Welcome to the 2024-25 academic year.

As I write this letter, I see the power of storytelling all around us. Listen to the political spinning of life stories and the communal bonding through summer’s top songs. Look at the explanations of economic trends and the re-imaginings of public space.  Stories can humanize complex issues, build community, and elicit empathic understandings.  And yet, stories are always told with a slant.

This year’s theme, “Stories of Place,” will focus on that slant. CCHS will ask questions like who or what do we value in the stories that sweep us along? How can we create stories that help us encourage the communities we seek to foster? What consequences do these stories have? 

Through a range of programming and partnerships, CCHS will pursue these questions. Our Bingham Faculty Fellows will investigate and craft scholarly stories on topics as diverse as who belongs in higher education to how we narrate environmental degradation and rebuilding.  Our student interns will explore how to produce podcasts, curate exhibits, and compose public documents that support our Community Partners' missions.  CCHS events will support our UofL community to recognize and expand the valued stories and storytellers we see in our academic, local, and national communities.

I hope to see you at some of our many events and to learn about your stories. It promises to be an exciting year.

Sincerely,

Prof. Mary P. Sheridan 
Director, Commonwealth Center for the Humanities & Society