Humanities@CMU
"This is the time of the humanities, but a particular kind of humanities: ambitiously interdisciplinary, ethically driven, technologically infused and public-oriented."
— Andreea Ritivoi, Humanities@CMU lead and Department of English head
We created the Humanities@CMU Initiative in 2019, following a town hall organized and attended by students, faculty and university leadership. The initiative aims to strengthen Dietrich College’s exceptional humanities research and education and bring them to a broader audience. We seek to support a new generation of humanities work that engages in far-reaching partnerships not only with artists but also data scientists, computer scientists, psychologists and economists. Students are our inspiration and our collaborators. The Humanities@CMU is creating new academic programs for the humanities student of the 21st century and invites them to participate in relevant and impactful research projects.
“…It’s about showing that collaboration is the future of both, that we are greater than the sum of our parts, and that neither the social sciences nor the humanities — but the combination of core concepts from both disciplines — are what makes Dietrich special.”
— Emma Flickinger (DC 2019), writer of a November 2018 op-ed in The Tartan, CMU’s student newspaper, which preceded the launch of the Humanities@CMU InitiativeValues
The Humanities@CMU Initiative represents a relevant, impactful and interdisciplinary approach to some of our world’s biggest problems. From creative writing to logic and computation, students in the humanities cultivate deep disciplinary knowledge on par with Carnegie Mellon’s vision, mission and values.
Priorities
- Growth: creating new academic programs
- Integration: embedding more humanistic education in CMU’s academic culture
- Impact: seeding and supporting public-facing projects with wide circulation
- Belonging: maintaining a climate of respect and appreciation for humanities faculty and students
Humanities Dialogues
This series of conversations between humanities experts at CMU focuses on highly original topics or collaborations.
Just how unusual are the humanities at CMU? Judge for yourself.
Humanities Dialogue Episode 3: Translation Matters
Carnegie Mellon University's Wendy Arons, professor of dramatic literature, and Gabriele Maier, teaching professor of German, come together for a conversation about why translation is an important skill and the challenges that come with it.
Humanities Dialogue Episode 2: Mars and Languages for Reaching Out to Space Civilization
James Wynn, associate professor of English, and Tom Werner, associate teaching professor of linguistics, discuss the colonization of Mars and the implications within the fields of rhetoric and linguistics.
Humanities Dialogue Episode 1: Digital Humanities and Tolstoy
A conversation with Tatyana Gershkovich, assistant professor of Russian studies, and Simon DeDeo, assistant professor of social and decision sciences, reveals their collaboration in discovering how to better understand Tolstoy’s diaries by means of a quantitative and scientific approach.