Letter from the Director

I take great pleasure in welcoming you to the newly established College of Arts and Sciences Center for the Humanities at the University of Miami. The Center seeks to bring together faculty from various disciplines from within the university as well as from outside to work together on projects focusing on the humanities. To this end, in our inaugural year we helped organize “Milton Alive at 400: Samson Agonistes and Religious Violence” to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Milton’s birth. This symposium brought together faculty from University of Miami and Florida International University, as well as scholars from other universities, to discuss the timely topic of religious violence. You can now view the video of this panel on our website. Please also take a look at our BookTalk video series, where members of our faculty discuss their recently published books.

We have just announced our first group of faculty and dissertation fellows, who will meet to discuss their works in progress during 2009-10. We have also learned that we were recommended for funding by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs Community Grants Program Panel to collaborate with area arts organizations in a series of videotaped commentary by our faculty on theater and dance productions, museum exhibits, and concerts. These “Insight Tracks” will debut on our website this fall.

Also for fall 2009, we are planning an inaugural lecture to be delivered by Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor at Harvard University, the former director of the Humanities Center at Harvard and a former president of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes. Professor Garber, a prominent scholar of Shakespeare and of a diverse array of topics in cultural studies, will be speaking on the centrality of the arts and culture in education today, and on the role of the university as a patron of the arts.

As Henry King Stanford Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Daniel Mato, Professor of Social Sciences and Chair of the Program on Culture, Communication, and Social Transformation at the Center for Postdoctoral Research, Universidad Central de Venezuela, will offer in fall 2009 a Program Seminar in Latin American and Caribbean Studies: “Interculturalities: Relations, Conflicts, and Negotiations across Cultural Differences in Latin America.” His visit is sponsored by the Latin American Studies (Programs and Center). In March, 2010, Bas C. van Fraassen, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, will be in residence as Stanford Distinguished Professor; his visit is sponsored by the Philosophy Department.

For spring 2010, we are planning two symposia, organized by interdisciplinary faculty and graduate student research groups: one on “Atlantic Narratives,” and the other on “Trans Global/Global Trans.”

Beyond 2009-10, we are planning for spring 2011 a major conference on anthropology and the humanities, “Imagining Culture(s), Undoing Disciplines.” We also envision collaborative projects among faculty in the humanities and in law, as well as in the sciences and medicine.

I would like to take this occasion to thank Dean Michael Halleran and Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities Perri Lee Roberts for being strong and effective advocates for the Center. The faculty committee that drew up the initial proposal for the Center and the Center’s current faculty board have given their time and wisdom in envisioning its mission. It goes without saying that the Center could not have been established without the enthusiastic support of the chairs and faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences. Finally, I am delighted to be joined by our able Associate Director, Kyle Siebrecht. I’m sure you will enjoy working with her as much as I already have.