For the past year, the Collaboratory has been building the Humanities Assessment Hub, a website with documents and resources to support collaborative, engaged researchers as they navigate the promotion and tenure process. To that end, the Collaboratory hosted a one-day workshop on 4/18/25 with esteemed colleagues who will serve as the steering committee for the…
Category: High Stakes Culture Series
High Stakes Culture explores the “culture wars” that have recently been ignited across the country. Activists from all points of the political spectrum, even the President of the United States himself, are turning to beloved cultural objects to stake a claim for their differing beliefs in a politically fraught moment. Black athletes are taking a knee. Anti-immigration voters are rallying for a wall. Long-standing Confederate monuments are coming down.
What is at stake in the ways we understand culture and cultural conflict? High Stakes Culture is a series, presented by the Institute for the Humanities and the Humanities Collaboratory, that brings humanities perspectives to bear on current debates. Join us as we ask: How and why does culture matter so much now?
Being Human in the Academy: Celebrating 10 Years of Experiments in Collaborative Humanities
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…
Thinking Through Election Overload: Patriotism and Country Music
Thinking Through Election Overload: Patriotism and Country Music: Who Owns What? Remember the Olympics? Just a few months ago, Americans from across the political spectrum came together in a three-week ritual of raucous flag waving, chanting, and cheering. But those good feelings barely survived the Closing Ceremonies. Also immediately after the Olympics, a wave of…
Thinking Through Election Overload: Olympic Patriotism V. Election Patriotism
Thinking Through Election Overload: Olympic Patriotism V. Election Patriotism? Remember the Olympics? Just a few months ago, Americans from across the political spectrum came together in a three-week ritual of raucous flag waving, chanting, and cheering. But those good feelings barely survived the Closing Ceremonies. Also immediately after the Olympics, a wave of memes announced…
HIGH STAKES CULTURE, OCT 12: ABORTION, CONTROL, AND REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
On October 12, join in a conversation between scholars and students about the cultural logics that are driving the rapidly transforming landscape of access to abortion and birth control in the United States.
Collaboratory Co-Sponsors “Curating COVID” Panel
The Humanities Collaboratory is pleased to co-sponsor the upcoming CREES Noon Lecture, Curating Covid: Material and Visual Cultures of the Pandemic, to be held on Wednesday, December 2 at 12:00 pm via Zoom.
High Stakes Culture: The Power of the Pronoun
September 24, 5:30-7:00 pm
in the Atrium, 202 S. Thayer
The current debate over gender-neutral pronouns plays out on college campuses, on social media, and in offices across the country. Why are we thinking about pronouns in new ways? What are the politics and the history of the pronoun? And what do the conversations we are having about them reveal about American culture in this moment?
The Politics of Blackface Then and Now: What’s in Your Yearbook?
March 11, 5:30-7:00 pm
in North Quad Space 2435
Join us for a conversation about ‘blackface—then and now.’ What is it? Why does it still matter? Why was it a thing in 1880 and 1980? And why is it all over the news now?
How Did We Become a Troll Nation and What Can Humanists Do About It?
October 24, 4:00-7:00 pm
in North Quad Space 2435
Are you tired of platforms that give trolls outsized influence? The digital is cultural and it has gotten ugly.
“This is America”: Who are We and What Can We Learn from Childish Gambino in the Twittersphere?
September 20, 2018, 5:30-7:00 pm
North Quad Space 2435
Join us for a conversation about Childish Gambino’s “This is America” and the sprawling, contentious conversation it sparked across the internet. What is he trying to say? How did the internet respond? How are our meaning making practices evolving?