This formation of this consortium was proudly supported by the CHCI Membership Activity Fund (MAF). The next deadline for MAF support is October 6, 2025.

Thanks to the support from the CHCI Membership Grant, humanities scholars from across Kentucky’s public universities were invited to develop a state-wide consortium called Humanities as the Common Wealth of Kentucky (HCWK). Countering the trend that pits underfunded public universities against each other for ever diminishing resources, HCWK provides a vehicle to collaboratively amplify the wealth of Kentucky’s humanities projects. From bluegrass music to Appalachian literature; from the indigenous traditions embedded in the landscape to the naked mountain tops; from histories of horses to curations of the craft movements—the rich, vibrant, and diverse creative energy in the Commonwealth points to the civic importance of a humanities education that links the Commonwealth to the world.

The goals for this consortium are to connect with other humanities scholars in order to build community and share resources; to train ourselves in order to counter the current headwinds that misrepresent or denigrate the enriching humanities work happening across our state; and to advocate for the continued support of these robust programs.

Connect: In June 2024, the consortium met for a two-day symposium to foster community, develop communication strategies, and brainstorm opportunities to collaborate across our universities. This workshop helped us build productive relationships with humanities programs across the state and learn from each other about local inflections of successful humanities projects. Through ongoing follow-up meetings, we have shared successful approaches.

Evidence of this work can be seen in our website that showcases humanities initiatives across state universities, including digital storytelling to amplify unheard or misunderstood voices; ethics bowl competitions to engage students in the complexity of today’s challenges and opportunities; and public art/memorial projects to expose the potential violence of nostalgia. These examples illustrate for the public and college students how humanities-based projects engage with, analyze, and work toward more capacious understandings of the contentious issues that divide public opinion today. As a bridge to more complete visions of the issues confronting us, these sorts of humanities initiatives redress the forces dividing us and provide much-needed preparation for a Kentucky citizenry to be globally and locally informed.

Train: In addition to providing a resource that illustrates the vibrancy of Kentucky’s humanities, we embarked on trainings to help us explain this work to public audiences. Such trainings reinforce our commitment to counter the inaccurate and denigrating narratives about humanities relevance, in part by sharing in everyday public venues the good work of Kentucky humanities scholars. For example, we partnered with the The OpEd Project to offer humanities faculty a two-day workshop, which has already resulted in four pieces published in city newspapers. In addition, we wrote an article, “Alive and Well: The Humanities are the Common Wealth of Kentucky,” for the Kentucky Humanities Magazine focused on myth busting the common misperceptions of humanities work. Writing for public audiences helps us expand the limiting narratives about humanities work currently circulating.

Advocate: A third outcome of the CHCI grant is to support two consortium members attend the National Humanities Alliance Advocacy Day in Washington DC. On day 1, Drs. Erin Presley (Eastern Kentucky University) and Simona Bertacco (University of Louisville) strategized with other humanists across the country about how to understand the current political landscape shaping the humanities and how to develop talking points to highlight the need to support Kentucky’s flourishing humanities programming. On day 2, they put this preparation into action. Along with students and delegates from other Kentucky universities, Dr. Presley and Dr. Bertacco met with members of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation to talk about the public and professionalizing value of the humanities for Kentucky students and communities.

We seek to continue connecting, training, and advocating as we move forward. In the short term, that means meeting regularly to address our three goals. To that end, this summer we will again gather to brainstorm how we can collaboratively engage students in state-wide, cross institutional humanities initiatives; to learn from Kentucky’s Humanities Council about recent trends and opportunities; and, to strategize how we can develop mutually reinforcing responses to pressing political and economic headwinds. Long term, we hope this consortium continues to be a resource, an amplifier, and a beacon for responsive regional work that explores as well as communicates how the humanities enrich the lives of those in the Commonwealth.

We believe that our public universities are well positioned to address the crucial issues our state is facing and that humanities disciplines provide creative methodologies to understand the complexity needed to ethically and empathetically navigate these issues. Consequently, we collaboratively seek to change the narrative about the public value of higher education in general and of the humanities in particular. We are grateful to the CHCI Membership Activity Grant which helped us develop a model for how this collaboration can build capacity for humanities programming and provide more effective communication about local humanities programming for the public good.

Mary Sheridan
Professor & Director of the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society
University of Louisville