The 2026-2027 theme for the FSU Humanities Center is The Human in the Humanities. The advance of AI has prompted questions about what we mean by intelligence and therefore what we mean by human. Similarly, research in animal studies and in the “new materialism” have opened exciting conversations about the human and the other-than-human. Intensifying public debates about how societies and governments ought to define the human for purposes of policy and law likewise have made the topic increasingly important. The humanities, with its deep history of exploring in all of these directions, is ideally suited to inform conversations about them. Moreover, the humanities has a responsibility to contribute its expertise to sorting through and assessing emergent perspectives on what we mean by the human and where we ought to be going in our understandings of it. We aim to advance a broad conversation about how the humanities, as represented by the many academic departments associated with this center, can clarify what is at stake in current debates about the human. The humanities is positioned to offer visions of personal and collective life that leverage the wisdom and utility of humanistic traditions while also reaching beyond them. The FSU Humanities Center will promote the coalescence of those visions through critical, interdisciplinary intellectual initiative and outreach.
