During the academic year 2022-23, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere concluded its multi-year series, “Rethinking the Public Sphere,” offering three examples of public engagement in the humanities. From methods for preserving African American heritage to podcasting about philosophy and environmental humanities, the speakers covered a range of concerns that move engagement beyond academic disciplines.
Brent Leggs (Executive Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and University of Pennsylvania) provided an overview of the achievements and philosophy of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, launched by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Faculty members and students from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of the Arts, and the College of Design, Construction and Planning attended the lecture at UF, as well as members of the Gainesville community, the Harn Museum, and the Florida Office of Cultural & Historical Preservation. The Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere collaborated with Vivian Filer and Deloris Rentz from the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center in Gainesville in offering Brent Leggs a tour of African American buildings and neighborhoods in Gainesville and beyond, from the one-room schoolhouse to the Claronelle Griffin House and Old Mount Carmel Baptist Church. The Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center hosted an evening with Leggs, in which community leaders engaged in a conversation about strategies of historic preservation.
In January 2023, the Old Mount Carmel Baptist Church became one of 35 historic Black churches in the nation to receive a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Led by Pastor Gerard Duncan, the Pleasant Street Historic District church was recognized for its contributions to the American landscape as a site of African American achievement and resilience.
Barry Lam (University of California, Riverside, Department of Philosophy) gave a public lecture on philosophical issues arising from the day-to-day administration of criminal justice. To conduct his research, he embedded himself with police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges. His presentation resonated with students interested in law and ethics. In addition, Lam, host of the successful podcast Hi-Phi Nation, facilitated a workshop on academic podcasting for students, faculty, and staff of UF Communications.
Nicholas Allen (University of Georgia, Department of English and Willson Center for Humanities and Art) discussed the productive relationship between environmental and public humanities. Author of Ireland, Literature, and the Coast: Seatangled, Allen began his lecture with his own biography of growing up in a divided Belfast, to question the emphasis of Irish literary studies on urban environments. Instead, he focuses on the cultural production that reflects the coasts of Ireland.
Allen also leads the Coasts, Climates, the Humanities, and the Environment Consortium, funded by the Mellon Foundation.
The annual speaker series was co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere (Rothman Endowment); College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; UF Research; African American Studies Program; Bob Graham Center for Public Service; Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship; Department for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies; Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center; Department of Biology; Department of Classics; Department of History; Department of Political Science; Department of Urban and Regional Planning; George A. Smathers Library; Levin College of Law; and the One Health Center of Excellence.
Read more articles from the CHPS 2022-23 Annual Newsletter >