Summer treks
This summer, students studied mountain folklore in Appalachia, hiked the 500-mile Colorado Trail, and explored California’s giant kelp forests thanks to the Richmond Guarantee.
Working the Humanities
A series of humanities-focused workshops in Fall 2023 organized by the Academic Skills Center, Career Services/A&S, the Speech Center, and the Writing Center.
Humanities Fellows Applications are Live!
Humanities Fellows Applications for 2023-2024 are now live! Click here to apply.
Humanities at UR Events
What Forms the Self?
This year, Humanities at UR is exploring the theme of What Forms the Self? Anticipating big things on the horizon, in 2023-24, the humanities theme is a question: a question we think gets asked all across UR’s curriculum, a question that is at the very core of what liberal arts education broadly, and the humanities specifically, mean in today’s world. The question is, at least, double. In one version, it explores the hypothesis that different forms of selfhood (or personhood, citizenship, subjectivity) exist and have existed in different historical moments and geopolitical contexts. In the other, we turn our attention to how our selves come into being: what shapes us? What sustains us? What might change us?
Feature Stories
August 31, 2023
African Film Weekend Returns to University of Richmond After Three-Year Hiatus; Celebrates First-Time African Filmmakers
African Film Weekend returns to the University of Richmond on Sept. 8-9.
December 7, 2022
Photogrammar Awarded National Prize in Digital Humanities
Photogrammar, a University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab and Distant Viewing Lab project, has been recognized nationally as a top contributor in the field of digital humanities.
October 17, 2022
CAMPUS LIFE
UR's home for the humanities becomes a space for interactive experiences
A modern approach invites the campus community to experience the humanities in person.
September 26, 2022
RESEARCH & INNOVATION
UR-developed software solves visual media mysteries
Researchers created an innovative approach to analyze large digital collections of TV, film, and other popular media.
An Examined Life
Living an examined life enables one to collaborate meaningfully with others and is a prerequisite to living courageously, selflessly, and in the service of the public good. At Richmond, the humanities are focused on developing the intellectual resources to put an examined life into practice.
Our scholarly community is comprised of over 100 faculty members in 15 departments and programs, all of whom are experts in their chosen field, as well as dedicated teachers and mentors.
The Humanities in Arts & Sciences Advisory Board guides humanities-related activities across the School and our campus.
Faculty Accomplishments
Winiarski Awarded
Douglas L. Winiarski, professor of religious studies, has been awarded a Fritz and Claudine Kundrun Open-Rank Fellowship from the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies for his new book project. Read more.
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Singh Awarded
Julietta Singh, professor of English and Stephanie Bennett-Smith Chair of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, received an honorable mention for the book The Breaks from the Association for Asian American Studies in the Creative Writing: Prose category, awarded at their 2023 convention.
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Love Receives NEH Grant
Joanna Love and Andrew McGraw, music professors, were awarded an NEH Grant for their project on music-making in the digital age.
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Sackley Receives NEH Grant
Nicole Sackley, associate professor of history and American Studies, has received $6,000 in summer funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to advance her book project, which explores the history of cooperatives in the United States. Read more: http://bit.ly/Sackley-NEH-Grant
View BioA set of kindred traditions that examine human life in all of its messy, magnificent, and surprising forms.
Co-Creating Knowledge
Humanities faculty and students work closely together in the classroom and through student-designed, faculty-mentored research. They ask hard questions of each other, resulting in the co-creation of new knowledge. After experiencing that collaborative environment, students enter the world prepared to make a contribution in the workplace, or to society as a whole.
From the Classroom to the Real World
There is a seamless transition between the abstract thinking done in the classroom and the real-life demands of the job market. Humanities students can analyze problems, develop solutions, and communicate effectively with others, while exhibiting empathy, adaptability, and independent thinking.
As a result, they enter the world and their chosen profession with a formidable set of skills and capabilities, and mindset of curiosity and inquiry. But humanities students do not merely bring training and a set of skills to their profession; they bring the full weight of their humanity.
96%
of employers agree students should have experiences that teach them to solve problems with people who have differing viewpoints. Source: AAC&U
86%
of employers agree college students should acquire civic knowledge and judgement essential for contributing to their community. Source: AAC&U
91%
of employers that agree a candidate's ability to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than his or her major. Source: AAC&U
Humanities in Practice
The most pressing global problems do not have simple, black and white solutions. The humanities prepare students to confront today's challenges with flexible habits of mind, a strong moral compass, and the ability to critically examine complicated and rapidly changing social realties. They are equipped to effectively negotiate a globally integrated world, as well as shape a life that is rich with meaning because they recognize the full range of human value and potential.
Additional partners in humanities practice include University Museums, the Modlin Center for the Arts, the Center for Civic Engagement, the Digital Scholarship Lab, Boatwright Memorial Library, and UR Downtown.
Have questions about the humanities at Richmond?