The Humanities Network and Consortium (HNAC) will host a welcome-back reception on Wednesday, September 4, at 4 p.m. at the Alumni House in the Virginia Dare Room. Provost Dana Dunn and the deans of HHS, CVPA, and CAS will make remarks.
The welcome-back event will also introduce two new leaders of HNAC. Art history professor Elizabeth Perrill will be director and history professor Asa Eger will be associate director as well as programming director. They will take the reins from co-founders Jen Feather and Lisa Levenstein. History professor Jeff Jones will be the liaison with associated programs such as the Liberal Arts Advantage and Humanities Action Lab.
HNAC brings together scholars from a wide variety of disciplines to promote faculty research and to engage the broader public. They support humanities-related events throughout the year, including writing groups.
“I like being able to reach across all the schools and break silos,” says Perrill, who previously served on the HNAC the steering committee. “Bringing people together is what’s interesting to me.”
“In our current fraught environment, we are still a community, and now is a time for dialogue,” adds Eger. “At this moment in time, it is so important and necessary for us at UNCG to talk and learn from one another and to reach out, and to include the wider community as well.”
The new 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.
One main thing on the HNAC agenda this year is to host regular “HNAC Café” events throughout the year. HNAC Café will take place at the Weatherspoon Art Museum on the third Friday of each autumn month at 3:30 p.m.
The dates and themes 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”
Each HNAC Café will bring together UNCG scholars and students with community members to engage in crucial conversations impacted by the study of humanities. 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 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.
Visit the HNAC website to learn more, follow HNAC on Twitter, or email eaperril@uncg.edu or aaeger@uncg.edu.
Text and photo by Susan Kirby-Smith
