Register: LACSU Network Conference April 25-27, 2024

The full program for the LACSU conference is now available here.

Dear colleague,

I'm writing to you in my capacity as co-leader of the Liberal Arts College & Small University (LACSU) network of the Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) in order to gauge your interest in a gathering to be held this spring in Amherst, MA.

On April 25-27 the LACSU/CHCI network will hold a conference at Amherst College called "Bringing the Humanities Back" (fuller description below). We hope that this conference will be interesting to you, whether or not your campus currently has something you call a "humanities center." If you're interested in attending, or sending a colleague in your place, please tell us so via this form so we can include you in our planning.

Through the generosity of CHCI, we have funds set aside to subsidize or fully cover the costs of attendance for representatives from underfunded or underrepresented institutions. If you wish to take advantage of that funding, please indicate that desire when you fill out the same form.

Thanks for your time! I hope to meet you -- if not at this conference, then some other time soon.

Warmly,

Chris Grobe

Director, Center for Humanistic InquiryAmherst College

Bringing the Humanities Back (a LACSU/CHCI conference)

April 25-27, 2023

Amherst College, Center for Humanistic Inquiry

In this, our first gathering since the global COVID lockdowns, we will consider how humanities-focused institutions like ours are built and rebuilt, sustained and transformed. Specifically, we are looking to curate sessions on the following themes.

• Going Digital, Staying Digital: During the COVID lockdowns, many centers and institutes went digital: we moved our programming online and experimented with alternate, digital methods for fulfilling our missions, from livestreaming to podcasting and beyond. At this gathering, we want to highlight your digital innovations, and think together about how such innovations might endure.
• (Re)Building In-Person Community: When the COVID lockdowns ended, many people gratefully returned to in-person events and communities -- others, however, have been slow to recommit. At this gathering, we are looking to highlight your strategies for building (or rebuilding) in-person community at humanities-focused institutions.
• (Re)Building Community Ties: Some humanities-focused institutions are primarily inward-facing, serving the on-campus needs of faculty, staff, and students. Others reach out to surrounding communities, engage in public service research, and otherwise impact the world beyond their campuses. At this gathering, we want to showcase your efforts to build or rebuild community ties.

In addition to sessions on these themes, we are hoping to find ways to discuss the life-stages of humanities centers and institutes (from foundation to expansion and entrenchment) as well as their life-cycles (the length and scope of directorships, how innovation is supported and initiatives sustained across the years).