UB Humanities Institute Mission Statement

Since its founding in 2005, the University at Buffalo’s Humanities Institute (HI) has quickly established itself as the single most important entity supporting the humanities in Western New York.  Scholarship in the humanities helps us to question, comprehend, and transform an increasingly complex world.  Humanists explore the ethical responsibilities that humans bear toward each other and the world.  The most intractable human problems cannot be solved from within a single discipline, but must be approached from a variety of perspectives.

Interdisciplinarity

Because humanities disciplines – literature, history, languages, anthropology, and more –seek to answer similar questions using different methods, humanists flourish when they engage with scholars from other fields.  Every event HI sponsors is interdisciplinary by design and free and open to the public.  Conferences and symposia bring internationally renowned scholars to Buffalo to discuss crucial topics – religion, madness, the future of the humanities – from multiple disciplinary perspectives.

Research

By providing faculty fellowships as well as forums to present works in progress, HI fosters a vibrant research culture within the humanities at UB, which is vital for a research university.  By giving faculty teaching-release time to work on books and articles, HI plays a crucial role in enabling faculty to compete successfully for national fellowships and to raise their scholarly reputation in their fields.

Public Humanities

UB resides in the suburbs of a diverse and artistically rich city.  HI connects the campus to the city through its signature Scholars@Hallwalls lecture series, held in Buffalo on select Fridays at the Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center.  There, HI faculty fellows communicate the findings of their specialized research to an audience of non-specialists, many of whom have no connection to UB.  And Scholars in the Schools brings university professors to city high schools to discuss cutting-edge research in terms accessible to bright teenagers.

Future Growth

Although HI has grown rapidly since its inception, its leaders are not content to rest on the Institute’s significant accomplishments.  HI’s most pressing need is for physical space:  a center with a seminar room for interdisciplinary events and offices to allow HI to offer residential fellowships to outside scholars.  Offices would be central to another new initiative:  fellowships for Ph.D. students, to support the next generation of cutting-edge humanities research.  With the support of foundations, UB administration, and generous private donors, HI can advance the humanities regionally and nationally for decades to come.