Humanities Week 2025
Join the College of Humanities and Sciences and the VCU Humanities Research Center for our second Humanities Week (Oct. 20-24, 2025), a dynamic exploration of how a humanities education leads to professional success across diverse career fields. This week-long celebration will showcase the power of Applied Humanities, demonstrating how critical thinking, cultural analysis, ethical reasoning, and communication skills developed through humanities coursework prepare students for meaningful careers while addressing pressing societal challenges. Through presentations by scholars and practitioners, students and faculty will explore innovative approaches to integrating humanities with professional training, community-based research projects that build both academic knowledge and career skills, and intersections between humanities and technology. The week will illuminate how humanities education develops essential skills for navigating complex professional and social landscapes: the ability to think critically about culture, communicate across differences, analyze complex texts and contexts, and approach problems with both creativity and ethical awareness. From discovering your unique intellectual strengths to understanding how natural language processing intersects with critical theory, Humanities Week will demonstrate that the humanities are not just relevant to today's world—they are essential for creating a more thoughtful and innovative future.
Applied Humanities: Solving Problems and Equipping for Careers
Date: Monday, Oct 20, 2025
Discover Your Unique Genius: The Foundation of a Meaningful and Successful Career
Date: Tuesday, Oct 21, 2025
Public Humanities in Action: Project-Based Learning That Transforms Communities and Careers
Date: Tuesday, Oct 21, 2025
Connecting Classroom to Career: An Applied Humanities Design Workshop
Date: Wednesday, Oct 22, 2025
Dean's Research Seminar
Dates: Wednesday, Oct 22, 2025 – Thursday, Oct 23, 2025
Humanities and AI: Large Language Models and the Returns of Critical Theory
Date: Thursday, Oct 23, 2025
Previous Years
Humanities Week 2024
The Humanities Research Center marked its 10th anniversary in 2024 by introducing the first annual Humanities Week, a week-long celebration of the humanities at VCU.
Ryan K. Smith, Brooke Newman
Humanities Research Roundtable: Residential Fellowships in Focus
The speakers for this event were Rohan Kalyan, Gabriella León-Pérez, Ryan K. Smith, and Brooke Newman.
Why Humanities? Why Now?
The Humanities Research Center's keynote event featured Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association (MLA), delved into the critical role of the humanities in today’s rapidly changing world, and invited us to learn why the humanities are more vital than ever, shaping not just our understanding of the past, but our vision for the future.
UFO Studies in Realms of the Indigenous and the Aesthetic
This Work-in-Progress Seminar by J. Molina-Garcia, Assistant Professor of Photography and Digital Futures at VCU, discussed the emerging field of ufology in the context of discarded theories of animism and ancient cultural knowledge.
Career Pathways for Humanities Students [video]
This workshop with Scott Muir, director of undergraduate initiatives at the National Humanities Alliance, and Marcus Messner, associate dean for faculty and academic affairs (humanities and social sciences) in the College of Humanities and Sciences, provides an answer to that frequent question, "Why study the humanities?"
Lightning Talks with Humanities Labs
The HRC hosted short presentations by faculty and students in our labs, as they discuss their ongoing research and initiatives, and answering the following: what makes a humanities lab? Why should you get involved?
What Can You Do With a Humanities PhD? An MATX Alumni Roundtable Q&A [video]
The speakers for this event were Allison Bennett Dyche from the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt); Michael Means from Brightpoint Community College; Paul Robertson from Marshall University; and Tracy Stonestreet, Director of UMW Galleries at University of Mary Washington.
How the Humanities and STEM Can Find Common Ground in the History of Computing [video]
This presentation by Mar Hicks, Associate Professor at The University of Virginia's School of Data Science, explores how the history of technology can unite STEM and humanities scholars alike.
The HRC at 10: Reception and Roundtable
This celebration included a Director's Roundtable to discuss the state of the humanities, featuring Matthew Gibson, Virginia Humanities, in conversation with Catherine Ingrassia and Ana Edwards.