HumaniTeas are informal gatherings enjoyed with conversation, snacks, and beverages! At HumaniTeas, a featured faculty member is invited to share personal stories about their scholarship, teaching, and experiences outside of academia with undergraduates across humanities disciplines. This small and personal setting of HumaniTeas gatherings helps faculty feel more accessible to students and provides students with insight into the broad humanities community at BU.
Past HumaniTeas
Fall 2022
After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the Center was happy to reinaugurate its HumaniTeas series on November 30, 2022, welcoming Professor Margarita Guillory (RN & AFAM) to the office to chat with undergraduates about her path to academia. Professor Guillory discussed her journey from high school chemistry teacher and medical school applicant to a scholar of religion, reflecting on the importance of teachers in shaping students’ interests. Later, the conversation turned toward Professor Guillory’s work in digital religion, a newer field that explores the intersection of religious practice and technology. Students discussed their own experiences engaging with religion in digital forums, and Guillory reflected on the ways in which spiritualism plays out in digital spaces like #witchtok today. The conversation touched on topics from online gatekeeping of religious practice to the commodification of religion, making for a lively and highly engaging evening.
Professor Roberta Micallef (WLL & WGS) — Professor Micallef talked about the unusual and welcome freedom she has found at BU in her role as a master lecturer. She also spoke about how collegiality has always been centrally important to her in her work as both a scholar and a teacher. Micallef emphasized the range of pursuits that have been open to her.
Fall 2019
Professor James Johnson (History) – Professor Johnson discussed his multifaceted career as a historian and musician and reflected on how his two disciplines inform each other.
Spring 2019
- Professor Greg Williams (History of Art & Architecture) – Professor Williams talked about how his curatorial work in the art world informs his work as a professor now.
- Professor Alexis Peri (History) – Professor Peri detailed her journey through different occupations and her experience as a first-generation college student attending graduate school and going on to become a professor.
Fall 2018
- Professor Sasha Nikolaev (Linguistics & Classical Studies) – Professor Nikolaev described his experience in both the European and US education systems and how these affected his decision to ultimately study Linguistics.
- Professor Louis Chude-Sokei (African American Studies & English) – Professor Chude-Sokei discussed his path to academia and how his interdisciplinary interests have converged in his research.
Spring 2018
- Professor Jennifer Knust (Religion, WGS) – Professor Knust described her complex relationship to her own religious upbringing and
how this was reconciled with her eventual study of Religion as an academic discipline.
- Professor Christopher Ricks (Core Curriculum, Editorial Institute) – Professor Ricks spoke about his experience in a British boarding school and the formative teachers with contrary perspectives on interpreting literature who helped to shape his own approach to scholarship and teaching.
- Professor Anna Henchman (English) — Professor Henchman detailed her journey through different occupations, and how she learned to ask on the point of committing to a vocation whether the profession and the people in it were helping her to express her best self.
