2023-24 Public Humanities and Partnerships
Our departments, centers, schools and faculty are advancing the humanities through partnerships and projects with other institutions and disciplines.
Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center
The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center inaugurated a Community Resident Affiliate (CRA). George Escobar, chief of programs and services of CASA, the largest immigrant organization in the mid-Atlantic region, was the inaugural CRA. Learn more about the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center.
Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies
On October 16, the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies hosted a special webinar with experts from around the world to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas. Learn more about the Gildenhorn Institute.
The African American Digital and Experimental Humanities Initiative
Supported by a three-year, $1.4 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the next phase of the African American Digital and Experimental Humanities Initiative is growing and expanding work at the intersection of digital studies, digital humanities and Black studies.
Read MorePartnership With Baltimore Museum of Art
The Department of Art and Art History and Archaeology continued their partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). Highlights this year included a Pressly Forum panel featuring UMD alums that now serve in leadership roles at the BMA, including BMA Director Asma Naeem Ph.D. ’11; a Graduate Art History Association Distinguished Lecture by BMA Curator and Department Head for Contemporary Art Jessica Bell Brown at the Driskell Center; and UMD Museum Fellowships and undergraduate summer internship positions. Cecilia Wichmann, associate curator of contemporary art at the BMA and a Ph.D. candidate in art history, curated the exhibition “Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams,” a 50-year retrospective of the work of the Baltimore-based artist whose textile work ranges from wearables to tapestries and quilts. Art history grad Isabella Chilcoat ’23 also worked with Wichmann on the exhibition.
The 1856 Project
The 1856 Project (also known as “Universities Studying Slavery at the University of Maryland”) published its first research report on UMD’s connection to the regional context of slavery. The project staff and advisory board includes many ARHU faculty and staff, including Performing Arts Librarian Drew Barker, Associate Professor of History Christopher Bonner, Director of the Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture Quint Gregory and Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies Psyche Williams-Forson. Williams-Forson was also part of a committee of faculty and staff that crafted the first-ever UMD Enslavement Acknowledgement.
Learn more
The Freedman and Southern Society Project
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission awarded a $125,000 grant to the Department of History’s Freedmen and Southern Society Project to continue its work on the multi-volume “Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867.”
Learn More
Charting The Future Of AI
Neda Atanasoski, professor and chair in the University of Maryland’s Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, was named the inaugural associate director of education of UMD’s new Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland. The institute launched in April as a collaborative hub to support faculty research and offer innovative and experiential learning opportunities to boost the field’s workforce and inspire new generations of leaders dedicated to AI that helps solve societal problems. With support from Distinguished University Professor John Horty of the Department of Philosophy, she is coordinating the launch of two new undergraduate majors in AI that will allow students to prepare for a range of careers, all rooted in responsible use that advances the public good.