University of Rochester President Joel Seligman has announced that he is increasing the University's commitment to the humanities for the duration of his presidency. The current Humanities Project, which Seligman created in 2006, supports interdisciplinary work by Rochester faculty in philosophy, the arts, languages, and other fields. The current annual funding for the Humanities Project is $150,000.
"I am pleased to announce an additional commitment of $100,000, raising the total amount to $250,000 per year for the humanities," Seligman said. "The projects and the cross-disciplinary collaboration that result from this special focus on the humanities are adding great value to our institution."
"The humanities are central to the life of the University," said Peter Lennie, provost and the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering. "This support has done much to highlight the vitality and distinction of humanities, and I am delighted that it is being expanded."
"President Seligman's increased commitment to the humanities will allow us not only to continue the fantastic work of the Humanities Project, but to expand our funding of humanities-related projects into areas we had been unable to tackle before," said Thomas DiPiero, dean for humanities and interdisciplinary studies.
The Humanities Project initiative encompasses programs that emphasize collaboration across the disciplines, and often with several institutions in the greater Rochester community, as well as scholars from other national and regional institutions. The individual projects are selected from proposals reviewed by a committee of department chairs in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering.
Some of the Humanities Projects scheduled for the 2013-14 academic year include a panel of distinguished writers and scholars discussing new conceptions of black identity for the 21st century; a workshop series, "Metaphysics of Physics"; and a symposium, "Violence, Memory, and Social Recovery."