The Humanities Network and Consortium (HNAC) hosted a welcome-back event at the Alumni House last Wednesday, with opportunities for faculty and staff to find out more about HNAC Café events, writing groups, external funding workshops, and other public-facing events.
HNAC director Dr. Elizabeth Perrill and associate director Dr. Asa Eger welcomed attendees and Provost Dana Dunn, Dean of CAS John Kiss, and Dean of HHS Carl Mattacola gave remarks.
“I believe that the University’s research networks are a very valuable part of our research,” said Provost Dunn. “I hear routinely from our new faculty that they value immensely the opportunities to connect with colleagues and get integrated more quickly into the life of the University because of their engagement with networks. It’s a really important function they are performing on this campus … to share ideas and meet future collaborators and bounce ideas off one’s colleagues ‒ it’s what a university is about. … I’m particularly impressed with HNAC’s external orientation ‒ the way you are uplifting and educating about the humanities is critically important.”
The new HNAC theme for 2019-2020 is CL2 HN: Civic Life, Civil Listening, Humanities Now. In particular, HNAC will promote events surrounding issues of democracy, elections, and the 100th-year commemoration of women’s suffrage.
The dates and themes of HNAC Café are:
- Sept. 20: “50 Years After Stonewall: Humanities Reflect”
- Oct. 18: “Health and Humanities: Disability Studies and Research at UNCG”
- Nov. 15: “40 Years On: The Greensboro Massacre”
Presentations and panels by researchers and community members will be followed by casual time to talk over coffee and cookies. The topics for the presentations touch on key events in civil rights history and civic engagement in Greensboro and beyond. HNAC Café takes places at the Weatherspoon Art Museum.
HNAC has also helped plan and organize Frame/Works events for October and February around the UNCG Theatre productions of “The Wolves” and “The Tempest,” respectively.
“I want everyone to know they are welcome,” said Perrill, of HNAC activities and events. “People often ask me: What are humanities? I walk to campus a few times every week and I’ve started a habit of taking my headphones out and listening. Listening what’s around me, listening to the birds and the crazy cicadas and looking at the trees. And I thought to myself: Scientists can tell me why my aural network needs me to stop putting in the headphones. The arts can make something that expresses what I feel when I go on that walk. The humanities are what can tell us what is significant about that moment, express it to the rest of the world, and also tell us how that walk has changed in the past and is changing in the future. … So, if you connect with that idea at all, you’re in the humanities.”
Photos and story by Susan Kirby-Smith
