By Christine D’Auria
The BU Center for the Humanities (BUCH) and the Office of the Associate Dean of Faculty for the Humanities celebrated recent humanities publications by CAS faculty at the first annual Humanities Book Publication Party on Tuesday, February 4. Associate Dean Karl Kirchwey and BU Center for the Humanities Director and William Arrowsmith Professor in the Humanities Susan Mizruchi gave remarks addressing the astonishing range of publications, which span many centuries, regions, languages, genres, and fields. “Nothing stages the vibrancy of the humanities at BU like this output,” Mizruchi said. “It’s glorious.” Faculty from the departments of World Languages & Literatures, English, History of Art & Architecture, History, Religion, Anthropology, Romance Studies, and Philosophy spoke briefly about their recent publications, many of whom noted the BU colleagues with whom they collaborated and from whom they drew inspiration.
The broader field of humanities scholars will be enriched by these publications, which expand the conceptions of Cold War aesthetics, animals in 19th-century U.S.-American urban environments, ancient magic, travel writing, world literatures, cultures of leisure in China, Japan, and Indonesia, the films of Claude Lanzmann and John Schlesinger, among many other topics. “I am stupefied by the range of creativity and productivity of my colleagues,” said Kirchwey. All those in attendance likely shared a version of this sentiment.
You can read more about the work honored at the BUCH website.