The Center for Humanities at Tufts supports a variety of faculty and student-led research projects and academic groups. Through these efforts, our goal is to provide resources and space for interdisciplinary collaboration in the humanities, humanistic social sciences, and the arts. Faculty or students interested in developing new research initiatives, working groups, or collaborations should reach out to us. Proposals are welcome. Below are some of our current and past initiatives.
Slavery, Colonialism, and their Legacies at Tufts
Beginning in 2023, the Center for the Humanities, in partnership with the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD), the Tufts Archival Research Center (TARC) and the Office of Provost, will take a leading role in a university-wide collaborative research initiative to examine the history of slavery, colonialism, and their legacies at and beyond Tufts University. The project will provide systematic, sustained support for interdisciplinary scholarship and public programming focused on Tufts’ historical ties to the African American and Afro-Native communities of West Medford and Somerville; American empire and colonial dispossession; anti-slavery, Universalism, and social movements; and the long presence of African descended and indigenous people and communities on Tufts’ campus.
Half the History Research and Action Project
A digital archive to document women’s stories. The Center for the Humanities served as an incubator for this ongoing project during AY 2022-2023.
The Aurality Hub
Starting in the spring of 2024, this multidisciplinary group will be offering a series of events to engage faculty and their guests. This group is a collaborative initiative between the music department, the SMFA, and the Center for the Humanities. The Aurality Hub aims to reposition the media of academic inquiry and disciplinary hierarchies by way of the aural register - sound, music, noise, silence; orality, soundscape; listening, hearing; acoustics, vibrational practices and more.
Reading and Writing Groups
Faculty & Fellows Writing Group is hosted nearly every Friday at the Fung House, 48 Professors Row, from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. This group is hosted by CHAT. All faculty, fellows, or dissertation writers are welcome to join us. If you have questions, please email humanities@tufts.edu.
The Educationist Reading Group welcomes faculty from across the arts and humanities departments. We meet two to three times a semester to discuss philosophies of teaching and learning as crucial to scholarly practice and humanist inquiry. We are interested in these writings within their historical and intellectual frameworks as well as how they shape our approaches in the classroom. This group is hosted by Jennifer Minnen. If you have questions, please email her: jennifer.minnen@tufts.edu.
The Graduate Humanities Circle (GHC) is an interdisciplinary community space for graduate students in the humanities including (but not limited to) English, History, Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies, and SMFA, etc. The Circle hosts bi-monthly member meetings at the Center for the Humanities to build communities, share research and pedagogy, and offer mutual support.
