CHCI News

A Look Back at the 2021 CHCI Annual Meeting, "Ruptures/Responses"

As we plan the next CHCI Annual Meeting, hosted by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University in mid-May 2022, we wanted to look back at the 2021 Annual Meeting that took place a few months ago.

Reflecting on this year’s Annual Meeting theme, CHCI President Sara Guyer noted that, “Ruptures/Responses acknowledges that this year has been a convulsive one. Violence and vulnerability have become extreme and visible, from the state sponsored murder of George Floyd last summer to the state sponsored displacement and murder of Palestinians this summer. This has taken place in a context in which around the world we have experienced isolation and entanglement, unevenness and pervasiveness, fear and suffering and loss.”

At the same time, Guyer continued, “We also have seen accelerated international collaboration and reflected on care and communication with unprecedented urgency. During this difficult year, many universities have been largely or entirely closed to in-person meetings and the work of humanities centers and institutes, which depend on the crossing of borders intellectual, institutional, and physical, has continued through new forms and models.”

The 2021 CHCI Annual Meeting is one such model multi-border crossings. The virtual convening brought together nearly 400 attendees from 130 humanities centers and institutes around the world (see list below), the highest turnout for any Annual Meeting to date. The conference spanned two weeks, featuring five days of keynotes, panels, and workshops to discuss the humanities in the present and its many futures.

Natalie Diaz, Director of the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands and Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University, opened this year's meeting, delivering the Srinivas Aravamudan Memorial Lecture. Diaz’s keynote reflected on the Annual Meeting’s theme and featured a work-in-progress video piece and two poems written during the pandemic. More than that, Diaz considered the relationship between the humanities, land, and indigenous people during COVID-19. “The way that humanities programs and departments have been taught to de-value native peoples and our ways of knowing and relationships is something I’d like to talk about today,” Diaz noted. “During this COVID-19 pandemic, during what we’ve called a shut-down, during social distancing, we’ve seen an upsurgence in the want and desire to connect to the land. Something that I’m wondering is, is this desire to connect to the land reifying the desire for land, without the lands’ people?”

Diaz also meditated on our ideas of and current relationships with justice. “If the only way humanities can relate to black, brown, queer, trans, and other peoples is through justice, what does that mean? If the only way humanities can relate to black, brown, queer, trans, and other people is through empathy and realizing its own, your own precarity, that’s a problem. When we speak about this time as a rupture, I say welcome to the rupture,” Diaz said.

The following day, Warwick Anderson, Janet Dora Hine Professor of Politics, Governance and Ethics in the Department of History at the University of Sydney, delivered a keynote talk on “How to Have Critical History in a Pandemic” that considered how critical humanities might be under duress at the moment. Further, Anderson explored how conversations in the past year built upon a complicated medical history of contagion and drew comparisons with AIDS crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s.

“We’ve learned to understand the COVID-19 pandemic through models and simulations but this way of framing a disease outbreak is historically peculiar,” Anderson said. “I’m particularly interested in what or who falls beyond the scope of statistical reasoning. What or who gets left out, the excessive waste that’s implied in disease models. The persons and relations that do not acquire value and become parameterized. That is, the voiding of the subject and sociality that we in the humanities care about.”

In addition to these stimulating keynotes, the Annual Meeting featured several opportunities for deep discussion, collaboration, and reflection on the global nature of CHCI. Two “Responses to Rupture” sessions featured 5-minute presentations from organizations around CHCI that highlighted innovative programming developed in response to the global pandemic. These sessions were:

Another panel, "Just Environments: Global Environmental Humanities Consortium on Social and Environmental Justice" organized by CHCI member organizations in collaboration focused on social and environmental justice from the the Global Environmental Humanities Consortium and a discussion on critical approaches to equity, diversity, and inclusion, among many others.

A trio of panels addressed issues central to CHCI and humanities researchers, instructors, students, and practitioners worldwide. The first, Critical Approaches to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, led by members of CHCI's Advocacy committee, focused on the issues surrounding equity, diversity, and inclusion as it relates to the humanities, associated disciplines, on-campus centers and institutes, and the work undertaken by humanitists.

