Building the Future at the National Humanities Conference
“It isn’t the time to close ourselves off to the world. This is the time to be brave…to build the future we want.”
These words, spoken by Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities Shelly C. Lowe, kicked off the day at the 2024 National Humanities Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, November 16, 2024, presented by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the National Humanities Alliance. As a student staff member at the BU Center for the Humanities, I was honored to serve as a representative for the Center and learn more about what universities and public humanities organizations are doing around the country to protect and promote humanistic research and programming.
Lowe’s speech not only envisioned a future shaped by the humanities, but also conceptualized the humanities as a tool to remember, rethink, and respond to the past. Pointing to projects across the United States, Lowe—a citizen of the Navajo nation and leader in Native American Studies in her former administrative roles at the University of Arizona, Harvard, and Yale—highlighted increased attention to Indigenous and Native American studies as one way humanists are engaging with more perspectives on the nation’s past.
One step in this growing engagement has been the NEH’s work with Indigenous scholars and activists. 2023 National Humanities Medalist Rosita Worl, founder of the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Alaska, is another figure who draws on the past. Responding to her own experience being forced into the boarding school system, she focuses on language and cultural preservation in the present. In Massachusetts, NEH grants supported a development program for K-12 educators titled Teaching Native American Histories and a workshop on Native American, Indigenous, and Land-Based Social and Political Philosophy. “In history, literature, and philosophy, we can work through our pain and find our way home,” said Lowe.
After hearing from Lowe, I had the chance to attend smaller panels on how to enhance humanities programming at the organizational or local level, including a panel on the use of audio media and one on the importance of community engagement. I also had the chance to hear from representatives from the University of Arizona, where the number of humanities majors has increased by 36% since 2016, defying the larger trend away from the humanities amongst undergraduates.
Attending this conference was an invaluable experience for me, and I hope to bring my new knowledge from humanists and organizations around the country back to the Center to continue making our programming accessible, engaging, and reparative for the BU community and the larger Boston area.