Humanities by the Numbers explored the variety of ways that numbers have a place in the humanities. The focus on numbers in the humanities is neither simply a contemporary innovation issuing from the emergence of quantitative and computational methods, nor an external imposition tied to austerity measures in universities across the globe and the growing preoccupation with economics, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics within the public sphere. Rather, numbers have had a role in the humanities since well before the time of humanities indicators and digital methods. The aim of the 2015 CHCI Annual Meeting was to think broadly and critically about how numbers have shaped the humanities and how the humanities shape our thinking about number in both intellectual and administrative realms. By bringing together the range of approaches to numbers – critical and embracing, methodological and thematic, scholarly and pragmatic, intrinsic and extrinsic, current and historical, aesthetic and strategic – this conference aimed to engage the interrelated questions of knowledge and practice in the humanities.
The Center for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Founded in 1999, the Center for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison advances innovative, interdisciplinary, and collaborative inquiry in core and emerging humanities fields at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and in the communities it serves. Each year the Center welcomes world-renowned scholars from across campus and around the globe for public lectures, events, and projects. Our ongoing programs establish a coordinated vision for scholarly and public engagement with research in literature, history, philosophy, and culture through interdisciplinary workshops, graduate and postdoctoral fellowships, an annual undergraduate thesis prize, faculty development seminars, and conferences, In 2013, the Center for the Humanities launched the Engaging the Humanities initiative, which brings together new and established public humanities projects including: Great World Texts in Wisconsin, a program for high school teachers and students; the Public Humanities Fellows, a traineeship for graduate students seeking careers beyond the classroom; a visiting scholars program; a Graduate Certificate in the Public Humanities; as well as opportunities for faculty who wish to connect their research to new audiences.
Program
Last updated: 27 May 2015
Online registration is now closed.
| FRIDAY 5 JUNE | |
| 12:00 – 4:00 PM | Registration Fluno Center, Second Floor |
| 3:00 – 4:00 PM | New Directors Meeting Fluno Center, Mendota Room |
| 3:00 – 4:00 PM | Associate Directors & Administrators Meeting Fluno Center, Room 201 |
| 4:00 – 4:30 PM | Registration Elvehjem Building, Lower Level |
| 4:30 – 4:45 PM | Welcome and Opening Remarks Elvehjem Building, Room L160 Srinivas Aravamudan, President, CHCI Sara Guyer, Director, Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison Marsha Mailick, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| 4:45 – 6:00 PM | Opening Plenary: Countless: The Humanities as a Body of Evidence Elvehjem Building, Room L160 Jill Lepore, David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History, Harvard University Chair: Susan Zaeske, Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities and Advancement, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| 6:00 – 8:00 PM | Opening Reception Chazen Museum of Art Lobby & Galleries Music by Ben Sidran Exhibitions: Apertura: Photography in Cuba Today, curated by Guillermina de Ferrari, Director, Center for Visual Cultures, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Tradition and Innovation: The Human Figure in Contemporary Chinese Art |
| SATURDAY 6 JUNE | |
| 7:30 AM – 4:00 PM | Registration Fluno Center Atrium |
| 7:45 – 9:00 AM | Network and Group Breakfast Meetings Fluno Center Alternative Careers and Centers: Room 203 Public Humanities: Room 201 Continental breakfast available |
| 8:00 – 9:00 AM | Digital Humanities: Room 212/214 Continental breakfast available |
| 9:00 – 9:15 AM | Morning Welcome Fluno Center Auditorium Sara Guyer, Director, Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison Rebecca M. Blank, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| 9:15 – 10:30 AM | Plenary Lecture: What Numbers Don’t Tell Us About Race Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Director, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Chair: Ian Baucom, Buckner W. Clay Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia Fluno Center Auditorium |
| 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM | Roundtable: Numbers in the Humanities Fluno Center Auditorium Pattern Recognition: Repetition Across Acts of Reading Caroline Levine, Professor and Chair of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison Conversing Across the Great Divide Gary Tomlinson, Director, Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University On Quantitative Analysis and the Picturesque; or, Reading for the Middle Distance Matthew Wickman, Founding Director, Humanities Center, Brigham Young University Chair: Judith Buchanan, Director, Humanities Research Centre, University of York |
| 12:30 – 1:30 PM | Lunch Fluno Center, Oros Executive Dining Room |
| 1:45 – 3:15 PM | Scale, Networks, Collaboration: CHCI’s Mellon-Funded Projects and New Directions in the Humanities Fluno Center Auditorium Humanities for the Environment Sally Kitch, Director, Institute for Humanities Research, Arizona State University Religion, Secularism, and Political Belonging Hsiung Ping-chen, Director, Research Institute for the Humanities, Chinese University of Hong Kong Leerom Medovoi, Professor and Head, Department of English, University of Arizona Integrative Graduate Humanities Education and Research Training Debjani Ganguly, Associate Professor of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics, Australian National University Medical Humanities Stathis Gougouris, Director, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University Chair: Michael Steinberg, Vice Provost for the Arts; Director, Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University |
| 3:15 – 4:00 PM | Coffee and Discussion with Members of the CHCI’s Mellon-Funded Projects Fluno Center Atrium See details of this session >> |
| 4:00 – 5:30 PM | Roundtable: Critical Humanities Centers and Institutes Fluno Center Auditorium Debtors’ Misprision Annie McClanahan, Assistant Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Listening and Convening: A Politics of the Environmental Humanities in Action Gregg Mitman, Vilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History of Science, Medical History, and Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison Technically Speaking Premesh Lalu, Director, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, South Africa Chair: Richard Grusin, Director, Center for 21st Century Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee |
| 7:00 – 11:00 PM | Members’ Dinner Madison Public Library Numbers, Stories, and Questions: An Historian’s Look at the Past Earl Lewis, President, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation |
| SUNDAY, 7 JUNE 2015 | |
| 7:45 – 9:00 AM | Network and Group Breakfast Meetings Fluno Center Associate Directors & Administrators: Room 212/214 Network for Liberal Arts Colleges and Small Universities: Room 216/218 Humanities for the Environment Network: Room 201 Continental breakfast available |
| 9:00 – 10:30 AM | Plenary Lecture: Patterns Franco Moretti, The Danily C. and Laura Louise Bell Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University Chair: Susan Stanford Friedman, Director, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison Fluno Center Auditorium |
| 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | Workshop: Assessing, Ranking, Measuring Fluno Center Auditorium Greg Downey, Associate Dean for Social Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison Wendy N. Espeland, Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University Roger Kain, Dean and Chief Executive, School of Advanced Study, University of London Chair: Julia Lupton, Associate Dean of Research, School of Humanities, University of California, Irvine |
| 12:30 – 1:30 PM | Lunch and Membership Meeting Fluno Center, Oros Executive Dining Room |
| 2:00 – 2:45 PM | Intervention: ‘Shakespeare Might As Well Have Drawn His Words Out of a Hat’ Jordan Ellenberg, John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chair: David Krakauer, Director, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) |
| 2:45 – 3:45 PM | Closing Plenary: Humanities Past and Humanities Future: Thoughts on the 50th Anniversary of NEH William Adams, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities Chair: Kathleen Woodward, Director, Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) |
| 3:45 – 4:00 PM | Summing Up/Closing Remarks Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) |
| 4:00 – 6:00 PM | Closing Rooftop Reception Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) Rooftop With DJ Nick Nice Coordinates, a special exhibition organized on the occasion of CHCI |
Online registration for the meeting is now closed.
Last updated: 27 May 2015