Boston University

Humanities

Alumni

Pulitzer Prize Winner and Former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith Headlines Robert Lowell Memorial Poetry Reading Tuesday

April 11, 2022

Photo of Martha Schick (MDiv’22) lighting a candle in Gordon Chapel. A white woman with short hair wearing a mask lights a candle with a long match in a darkened chapel

Religion

Photo Essay: What My Faith Means to Me

March 23, 2022

photo of Untangle Magazine’s creators Emily Wu (left) and Alyssa Yeh, 2 Asian American women. They sit on a brownstone stoop and smile to the camera.

Asian American Experience

BU Students Launch New Magazine Celebrating the Various Nuances of the Asian American Experience

January 21, 2022

Photo of a class walking through Arnold Arboretum. They are framed by a vine of leaves, it looks like early fall.

Classes

New Interdisciplinary Class Asks: “What Do Plants Know?”

November 10, 2021

Photo of James Schmidt, wearing a white face mask, and side-lit by a projector, as he lectures, with a clip from the classic 1959 movie Hiroshima Mon Amour projected on a screen behind him.

Humanities

Catastrophe & Memory

November 5, 2021

a black and white photo of author Gail Mazur sitting at table with chin resting on her hand in front of a bright window.

Creative Writing

A BU Teacher and Her Former Student Headline Lowell Memorial Poetry Reading

October 28, 2021

Photo of The COM green on June 17 looking towards the Kilachand building. Purple flowers are seen in the right foreground, and people seated at the red outdoor tables are seen at left.

Humanities

Humanities Center Summer Program Teaches the Classics to Local High Schoolers

August 4, 2021

Photo, from behind, of the class walking down Commonwealth Avenue Mall on a bright summer's day.

History

A Deep Dive into Boston University History

July 1, 2021

Photo of Swati Rani teaching a writing class on Marsh Plaza on April 6, 2021. The class sits in a circle on blankets on the ground; they all wear face masks. Rani gestures as she speaks as the students listen and look towards her.

Writing

Swati Rani’s CAS Class Explores Being Asian and Building Community

May 4, 2021

Composite image. At left, a photo of Gianluca Stringhini (ENG) looking serious, with his hand in his pocket, wearing a gray blazer and standing in a hallway with a wooden wall in the background. At right, a photo of Chen Ling (ENG’24), a PhD student, leaning against a wooden rail, and slightly smiling and looking determined. She wears a gray sweater.

Racism

BU Researchers Warned of Online Surge of Anti-Asian Attacks a Year Ago

March 22, 2021

Portrait of Ibram X. Kendi standing in front of a lavendar background

Books

Ibram Kendi Recruited 90 Writers to Tell a 400-year History of Black America, and now “Four Hundred Souls” is a Bestseller

February 25, 2021

Arts & Culture

Two Poets, Drawn by History, Headline Thursday’s Lowell Poetry Reading

February 18, 2021

Composite image. On the left, the book cover for ‘Diners, Dudes and Diets’ by Emily Contois. An illustration of a hamburger fills out the cover, buns sandwich the title text. On the right is a portrait of Emily Contois, a young woman with her hair pulled back and a ruffled blouse smiles welcomingly. The images are place on a wooden grain background.

Books

Diet Yogurt and Guy Fieri: How Food Media Constructed “Dude” Masculinity

February 18, 2021

Image of a studtent studying at the Mugar Library during the campus quarantine on March 2020. There is a green couch in the foreground, and colorful bookshelves on either side of the student.

Humanities

New BU Center for the Humanities Summer Program for Local High Schoolers Launches with $300K Grant

February 1, 2021

Photo of Kamala Harris raising her right hand as she is sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, her husband US Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, wears a black mask, and holds the Bible, during the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th US President on January 20, 2021

Gender

What Should Doug Emhoff, America’s Inaugural Second Gentleman, Do with the Role?

January 26, 2021

University News

“If You Do Nothing, Racial Inequality Persists”—Ibram X. Kendi Honors Howard Zinn in Annual Zinn Lecture

December 9, 2020

Composite image of three vertical photos. The first photo, taken by Skyler Gauuan, shows to women in the corner mirror of a small grocery store with a social distancing sign. The next photo from Bridgette Lang depicts pink fluffy clouds over Kenmore Square. The last photo from Christine Russo shows a piece of graph paper and pen sitting in front of computer with google open with someone in the background working on their laptop. Overlay is bright pink.

Student Voices

Photos of Life Before the Pandemic and Now, Our New Normal

December 5, 2020

A portrait photo of chef Jacques Pepin in black and white

Arts & Culture

Video: Celebrity Chef Jacques Pépin (Hon.’11) Shares His Favorite Poem

November 30, 2020

Composite image of three book covers, from left: Cook, Taste, Learn by Guy Crosby, Recipes and Remembrances of Fair Dillard by Zella Palmer, and Halal Food by Febe Armanios and Bogac Ergene.

Food Studies

MET’s Pépin Lecture Series in Food Studies & Gastronomy Goes Virtual

November 12, 2020

A collage of different ideas, images and situations that relate to the humanities and the ways it improves peoples live. From top left, to the right, a photo of a food bank box of cans labeled “donation,” a photo of a Black Lives Matter protest, Diego Rivera mural at the PALACIO NACIONAL, a photo of a foot during a Southeast Asian dance, a photo of the UN, a photo of a person winnowing rice, a photo of a bike lane, hokusai’s internationally iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a photo of a social worker playing with a child, a black and white photo of new york city in the 1930s/40s, a photo of people praying in a mosque, a photo of the stock market. A blue overlay ties the images in together.

Humanities

Funding the Quiet Good: Gifts That Support the Humanities and Social Sciences

November 6, 2020

Funding the Quiet Good: Gifts That Support the Humanities and Social Sciences