The Humanities Center
The Humanities Center facilitates teaching, research, and collaborative thinking among faculty and students across the Humanities and beyond.
The mission of the Humanities Center is to support faculty as teacher-scholars, as well as foster research and innovative teaching that explore diverse human experiences. Through the rigorous study of the world’s arts, cultures, and languages, the Center advances critical inquiry, global awareness, and intellectual engagement across the liberal arts.
The Humanities Center awards two grants annually that fund public-facing projects, new research, and ongoing scholarly work in the Humanities.
Goals of the Humanities Center:
- Fund interdisciplinary collaborative thinking, teaching and research
- Fund individual Humanities faculty research
- Sponsor manuscript and grant writing workshops
- Promote the study and teaching of the Humanities across the curriculum through public salons, lectures, and workshops for the Hamilton community and beyond.
Funding Opportunities
A Call for Proposals is sent to faculty via email in early May.
Dr. Edgardo Yordán Humanities Faculty Research Grant
This grant supports faculty whose Humanities research project will contribute toward the beginning of a new scholarly project, advancing a current project to make it more competitive for external funding, or the completion of a project for dissemination. Recipients submit a final report and present their research the following academic year on campus and/or at local public institutions. This grant is made possible through a generous gift from Jaime Yordán ’71 in honor of his father, Dr. Edgardo Yordán.
Funding Amount: Up to $5,000 for use in the upcoming academic year. Funding may be used in combination with other external grants or regular support from the College.
Foreman Grant
The Foreman Grant encourages at least two faculty or staff members from different disciplines to develop interdisciplinary collaborative thinking, teaching, and research projects on a common or interconnected theme. Applicants are expected to draw from current research or develop new areas of research that can inform new or revised courses. Recipients are expected to submit a final report and present their research the following academic year.
Annual Events
- Grant Writing Workshop
- Manuscript and Publishing Workshop
- Yordán and Foreman Grant Presentations
- Humanities Salons
- Humanities Meet and Greet
Recent Events
- Displaced and Dispossessed: Photographing Refugee Camps (Erol Balkan, June 13, 2026)
- Roman Coins and Roam Lies (Anna Accettola, May 20, 2025, Kirkland Town Library)
- How the Bible Became a Book (Ian Mills, November 17, 2025, Kirkland Town Library)
- Canonizing Controversy: The Cult of Thiemo of Salzburg and the Politics of Creating Saints in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (John Eldevik, April 18, 2025)
- Engaging with Hamilton's Archives: Race, Gender, and Empire in US History (Celeste Day Moore and Jeremy Katz, March 12, 2025)
- Kaavad, Story Telling and Devotional practices in India (Nick Tackes, March 28, 2024)
Humanities in Action
The Humanities prepare students to think critically, communicate clearly, and engage thoughtfully with the world around them. Recent Hamilton graduates whose concentrations were in the Humanities have gone on to work or study at companies, institutions, and organizations, including:
- Yale University
- Scotiabank
- Museum of Fine Arts
- AppleTV
- Groton School
- University of Pennsylvania
- Success Academy Charter Schools
- Fordham Law School
- University College London
- U.S. Air Force
- Teach for America
- Boston Children’s Hospital
- University of Chicago
- NBA
- Sotheby’s
Humanities Center Advisory Committee
National Humanities Center
Hamilton College is an Institutional Sponsor of the National Humanities Center (NHC) at the Leadership Circle level. This enables Hamilton students to apply for a leadership position on the National Humanities Leadership Council to prepare a select group of students with humanities-based leadership skills.
Students accepted to the Council participate in a unique series of interactive experiences with humanities scholars and leaders from across the country. In roundtable and discussion sessions, participants explore the essential importance of humanistic perspectives in addressing the concerns of contemporary society. And, based on the consensus of the Council membership, they may also focus on specific projects and engagement with the communities at their institutions.
Additionally, Hamilton faculty can apply for NHC research fellowships and writing programs.
Past NHC Undergraduate Humanities Innovators
2025-26
Yaman Albittar ’29
Theodore Gercken ’27
Olivia Piersall ’27
2024-25
Aditi Kumar ’25
2023-24
Dylan Tinashe Manguwa ’25
2021-22
Elizabeth Hane ’22
Nyaari Kothiya ’23
Institutional Affiliations
Humanities New York
humanitiesny.org
CNY Humanities Corridor
cnycorridor.net
4Humanities
NY6 Consortium Advocating for the Humanities
Humanities Center at Syracuse University
https://humcenter.syr.edu
National Humanities Alliance (NHA)
nhalliance.org
Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes
chcinetwork.org
Liberal Arts Colleges and Small Universities Network
chcinetwork.org
History of the Humanities Center
A group of Humanities faculty launched the Humanities Forum (H@H) in 2009, which aimed to foster interdisciplinary conversations to stimulate long-term reflection on the importance of Humanities amongst Hamilton students. Supported by endowed lecture funds, the forum organized an annual themed lecture series in addition to faculty working groups and student research grants and led the First-Year Course curriculum at Hamilton.
Since its restructuring in 2016, Hamilton’s Humanities Center has institutionalized interdisciplinary collaborations, administered a new faculty research grant, and created programming, including the Humanities Salon and public talks.
