UConn will be the center the New England Humanities Consortium for the organization through 2020 according to the NEHC’s website. (Julie Spillane/The Daily Campus)
The University of Connecticut is set to be the executive and administrative hub of the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC).
“It is a huge honor for UConn to be the base for this organization, and as a group we will be able to sustain large and ambitious projects,” Alexis Boyland, associate director of the NEHC said.
UConn will be the center of operations for the organization through 2020 according to the NEHC’s website.
“We are 11 schools with humanities institutes or centers joining forces to collaborate on projects that will expand and support the study of the arts and humanities,” Boyland said. “Our goal to create a national and international hub of humanities research, teaching, and activism through NEHC.”
Along with UConn, the association includes top-tier academic institutions such as Amherst College, Colby College, Dartmouth College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Vermont, Wellesley College and Wheaton College.
“With the support then from the Mellon Foundation and their award we will be able hit the ground running with programming,” Boyland said.
According to the NEHC’s website, the establishment of the organization was all made possible by an $100,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The NEHC’s website highlights one of their major campaigns, “Time’s Up : What Now?”. It is a presentation exploring the idea that, “across the country in progressive, conservative and radical spaces, one way of being, speaking and understanding one another is coming to an end.” The campaigns ad explains that the movement both speculates and tries to foster dialogue about how future human and cultural interaction might change.
The presentation features Kate Manne, an assistant professor of philosophy at Cornell University, and Mark Rifkin a professor of English at the University of North Carolina Greensboro according to the NEFC’s website.
Another pilot project includes one that aids, mentors and provides research opportunities for faculty of color in the region according to UConn Today.
“It is really cool that UConn is becoming more involved in humanities because it shows that the ‘soft sciences’ are being valued along with STEM,” first-semester communications major Julia Shikman said. “As a member of a humanities major myself it makes me optimistic for future opportunities.”
Joseph Piccolo is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at joseph.k.piccolo@uconn.edu.