Humanities

Understanding the Human Experience in the 21st Century

The University’s recently announced Humanities Initiative builds on the dramatically enhanced strength of Brown’s humanities faculty over the last decade. As a critical counterpart to the significant new investments the University will be making in science and engineering, this initiative will foster the tradition of creative, responsible liberal learning for which Brown is justly famous.  To this end, we plan to enhance and exploit the extraordinary capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration across the humanities that exists here in teaching as well as in research.  In particular, the humanities at Brown will be committed to addressing the existential questions facing civilization at a time when developments in technology and science dramatically reshape our world.

Supporting Innovation and Collaboration

The multiyear fundraising initiative consists of three main components:

This (initiative) will enable us to attract faculty who will have a galvanizing effect on scholarship and teaching in the humanities at Brown.
— Kevin McLaughlin, dean of the faculty

• Hiring six new professors of humanities to develop innovative programs of teaching and research between departments and programs.  These senior faculty, by partnering with those in disparate disciplines as well as with those with whom they are more traditionally aligned, will be well-positioned to produce path-breaking research.
• Increasing the number of fellowships available to graduate students. Doctoral candidates benefit from exemplary side-by-side training with outstanding faculty, contribute to cutting-edge research projects, and pursue their own scholarship—all while mentoring inquisitive undergraduates. 
• Establishing an endowed Humanities Initiative Collaborative Research and Teaching Fund to award support for collaborative projects through which Brown faculty propose to concentrate on addressing questions of fundamental importance to human existence. These competitive awards will enable faculty and students to undertake creative interdisciplinary approaches to a range of critical problems that cut across traditional disciplinary fields

Enhancing a Stellar Humanities Program

Generous gifts will enable visionary leaders to be associated with some of the most important research being undertaken today. For more information, please contact Ronald Margolin at +1 (401) 863-3564.