April 17, 2025 bore witness to ‘Humanities Prom’ — how the Collaboratory staff have referred to the Collaboratory’s final celebratory event: Being Human in the Academy: Celebrating 10 Years of Experiments in Collaborative Humanities.
As high school seniors prepare for prom by putting on their finest clothes for a night meant to celebrate how far they have come and the camaraderie shared with their classmates, so, too, was Being Human in the Academy a night for the Collaboratory to celebrate its community and reminisce at its closing.
Over 400 guests were invited representing the Collaboratory at all its stages — steering committee members who were part of the initial Collaboratory design, project teams who performed logistical acrobatics to face the challenges of Covid-19, and faculty who just discovered the Collaboratory’s work and who eagerly sought to become part of our community through 5×5 grants which will change the shape of their research moving forward. Our community reaches 12 of the university’s 19 schools and colleges and 17 departments within LSA. Beyond inter-generational and interdisciplinary, we are a mosaic.
Gathered at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, our guests enjoyed a program of community members and team leaders, and even had their hearts lifted in song. We remembered what the Collaboratory really is: a place for change. Communities have been changed through the work of the Collaboratory, scholars have found themselves on wildly different research paths, and students have encountered transformational experiences leading them to further positions as humanists. The Collaboratory has created a singular theater where those who entered emerged with minds more open and research more acutely tested by the pressures of collaboration and community engagement.
The times in which we find ourselves are uncertain in a way that extends beyond being a humanist. But for one evening, the Collaboratory came together, the beautiful mosaic that it is, to worship at the altar of hope. Hope in community, hope in humanity, and hope in the power of the relationships we create when given the opportunity to explore new paths.
We thank our program participants: the Nishinaabe Language Team, Sara Blair, Deling Weller, Ricardo Punzalan, Deirdre de la Cruz, Laura Debecker, Matthew Lassiter, Caroline Helton, Timothy Cheek and Mark Clague.
See all photos from the event here.
