Since its establishment in 2017-2018, the Humanities Institute has hosted an annual lecture each spring to celebrate and interrogate the work of the humanities. In 2018-2019 we introduced an Alumni Award, given to a Penn State graduate who has made a significant impact in the humanities.
Archive of Past Annual Events:
2023: Dr. Qiana Whitted gave a plenary lecture on “Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics”. | Dr. John Lucas received the HI Outstanding Alumni Award of 2023. Click Here to See the Archive Page of the 2023 Annual Event.
2022: Dr. V.P. Franklin was presented with our 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award (delayed due to pandemic circumstances), and delivered our annual Celebrate the Humanities lecture (“Reparations, Reparatory Justice, and Youth Activism in the 21st Century”) as well. Additionally, we celebrated the donation of Dr. Franklin’s papers to the Penn State Libraries. Click Here to See the Archive Page of the 2022 Annual Event.
2021: The Humanities’ Many Futures: An Interactive Discussion with Exciting New Grant Opportunities | The Humanities Institute in Partnership with Humanities Without Walls
2020 (cancelled due to COVID): Quiana Whitted | Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina
Alumni Award: V.P. Franklin | Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History, UC Riverside | History, ’69
2019: Sarah Willie-LeBreton | Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Swarthmore College
Alumni Award: Robert Newman | President and Director, National Humanities Center | English, ’72
2018: Michael Roth | President, Wesleyan University