VCU humanities celebration encourages collaboration, thought

Ghailah Nyeanchi, Contributing Writer

VCU’s Humanities Research Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary by introducing its first Humanities Week, held from Sept. 16-20, according to its website. The week includes lectures, panels and presentations related to humanities subjects. 

“For the center to achieve university status and be central in many conversations about research, curriculum and community outreach is thrilling,” said Catherine Ingrassia, dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at VCU. 

It’s gratifying to see the impact the Humanities Research Center has on multiple fields and disciplines, Ingrassia said. 

She established the Humanities Research Center because she wanted to create a place where humanities could have a voice, Ingrassia said. It does that by providing an intellectual environment where faculty can share ideas, work on publications and generate innovative research ideas. 

“I hoped to harness that important energy in a way that would make it more visible within and beyond the university,” Ingrassia said. “I also wanted to help create a space — physical and intellectual — where scholars could work collaboratively and share their ideas.”

Ingrassia said she hopes that Humanities Week teaches students the humanities are a foundational and fascinating part of the curriculum.

“Humanities work makes us understand ourselves and the world in which we live, it exposes us to thoughts and texts from people and moments that differ from us, and it helps us be better members of society,” Ingrassia said. 

Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, said Ingrassia invited her to speak during Humanities Week.

Krebs said she was honored to speak about the importance of humanities for undergraduate students and what they can expect in the future. She was the keynote speaker for her lecture “Why Humanities? Why Now?” on Sept. 16 at Cabell Library. 

“People seem to think that you need a degree in science or technology to be successful after graduation,” Krebs said. “If you talk to heads of science and technology companies, that is simply not the case.”  

Krebs had the opportunity to talk to recruiters at a network engineering firm when she was a dean of humanities and social sciences at Bridgewater College, and many of their new graduates in entry-level positions weren’t engineering majors, Krebs said. 

“I found out the same thing with healthcare,” Krebs said. “I had a bunch of healthcare executives talk to humanities faculty about the different jobs that were in the industry, and very few of them involved a scalpel.” 

Many humanities faculty were shocked to find out that humanities majors could step right into these positions in healthcare, according to Krebs. Students could get jobs in insurance, patient advocacy and more. 

Humanities majors bring skills like research, curiosity and writing to jobs within science and technology, according to Krebs.

“A lot of the stuff that these companies are looking for are skills humanities majors have, but the job is not spelled out in terms of a humanities degree,” Krebs said. 

Krebs encourages humanities majors who are interested in interdisciplinary fields to expand their horizons when they’re taking classes, she said. 

“Build up a transcript that shows you’re a broad thinker,” Krebs said. “Take a class in epidemiology or in business.” 

Public discourse about higher education often undervalues the importance of humanities in favor of science and technology, according to Krebs. However, important scientific issues can’t be discussed properly without a humanist context. 

“If you’re talking about the environment — if you’re talking about healthcare, and you’re not bringing in the humanities — you’re ignoring the cultural effects of the issue you’re addressing,” Krebs said. 

You can’t talk about climate change without factoring in cultural biases, Krebs said. 

“You can spend all the money you want on an issue,” Krebs said. “If you don’t bring in humanities for a cultural perspective, you won’t change public opinion.

Rohan Kalyan, an associate professor of International Studies at VCU, said he completed a residential fellowship through the Humanities Research Center about religious nationalism in India.

Kalyan participated in a research roundtable during Humanities Week discussing the fellowship on Sept. 16 at the Valentine House, according to the Humanities Research Center website

“One thing I’m really proud of with the fellowship is that we were very interdisciplinary,” Kalyan said. “We were able to gain new insight into our research by conversing and interacting with other scholars.” 

Kalyan said he hoped to share exciting research about religious nationalism with attendees on Sept. 16.

He also hopes these week-long events help students understand that the humanities can equip them with tools that will follow them their whole life, Kalyan said. 

Interested students can view and register for the events offered during VCU Humanities Week via the VCU via Humanities Research Center website.