Collaborative Spaces
Instructional spaces devoted to the humanities are lacking and don't provide spaces for students to study and collaborate with their professors and each other.
Humanities
Making a Difference
THE HEART OF A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION
We prepare our students to become critical thinkers in order to address society鈥檚 most pressing problems.
A Home for the Humanities
Building a Center for the Humanities and renovating existing spaces will address issues of pedagogy, safety, and comfort that will put the humanities on equal footing with other academic divisions.
Because Hamilton [Inspires]
If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them. — George Orwell
The humanities have long been the heart of a liberal arts education, and a critically thinking, liberally educated populace is essential to our democracy.
In the 19th century, Hamilton’s curriculum was devoted entirely to the classics, history, languages, and literature, essentially the study of human civilizations, values, and communication. We remain dedicated to these subjects because they are fundamental to our identity as a liberal arts college and indispensable to the success of our graduates.
But our humanities facilities don’t reflect that devotion. Most of the spaces lack the features that match today’s pedagogy, in particular spaces for students to study and collaborate with their professors and each other, faculty offices that accommodate small-group discussions and interaction, and flexible classrooms conducive to a range of teaching styles. It’s a credit to our faculty who have adapted their pedagogy to teach in spaces that are much less than ideal. One needs to look no further than the educational transformations made possible with new facilities for the sciences, social sciences, and the arts to recognize the enormous potential of a new Center for the Humanities on the Hamilton campus.
Because Hamilton seeks to complete the renewal of academic facilities that was begun at the turn of this century and has thus far addressed needs in the sciences, social sciences, and the arts. This new effort includes a renovation and modernization of existing humanities facilities to address issues of pedagogy, safety, and comfort, and new spaces to put the humanities on equal footing with other academic divisions while replacing the square footage that will be lost to the renovation of Root Hall, Couper Hall, and Benedict Hall. Whether the space is new or renovated, investing in the humanities is about creating facilities that foster the teaching styles and collaboration that are not possible in our existing humanities classrooms.
These facilities will be a clear and confident statement about Hamilton’s continuing commitment to the humanities as a fundamental component of a liberal education and their importance to the College and society.
Featured Video
Learning to Think Analytically
Michael Klosson ’71, a longtime member of the United States Foreign Service, former U.S. ambassador, and current vice president of policy and humanitarian response at Save the Children, talks about how Hamilton prepared him for his career.
BIG EFFECTS. CHANGED LIVES. REAL STORIES. ALL BECAUSE HAMILTON.
Hamilton prepares students to lead lives of meaning, purpose, and active citizenship. The world needs what Hamilton graduates have to offer.
There is a power in just listening to people.
Award-Winning Writer
We know him only as 鈥淛ohn.鈥 She cannot tell us his real name, nor his country of origin. As she tells John鈥檚 story of torture and imprisonment, she uses her finger to draw a line in the air every time his country is mentioned. John鈥檚 tale was one of attempted escapes, repeated imprisonment, and torture so brutal that he did not want it published; he didn鈥檛 want his children to know the worst details of what he had gone through.
Novelist and writer Kamila Shamsie 鈥94 visited Hamilton last April to discuss the experiences of refugees, in conjunction with Refugee Solidarity Month, headed by Hamilton club 鈥淥n the Move.鈥
During her talk, Shamsie read parts of a conversation she had with a refugee, 鈥淛ohn,鈥 whose real name she could not disclose.
Novelist and writer Kamila Shamsie 鈥94 visited Hamilton last April to discuss the experiences of refugees, in conjunction with Refugee Solidarity Month, headed by Hamilton club 鈥淥n the Move.鈥
During her talk, Shamsie read parts of a conversation she had with a refugee, 鈥淛ohn,鈥 whose real name she could not disclose.
Video: Reading of Home Fire
In April, Kamila visited the Hill to meet with students and gave a reading of her seventh book Home Fire. The event was streamed live on Facebook.
The material will fill a hole in the literature for academics, policymakers, researchers, and students about the actual conditions inside prisons.
Hamilton Professor
Hamilton Professor Doran Larson鈥檚 American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) project has been awarded $262,000 by the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH), the single largest NEH grant awarded solely to a Hamilton faculty member in 17 years.
APWA collects, catalogs and makes fully searchable essays written by inmates across the country and is part of Hamilton鈥檚 Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi). Larson, APWA鈥檚 principal investigator, is the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Literature & Creative Writing.
