The Center, with major support from the A.W. Mellon Foundation, annually sponsors interdisciplinary workshops in the humanities. Many of the range of activities and programs presented by each workshop are open to UW-Madison faculty, staff, and students. Some events are open to the general public.
The mission of the Great World Texts in Wisconsin program is to encourage more high school and university students to read the classic world texts of the humanities and to connect and engage UW faculty and high-school teachers across the state in this project. High school and college classes will participate in these projects throughout the year. Each program culminates in a student conference in the spring.
What Is Human? is a UW-Madison interdisciplinary initiative made possible through support from the Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz Fund of the University of Wisconsin Foundation. WIH is housed at the Center for the Humanities in the College of Letters and Science. We partner with the Morgridge Institute for Research, the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, the Institute for Research in the Humanities, and the Visual Culture Center.
The Humanities Exposed (HEX) Program fosters collaborative projects in the humanities connecting UW-Madison graduate students with teachers, schools, after-school programs, museums and neighborhood centers. This program was created as a pilot project in the 2004-2005 academic year, and will commence its fifth year this fall.
With major support from the Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences, the Institute for Research in the Humanities and the Center for the Humanities inaugurated Faculty Development Seminars in the Humanities beginning in spring 2007. The Seminars provide a formal setting for faculty that promotes sustained collaboration and dialogue across disciplinary lines on a specific topic. This pilot project is designed to enhance the quality of Humanities Research at UW-Madison.
The Seminars enable an individual senior faculty member or a team of two senior faculty to teach fellow faculty for ten weeks (a weekly two hour seminar) on a topic of interest across the Humanities. The presiding faculty member(s) receives course credit and her/his Department receives funds for a replacement lecturer. The ten faculty members taking the course receive research funds to recognize their selection and to cover the costs of materials.
The annual Iwanter Prize provides an unrestricted $2,000 award to one graduating senior who, through a senior thesis and general academic distinction, demonstrates outstanding humanities-based scholarship of a broad and interdisciplinary nature. The award is made possible by a gift to the UW Foundation by Sidney E. Iwanter, an alumnus of the College of Letters & Science (BA History, 1971).
