CCHS establishes first consortium of humanities centers and departments across Kentucky’s public universities

January 19, 2024

Dr. Mary P. Sheridan, Director of the Commonwealth Center for Humanities and Society (CCHS), and Drs. Pamela Beattie and Simona Bertacco, faculty in the Department of Comparative Humanities, have been awarded a Membership Activity Fund Grant by the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes in support of their proposal to establish a consortium of humanities centers and departments across Kentucky’s public universities.

The consortium, called the Humanities as the Common Wealth of Kentucky (HCWK), is the first attempt to coordinate efforts across Kentucky’s state universities. UofL’s CCHS is one of six recipients around the world, with Amherst College, the Australian National University, and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa among the others.

HCWK represents a collaborative initiative to highlight at the national and global levels the regional humanities culture of Kentucky, to change the narrative about the value of the arts and humanities in public higher education, and to show how our public universities act as important liaisons between the humanities disciplines and the needs of our communities.

The grant will fund a two-day workshop on June 6–7, 2024, on our campus, during which humanities educators from Kentucky’s state universities will meet to develop a model for collaborative programming and more effective communication about successful projects and initiatives for the public good. The workshop will establish a working group for a joint grant proposal that will support the future initiatives of the consortium.