This year’s theme is ALIENation.
Otherness. Estrangement. Immigration. Extraterrestrials. Are you an alien? What or who is “the other”? Who defines, defends, or enforces our categories of otherness? How do the humanities help us understand experiences of separation and otherness – from societies, from norms, from ourselves? How do we construct our identities through the naming of an “other”?
The 2013 Humanities Research Institute will focus upon the theme of alienation. Through engagement with philosophers and artists, theologians and historians, playwrights and poets, the Institute Scholars will explore the nature of humanity through encounter with the Other.
During the eight-week symposium, Institute Scholars will examine these questions while working with a faculty mentor to pursue research on a topic in the humanities field of their choice.
Each session will generally begin with a common reading, followed by free-ranging conversations with Scholars and faculty participants sharing their questions, insights, and further research possibilities raised by the texts.