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
The Human Craft in the Age of Digital Technologies Initiative brings together humanities centers to explore the impact of digital technologies on creative and intellectual life, cultural production, and the very notion of human agency. We sought projects that critically examine the intersections of AI, data, and digital systems with the humanities, considering how these technologies shape knowledge, ethics, and power.
Learn More
Global Justice and Humanities Practices
The Global Justice and Humanities Practices Initiative was created to bring humanistic research into urgent dialogue with contemporary struggles for justice, equity, and collective memory. We sought projects that not only examine justice from an academic perspective but also engage with the lived experiences of communities facing historical and ongoing injustices.
Learn More
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.
Info Session
CHCI Executive Director Guillaume Ratel and President Stephen Best hosted an online information session on October 16, 2024 to answer questions from interested centers and institutes. (Youtube)
Join the Initiatives
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.
