Dear colleagues and friends,
Welcome to the newest academic center at Florida State University! The FSU Humanities Center, founded in 2026, is a hub for research, teaching, learning and outreach. Over the next two years, the center’s activities will be structured around the topic, The Human in the Humanities. The topic will focus an intellectual agenda that will include a robust lecture series during 2026-2027 and a conference, February 25-26, 2027, that will feature panels on four themes: understanding the human, expressing the human, beyond the human, and valuing the humanities. In Fall 2026, the center will welcome eight FSU all but dissertation (ABD) writers as Dissertation Fellows, as well as 15 Undergraduate Fellows. The center also will announce its deadlines for applications for four FSU Faculty Fellows (for 2027-2028) and four Postdoctoral Fellows (for 2027-2029).
We have many activities planned for the 2026-2027 academic year, including symposia, workshops and social occasions. We look forward to collaborating with FSU humanities departments on their various projects and are especially eager to connect with other institutions and organizations. Our interdisciplinary orientation additionally represents a strong desire to engage in conversations with researchers outside the humanities, and we are planning some events to enable those conversations.
I know that I speak for the Steering Committee when I say that we are pleased indeed that the Dean Sam Huckaba of the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as Provost James Clark and President Richard McCollough, have chosen to invest in this initiative. We enthusiastically look forward to delivering on that investment.
On a personal note, I am excited about 2026-2027. I anticipate the intellectual sparks that will fly as the center develops its full range of activities, and I await the partnerships across disciplinary lines that develop from that.
I invite you to explore the website. As the academic year gathers momentum, so will the center. That will be reflected in changes that take place on the website as it comes to represent more of the work of the humanities at FSU, and the emergent possibilities for intellectual partnerships, debates and interdisciplinary projects.
With best wishes for the coming academic year,
John Corrigan
Director, FSU Humanities Center
Lucius Moody Bristol Distinguished Professor of Religion and Professor of History
Distinguished Research Professor