The second panel, Placing the Humanities: New Locations for the Humanities on the African Continent, featured Ilze Wolff (Wolff Architects) and Dr. Abdourahmane Seck (GAEC-Africa) in discussion on building spaces for humanities work in west and south Africa. Chaired by Elizabeth Giorgis (The Africa Institute, Sharjah), the panel explored how colonialism continues to shape the locations where humanists live and work, and the approaches and questions driving engagement with and transcendence of that past.

Finally, the Global Humanities Committee organized a workshop focused on the CHCI-Mellon Global Humanities Institutes. This workshop was organized in anticipation of the 2023 Call for Interested Centers/Institutes

A session on advocating for the humanities in the current global climate–led by Shalini Randeria, Irena Polic, and Eric Hayot– elicited a particularly lively and impassioned discussion, ranging from specific tactics that directors can take to advocate for their own institutions and communities to a discussion of why humanities centers and institutes are critical now more than ever before.

Given that the Annual Meeting opened with poetry from Natalie Diaz, it is only fitting that the meeting close with another poet, Claudia Rankine, in a keynote conversation with Homi Bhabha titled, “A Year of Disgrace: Gut Feelings and Bad Governance”). Introducing Claudia Rankine, Bhabha argued that “Claudia’s work shows how the public domain actually works not only on the body but literally on the gut, the nerves.” He asked Rankine about the context, location, and patterns of time that underlie the work: “The now, the flash, the small bit … I think the word for this is, ‘the swerve’.”

“The swerve for me is a way of thinking about management inside a traumatizing existence as an African American,” Rankine said. “But I think many people can think about American society and its failing democracy as a form of trauma that we’ve had to negotiate, we have had to manage. The swerve is management of this, to what extent are we really able to manage it is the question of my work,” Rankine said.

CHCI would like to thank you again for contributing to the invigorating, productive, and powerful set of conversations at this year's Annual Meeting. Your remarks, questions, and interventions turned our imperfect format into an occasion for real engagement to showcase both the innovative programming already taking place around the Consortium and promising new trajectories for local, regional, and international collaboration.

