Humanities Week 2025

The VCU Humanities Research Center and the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences held 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.