sciences and SchoolHumanitiesofLaw
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER242021–2022REVIEWINYEAR
Director, Northeastern Humanities Center
Ruderman Professor and Director of Jewish Studies Program
Fiorenza-HagopianGabrielleSTAFF
SPECIAL THANKS Office of the Dean, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Ted Landsmark 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
Ronald Sandler Chair and Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion Director, Ethics Institute College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Rhetoric’s of Race within Medical Writing
Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities Revolutionizing the City: Black Youth and Civil Rights in Boston
Khoury College of Computer Sciences College of Social Sciences and Humanities Standpoint Matters: Justice and Diversity in Sociotechnical Algorithmic Systems
We invited proposals connected to any dimension of this broad field of inquiry, including literary, artistic, historical, socio-political, economic, ecological, media theoretical, philosophical, linguistic, as well as technology-focused perspectives. Patricia Williams, University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities, will lead the year-long interdisciplinary conversation among fellows about their work.
LEARN MORE Nick Beauchamp Assistant Professor of Political Science College of Social Sciences and Humanities Re-Forming Politics Online: Community Formation and Social Policing within the Left
Victoria Cain Associate Professor of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities Refuge, Revelation, Risk: A History of Adolescent Privacy in the Digital Age
Kabria Baumgartner
/Re-forming
Sina Fazelpour Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science
FELLOWS 2022–2023
Gloria Sutton CAMD Humanities Center Fellow Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History Faculty Affiliate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies College of Arts, Media and Design Pattern Recognition: Marginality as Methodology within Computational Forms of Art Ari Waldman Professor of Law and Computer Science Faculty Director, Center for Law, Information and Creativity (CLIC) School of Law Khoury College of Computer Sciences Laundering Misinformation Through Law Taylor Braswell Graduate Fellow PhD Candidate, Sociology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
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CONVENER: Patricia Williams University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities School of Law College of Social Sciences and Humanities Mindful of recent political, cultural, and environmental upheavals, the Northeastern Humanities Center theme for the 2022-23 academic year is “Re-imagining/Re-forming.”
We sought proposals that address how bedrock notions of social contract are being reconfigured by the disruptions of what some have called Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. What are the material implications of recent technological developments — broadly understood, including, for example, AI and biotechnologies — for the humanities, and for the laws and social ordering of what we have traditionally thought of as “the human”? Are we moving towards a digital social contract, and if so, who or what is determining its terms?
Encoding Justice: Towards a New Digital Social Contract
Re-imagining
Deirdre Loughridge Assistant Professor of Music Faculty Affiliate of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies College of Arts, Media, and Design Sounding Human
Historical Relationship between Urbanization and the Electric Utility Industry in Georgia and South Carolina
Cherice Escobar Jones Graduate Fellow PhD Candidate, English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Lily Song Assistant Professor of Race and Social Justice in the Built Environment College of Arts, Media and Design Re-imagining and Re-formulating Spatial Planning and Development with Local Communities
Chad Lee-Stronach Assistant Professor of Philosophy College of Social Sciences and Humanities
FELLOWS Sari Altschuler Associate Professor of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities Capable Citizens: How Disability Shaped American Citizenship
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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.
ABOUT THE NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