Participating Centers and Institutes

Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) - American University of Beirut
American Council of Learned Societies
Arts and Humanities Institute - National University of Ireland Maynooth
Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities - Case Western Reserve University
Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry - Emory University
Bucknell Humantities Center - Bucknell University
Calgary Institute for the Humanities - University of Calgary
Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities - Auburn University College of Liberal Arts
Center for 21st Century Studies - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Center for Arts and Humanities - Washington State University
Center for Humanistic Inquiry - Amherst College
Center for Humanities and Information - Pennsylvania State University
Center for Humanities and the Arts - University of Colorado Boulder
Center for Humanities Research - George Mason University
Center for Ideas and Society - University of California, Riverside
Center for Public Humanities - Oakland University
Center for Studying Structures of Race - Roanoke College
Center for the Advancement of the Humanities - Marquette University
Center for the Humanities - New York University
Center for the Humanities - University of California, Merced
Center for the Humanities - University of Miami
Center for the Humanities - University of New Hampshire
Center for the Humanities - University of Rhode Island
Center for the Humanities - University of Wisconsin-Madison
Center for the Humanities - Washington University in St. Louis
Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere - University of Florida
Center for the Humanities At Tufts - Tufts University
Center for the Study of Social Difference - Columbia University
Central New York Humanities Corridor - Syracuse University Humanities Center
Centre for Humanities Research - University of the Western Cape
Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) - Uppsala University
Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture - Concordia University
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH) - Cambridge University
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship - University of Pretoria
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios en Filosofía, Artes y Humanidades - Universidad De Chile
Charles Phelps Taft Research Center - University of Cincinnati
Cogut Institute for the Humanities - Brown University
Colby College Center for the Arts and Humanities - Colby College
College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - University of Virginia
College Arts & Humanities Institute - Indiana University
Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry - University of Arizona
Council of the Humanities - Princeton University
Critical Global Studies Institute - Sogang University
Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities - University of California, Berkeley
Dresher Center for the Humanities - University of Maryland - Baltimore County
Franke Institute for the Humanities - University of Chicago
Franklin & Marshall Humanities Initiative - Franklin & Marshall College
Furman Humanities Center - Furman University
Hall Center for the Humanities - University of Kansas
Harry Ransom Center - University of Texas at Austin
Humanities @ Hamilton (H@H) - Hamilton College
Humanities Center - Lafayette College
Humanities Center - Lehigh University
Humanities Center - University of Nebraska
Humanities Center - University of San Diego
Humanities Center - Wayne State University
Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon - Carnegie Mellon University
Humanities Center at the University of Pittsburgh - University of Pittsburgh
Humanities Council - Princeton University
Humanities Hub at Clemson - Clemson University
Humanities Institute - Ohio State University
Humanities Institute - University at Buffalo (SUNY)
Humanities Institute - Wake Forest
Humanities Network and Consortium - UNC - Greensboro
Humanities Research Center - Georgia State University
Humanities Research Center - Rice University
Humanities Research Center - Virginia Commonwealth University
Humanities Research Centre - University of York
Humanities Research Institute - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Humanities Without Walls - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities - Haverford College
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities - University of Edinburgh
Institute for Advanced Study - Central European University
Institute for Advanced Study - Indiana University
Institute for Advanced Study - University of Minnesota
Institute for Comparative Literature and Society - Columbia University
Institute for Humanities Research - Arizona State University
Institute for the Arts and Humanities - UNC - Chapel Hill
Institute for the Human Sciences
Institute for the Humanities - University of Illinois at Chicago
Institute for the Humanities - University of Manitoba
Institute for the Humanities - University of Michigan
Institute for the Study of Culture and Society - Bowling Green State University
Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture - The University of Arizona
Institute of Advanced Studies - University of São Paulo
Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures (IHGC) - University of Virginia
Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) - University of Minnesota
Interdisciplinary Humanities Center - University of California, Santa Barbara
International Center for Cultural Studies - National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) - Justus Liebig University Giessen
IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute - Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
Jackman Humanities Institute - University of Toronto
John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute - Duke University
John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage - Brown University
Kingfisher Institute for the Liberal Arts and Professions - Creighton University
Kule Institute for Advanced Study - University of Alberta
Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute - University of Leeds
Leslie Center for the Humanities - Dartmouth College
Louise W. and Edmund J. Kahn Liberal Arts Institute - Smith College
Mahindra Humanities Center - Harvard University
Maryland Center for Humanities Research - University of Maryland
Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)
Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research - Texas A&M University
Miami University Humanities Center - Miami University
National Humanities Alliance
Northeastern Humanities Center - Northeastern University
Oakley Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences - Williams College
Obermann Center for Advanced Studies - University of Iowa
Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center - University of Utah
Oklahoma Center for the Humanities - The University of Tulsa
Oregon Humanities Center - University of Oregon
Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women - Brown University
Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities - Vanderbilt University
School of Advanced Study - University of London
Society for the Humanities - Cornell University
Stanford Humanities Center - Stanford University
Syracuse University Humanities Center - Syracuse University
The Africa Institute
The Cohen Center for the Humanities - James Madison University
The Gaines Center for the Humanities - University of Kentucky
The Humanities Institute - Pennsylvania State University
The Humanities Institute - University of California, Santa Cruz
The New Institute
The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities - Columbia University
Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute - Trinity College Dublin
Tsinghua Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences - Tsinghua University
UC Davis Humanities Institute - University of California, Davis
UC Irvine Humanities Center - University of California, Irvine
UCD Humanities Institute - University College Dublin
UCLA Humanities - University of California Los Angeles
University Center for the Humanities - Western Michigan University
University of California Humanities Research Institute - University of California, Irvine
University of Connecticut Humanities Institute - University of Connecticut
University of Tennessee Humanities Center - University of Tennessee
University of Texas Humanities Institute - University of Texas at Austin
University of Vermont Humanities Center - University of Vermont
Virginia Tech Center for Humanities - Virginia Tech
Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities - University of Washington
Whitney Humanities Center - Yale University
Willson Center for Humanities and Arts - University of Georgia