鈥淒oran Larson has been committed to this project for many years, and I鈥檓 pleased to see his groundbreaking efforts recognized by the NEH,鈥 said Hamilton President David Wippman. 鈥淲hat began as a means of collecting inmates鈥 essays has evolved into an extensive digital archive of incarcerated Americans鈥 writing. This funding will expand the archive鈥檚 ability to solicit and digitize new essays,鈥 Wippman said. 鈥淗amilton is fortunate to be the repository of this important collection.鈥
Larson鈥檚 interest in prison writing began in 2006 when he started leading a creative writing workshop at Attica Correctional Faculty. After two years of research, he realized that prison writing is as deeply shaped by the conditions of incarceration as by the biographical background writers bring to their efforts. In 2008 when he launched a seminar on American prison writing at Hamilton, he also found that there existed no volume that offered a broad sampling of writing by inmates. Thus, Fourth City: Essays from the Prison in America, edited by Larson, was born.
APWA collects, catalogs and makes fully searchable essays written by inmates across the country and is part of Hamilton鈥檚 Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi). Larson, APWA鈥檚 principal investigator, is the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Literature & Creative Writing.
鈥淒oran Larson has been committed to this project for many years, and I鈥檓 pleased to see his groundbreaking efforts recognized by the NEH,鈥 said Hamilton President David Wippman. 鈥淲hat began as a means of collecting inmates鈥 essays has evolved into an extensive digital archive of incarcerated Americans鈥 writing. This funding will expand the archive鈥檚 ability to solicit and digitize new essays,鈥 Wippman said. 鈥淗amilton is fortunate to be the repository of this important collection.鈥
Larson鈥檚 interest in prison writing began in 2006 when he started leading a creative writing workshop at Attica Correctional Faculty. After two years of research, he realized that prison writing is as deeply shaped by the conditions of incarceration as by the biographical background writers bring to their efforts. In 2008 when he launched a seminar on American prison writing at Hamilton, he also found that there existed no volume that offered a broad sampling of writing by inmates. Thus, Fourth City: Essays from the Prison in America, edited by Larson, was born.
American Prison Writing Archive
Initiated in 2009 when Larson put out a call for essays from incarcerated people and prison staff about what life was like inside, the archive has grown to more than 1,200 responses in paper form and more than 1,100 online.
I believed that oppression based on gender, race, sexuality, etc., were things of the past.
Premed Student
My interest in women鈥檚 and gender studies came my senior year of high school in an unlikely place. I was a varsity swimmer and lifeguarded after practices once a week. My assistant swim coach had just got an Africana studies degree from Wooster Because she was only 24 at the time, our ages were similar enough that it felt like we could talk as equals, and I felt comfortable sharing my thoughts with her. Because I have lived life as a privileged straight, white male, I have never experienced any kind of oppression or discrimination. This led me to believe that oppression based on gender, race, sexuality, etc., were things of the past.
She was a strong feminist and anti-racist and whenever conversation of gender and race came up, she would argue from those perspectives. I would push back and prod her for evidence that I had intrinsic privilege as a white male and that oppression was still alive and well. Thinking back on it, I am not sure why she put up with me for so long. After a few conversations, she suggested books for me to read, and once I started to do that things came more into focus. As I said, I am a science minded person, and it really took writing backed by research and quantitative studies to change my mind. After I began to read feminist research, I saw issues of gender and race everywhere.
Another person who I lifeguarded for was an art teacher, and she told me that she asked her students to grade themselves at the end of the year. My first thought was, 鈥榃ow 鈥 I bet gender is a factor in how students evaluate themselves.鈥 I spent the rest of my senior year conducting a study of my entire K-12 school looking at how gender affects confidence in different subjects. Having spent my senior year reading up on feminist research, I was eager to take women鈥檚 and gender studies in college. I enjoyed my classes and found that they continued to make me see the world in a new way, which prompted me to keep taking them.
She was a strong feminist and anti-racist and whenever conversation of gender and race came up, she would argue from those perspectives. I would push back and prod her for evidence that I had intrinsic privilege as a white male and that oppression was still alive and well. Thinking back on it, I am not sure why she put up with me for so long. After a few conversations, she suggested books for me to read, and once I started to do that things came more into focus. As I said, I am a science minded person, and it really took writing backed by research and quantitative studies to change my mind. After I began to read feminist research, I saw issues of gender and race everywhere.
Another person who I lifeguarded for was an art teacher, and she told me that she asked her students to grade themselves at the end of the year. My first thought was, 鈥榃ow 鈥 I bet gender is a factor in how students evaluate themselves.鈥 I spent the rest of my senior year conducting a study of my entire K-12 school looking at how gender affects confidence in different subjects. Having spent my senior year reading up on feminist research, I was eager to take women鈥檚 and gender studies in college. I enjoyed my classes and found that they continued to make me see the world in a new way, which prompted me to keep taking them.
Humanities for Hamilton鈥檚 Third Century
The humanities are the heart of a liberal arts education, and people who are liberally educated are essential to our democracy