Introducing Initiatives
CHCI invites centers and institutes around the world to join Initiatives that mobilize the transformative power of the humanities to address topics of global and urgent social import. CHCI will coordinate the international networks of projects and programs formed around each Initiative and leverage their outputs to advocate for global humanities research within and beyond academia.
There are two inaugural Initiatives for 2025-2026: Human Craft in the Age of Digital Technologies, and Global Justice and Humanities Practices.
Human Craft in the Age of Digital Technologies
For this Initiative, CHCI invites the participation of centers that are currently running or planning programs and projects that seek to help us think what it is to be human, to create, to know, in a world increasingly dominated by digital technologies. This includes any project that employs humanities methods to understand and act on issues related to artificial intelligence, algorithmic reason and discrimination, and more generally the leveraging of digital technologies to promote or combat disinformation, inequality, or autocracy.
Global Justice and Humanities Practices
CHCI invites the participation of centers and institutes conducting or developing programs or research projects that use humanities methods and practices to address critical issues of global justice and equity, including: historical injustices and their legacies; language, power, and identity; environmental justice; human rights and justice movements; arts and social change. We welcome projects and programs that approach global justice through a wide range of humanities practices and methods, including those of health humanities; migration and diaspora studies; indigenous studies; gender and sexuality studies.
Participate
All CHCI members currently running, planning, or seeking to develop a program or research project related to one of the Initiative themes are encouraged and welcome to join. Participating centers and institutes will be invited to join CHCI-facilitated activities and events hosted over the course of each Initiative. All interested centers and institutes are also welcome to apply for financial support from CHCI.
About
With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Initiatives build on the research collaboration model of CHCI’s Global Humanities Institutes (GHIs). Since 2018, GHIs have supported interdisciplinary approaches and multinational partnerships focused on global issues such as the crises of democracy, advocacy for climate justice, the legacies of extractivism, the complexities of migration, and issues of language and translation.
Initiatives maintain the core principle of excellence in international collaboration while seeking to support a larger number of projects originating from the CHCI membership, and providing a more flexible platform to feature a wider range of member-driven projects, from local programs to large-scale, multinational research projects. CHCI Initiatives mobilize the rich potential that exists within the global humanities community at large to its full extent to address pressing global challenges.
