Annual Conference: The Human in the Humanities
122 N Copeland St Tallahassee, FL 32304
About the Event
The 2027 FSU Humanities Center Conference will convene Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26-27, to explore the topic “The Human in the Humanities.” We will consider that topic in four parts: (1) Understanding the Human, (2) Beyond the Human, (3) Expressing the Human, and (4) Valuing the Humanities. There will be two keynote addresses, one on Friday by Blair Kelley, president and director of the National Humanities Center, and on Saturday by Jennifer Ratner-Rosengarten, the Merle Curti and Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The conference is free and open to the public. Persons planning to attend kindly contact the Humanities Center in advance in order to register for conference badges. The conference will meet for sessions and refreshments in the Dohnányi Recital Hall (DRH) in the Housewright Building at FSU. It will begin on Friday with catering at 8:30 a.m. and the first panel at 9 a.m. For more information or questions contact humanities.center@fsu.edu. A detailed schedule for the panels and conference activities will be posted in November 2026.
Friday, Feb. 26, 2027
Keynote Address
- Blair Kelley, President and Director, National Humanities Center
Panel - Understanding the Human
- Priscilla Wald, R. Florence Brinkley Chair of English, Duke University
- Richard Shusterman, Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy and English, Florida Atlantic University
- Susanna Schellenberg, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University
Panel - Beyond the Human
- Michael Saler, Professor of History, University of California - Davis
- Jonathan Basile, Assistant Professor, Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology, University of Toronto
- Samantha Frost, Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois
Panel - Expressing the Human
- Roger Matthew Grant, Professor of Music, Deputy Provost, and Dean of the Arts and Humanities Division, Wesleyan University
- Niall Atkinson, Associate Professor of Art History, Romance Languages and Literature, University of Chicago
- Allannah Karas, Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Miami
Saturday, Feb. 27, 2027
Keynote Speech
- Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, Merle Curti and Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of History, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Panel - Valuing the Humanities
- Amy Elias, Chancellor's Professor, Distinguished Professor of English, and Director of the Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
- Cristina Stanciu, Professor of English and Director of the Humanities Research Center, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Jesse Spohnholz, Professor of History, Washington State University