New center makes humanities linchpin in conversation for institutional renewal

Armed with new resources, leadership of the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities should strive to create a humanities center that is unique in the country, according to a report submitted recently to John Simpson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Its integrated missions of research, teaching and outreach will provide new research opportunities, K-20 curriculum innovation, and efforts to involve the broader community.

The center will take a step beyond the ordinary, particularly in its role in curriculum development.

“ One of the report's central ideas is that research in the humanities should have either a public or curricular effect (or both),” says Leroy Searle, associate professor of English and comparative literature and director of the Center for the Humanities. “ Having that link spelled out is very important.”

The recent recipient of a University Initiatives Fund award and a private $5 million endowment, the center is ready to carry out an ambitious agenda. According to the report, which builds on plans in the original UIF application, the center's ultimate goal is “ to support and foster projects that place the humanities at the center of a larger intellectual and cultural conversation, and to encourage institutional renewal that recognizes the force and vitality of ideas.”

“ We're now at the point that we had looked forward to for years This report culminates a 3 1/2 year development process. I am delighted that our work is coming to fruition. For me personally, it is a perfect conclusion to my term as director,” Searle says.

Michael Halleran, the divisional dean who chaired the task force, calls the receipt of the UIF award and the endowment “ an amazing opportunity.” The most important resource, he points out, is the University's intellectual capital, which can now be more fully developed.

“ What we have proposed will create time and opportunity,” Halleran says. “ The scholarship, curriculum innovations and outreach that will occur through the center will not be add-ons to the faculty workload. If you ask a scholar in the humanities what is needed most, it is time.”

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But the task force proposal goes beyond simply awarding individual faculty grants for research—although that will be part of the center's activities. To encourage innovation, the center will invite proposals from collaborative groups of UW faculty who come together to pursue problems and issues across disciplines. They may examine a given topic for a quarter or a year; they may involve graduate students in these ventures, with a seminar on a chosen topic. Even the individual grants, available through the fellows program, will have a multidisciplinary component, in that the fellows will share their work and their thoughts in regular colloquia. Proposals will be open, competitive and peer reviewed.

“ There are strong signs that these new connections will result in exciting work,” Halleran says. “ The humanities are changing rapidly, and the boundaries between disciplines are becoming increasingly porous. The possibilities of humanistic dialogue across these traditional boundaries are exciting. We want the center to be inclusive, drawing widely on the faculty's diverse intellectual interests and creativity.” The task force adopted a broad definition of the humanities, which will include not just language, history and textual studies, but also the arts and branches of the social sciences.

The task force also recommends the creation of a series of undergraduate courses in the humanities. The intent of the courses is “ to introduce students to the humanities as a group of related disciplines,” according to the report. “ For some students, these courses will provide a gateway to a major in a specific discipline in the humanities,” Halleran says. “ For others, it could be virtually all of their exposure to the humanities.” The courses, as envisioned, will be for pre-majors and students will be able to take any or all of the three courses. The courses would be an outgrowth of discussions in a Faculty Forum on Curriculum sponsored by the center. The forum, which would be composed of faculty members invited to participate by the center's executive board, would identify issues, problems and needs, and make recommendations for curriculum changes.

The report also calls for an expanded effort towards “ cooperating with institutions and groups whose aim is also to stimulate interest in the humanities throughout the state.” Among these groups are teachers and the nonacademic public. The center will cooperate with the Washington Commission for the Humanities, the Seattle Arts Commission and other groups in creating the Seattle Forum—a series of intimate theme-based town meetings that will invite people to come, participate and talk about texts they have read. The forums would culminate with a major event each quarter—possibly a large discussion, lecture, or performance. The forum concept may eventually expand throughout the state.

The center also will establish connections with Washington state teachers. Possibilities include sending graduate students into public schools to teach in the visual and performing arts, developing summer seminars for teachers, developing syllabi and guidelines for classroom teaching, Halleran says. The center also will sponsor colloquia in communities across the state involving UW faculty and K-12 teachers, discussing important topics in the humanities and creating a statewide society of humanities teachers.

Halleran is quick to add that the infusion of funds into the center should not be viewed as a solution to what he called the chronic underfunding of the arts and humanities that exists at the UW, primarily because these disciplines rely chiefly on state support. As the report states, “ If the center were to attempt to replace what has been lost, and continues to be lost, by simply offering fellowships and providing aid to programs that have suffered cuts, it would dissipate its funds with little effect and might provide an excuse for other funding sources to cut back even further.”

A national search for the center's new director will begin this spring. A search committee will be appointed by Dean of Arts and Sciences John B. Simpson. In addition, a nine-member executive board will advise the director and help to shape the center's directions, as well as ratifying major proposals submitted to it. The board will be appointed by the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

By the 1999-2000 academic year, most of the center's new programs should be under way.

Halleran points out that the report is intended to be a blueprint, not a complete guide to the future of the center. “ We had a strong committee, but the committee knew enough to conclude that what we proposed was not the last word on the subject. We couldn't possibly know what the best course would be for all the details of the center's future growth and development. Over time, new ideas and models of activities will emerge.”

Implementation of the task force recommendations will come in several stages, with a great deal of planning to take place between the center's director and the executive board. “ I am fully confident that, five years from now, we will be able to look back and see that this was a very wise investment,” Halleran said.

In addition to Halleran and Searle, task force members, who were appointed by Simpson, included: Hazard Adams, Lockwood professor of the Humanities and Comparative Literature; Collett Cox, associate professor of Asian languages and literature; Robin McCabe, director of the School of Music; Bruce Margon, professor of astronomy; and Richard White, professor of history.

The full report is available on the following website: http://www.artsci.washington.edu/deans/HCPMemo.html ¶

Bob Roseth, News and Information