Behind the imposing structure of Russell House sits a shorter, flat yellow building on Pearl Avenue, often unnoticed by students. The University’s Center for Humanities—which is open to visiting scholars, faculty and student fellows interested in research and writing projects—is housed inside this ornately decorated building.
First established in 1959 as the Institute for Advanced Study, the building itself is rumored to be the oldest humanities building in the country. According to Professor of Psychology Jill Morawski, who has been the director of the Center for the last three years. Dubbed the Center for Humanities in 1969, the building has since become a space for increasingly interdisciplinary teaching and research.
Five classes are taught there each semester—one by a post-doctorate fellow and four by university faculty fellows. Four student fellows are selected to work on their research and projects there. The Center also hosts resident fellows.
Professor of Biology and Earth & Environmental Sciences Barry Chernoff, who is also director of the Environmental Studies Certificate Program, was a faculty fellow last semester.
“Being in residence was exhilarating,” Chernoff said.
Halim Farouk Rizk ’08, student fellow and Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies major, echoed Chernoff’s enthusiasm.
“I think it’s been an incredible resource for me in writing my thesis,” Rizk said. “I share an office with others, have tea multiple times a week with faculty, postdocs, and external research fellows, go to lectures, and attend social events.”
Each semester, the Center’s advisory board selects a theme around which lectures and seminars are organized, basing the decision on proposals from the faculty. The theme this semester, “Revision and Translation,” saw both visiting and University professors connecting translation to pressing issues in modern culture.
“Every week, the fellows get together for a colloquium where we discuss issues relevant to the theme of ’revision and translation’ in relation to the Monday night lecture series at Russell House,” Rizk said. “It lets us tie everything together and allows each of us the opportunity to bring his/her own research to the table. It has really given me an introspective into what the world of academia—at least within the division of the humanities—looks like.”
The Center also sponsors individual research and teaching projects for its fellows, and serves as a meeting place between humanities and the social sciences, making it a key site for intellectual life at Wesleyan.
“It’s truly an environment that encourages an engagement with others in all stages of the writing process,” Rizk said.
As director of the Center, Morawski said her position is exciting, but also challenging, as the discipline of humanities is often underappreciated. Rizk agreed.
“I think [the Center] is a great resource here at Wesleyan for multidisciplinary scholarly discourse, albeit an under-funded and often overlooked one,” Rizk said. “I think students have much to benefit from it.”
The next lecture at the Center for the Humanities features Professor Doug Robinson of the University Mississippi discussing “Translation as Phantom Limb” on Monday, March 3.
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