Announcing the 2021 BUCH Student Awardees
Each year, the Boston University Center for the Humanities recognizes the work of outstanding students in the humanities through student awards and fellowships. Selected undergraduate and graduate applicants receive monetary awards, and selected doctoral candidates nearing the end of their graduate work receive competitive fellowships for the following academic year. This year, our ceremony will […]
The Humanities Intersect with Prison Reform: Piper Kerman on Injustices in the U.S. Prison System
The National Endowment for the Humanities website states that “democracy demands wisdom,” thereby establishing an essential link between the humanities and social justice. It is this connection that the Boston University Center for the Humanities sought to explore at an event co-hosted by the Law Student Affairs Office, the Law Student Government Association, and Kilachand […]
Addressing Important Conversations Through Classics: Res Difficiles 2.0
The annual Res Difficiles: A Conference on Challenges and Pathways for Addressing Inequity In Classics tackles current pressing social issues as they intersect with the field of Classics. Coming from the phrase “Difficult Things” in Latin, this year’s remote Res Difficiles 2.0 tackled the difficult topic of social justice on March 20, 2021. This conference aims to […]
Conversation with Emily Gowen, PhD Candidate, English
Interview with Emily Gowen Dissertation Project: “On the Margins: Steady Sellers and the Problem of Inequality in Nineteenth-Century America” At what stage was your dissertation in March 2020? What were your plans at that time? For my dissertation project I study nineteenth-century American reprints, abridgments, adaptations, and graphic reimaginings of seventeenth and eighteenth century European […]
Conversation with Joanne Lafortune, MA Candidate, African American Studies Program
Interview with Joanne Lafortune What was life like for you prior to March 2020? I teach upper and middle school English literature at the Wheeler school in Providence, Rhode Island. As well as teaching English, I am also involved in attempting to diversify and decolonize all aspects of our school curriculum. One of the ways […]
Conversation with Kira Ganga Kieffer, PhD Candidate, Religion
Interview with Kira Ganga Kieffer Dissertation Project: “Pure Bodies, Sacred Souls: Religion and Vaccine Skepticism in Modern American History” How did you arrive at such an opportune research project? How did you manage to reverse the usual trajectory by securing a book deal prior to completing the dissertation? When the pandemic struck, I had already […]
Conversation with Merve Rumeysa Tapinç, PhD Candidate, Philosophy
Interview with Merve Rumeysa Tapinç Dissertation Project: “The Duty of Self-Knowledge and Moral Responsibility for Our Beliefs and Commitments” What is the subject of your research? My research focuses on the epistemic and moral problem of self-knowledge. For instance, the problem of implicit bias—its harmful effects on others—presents us with both a moral and an […]
Conversation with Hyunjin Cho, PhD Candidate, History of Art & Architecture
Interview with Hyunjin Cho Dissertation Project: “Illustrated Manuscripts of Firdausi’s Shahnama in Nineteenth-Century Iran” What is the subject of your dissertation? My general area of research is Islamic art with a specialization in the arts of the book in 19th-century Iran. In my dissertation, I focus on one literary text, an epic poem called the […]
Boston University’s Nominee Selected For Humanities Without Walls Fellowship
Alyssa Kreikemeier (PhD candidate, American & New England Studies) has been awarded a Predoctoral Career Diversity Fellowship with Humanities Without Walls (HWW) for summer 2021. Kreikemeier was the only BU student to be nominated for this prestigious award. Kreikemeier is a “writer, environmental historian, and educationalist” who focuses on the places and people in the North […]
E. Thomas Finan on Reading Reality
New publication by E. Thomas Finan (CGS humanities) – Reading Reality: Nineteenth Century American Experiments in the Real (University of Virginia Press 2021) Reading Reality: Nineteenth Century American Experiments in the Real by E. Thomas Finan, College of General Studies Senior Lecturer in Humanities, was recently published by the University of Virginia Press. The book […]