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2/13: Meeting at the Intersection of Literature, Language, & History: This Blinding Absence of Light

Meeting at the Intersection of Literature, Language, and History: A Critical Reading of Tahar Ben Jelloun’s This Blinding Absence of Light (Cette aveuglante absence de lumière)

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EST / Presenter: Sean Geraghty

Tahar Ben Jelloun is an acclaimed francophone novelist of Moroccan descent. His 2001 novel This Blinding Absence of Light (Cette aveuglante absence de lumière) provides a fictionalized historical narrative inspired by experiences of soldiers imprisoned for two decades following a botched assassination attempt against the Moroccan King Hasan II and the failed coup targeting his government in 1971. This presentation will weave a critical reading of the novel with a brief history of Hasan II’s reign, the coup attempts he survived, and the closing of the notorious prison at Tazmamart in the Moroccan desert. Additionally, Ben Jelloun’s novel will be considered in the context of a long-standing debate among African intellectuals regarding the use of European languages in African literature. In this context, Ben Jelloun’s use of Frenchwill be juxtaposed with arguments by Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o to promote African fiction written in indigenous languages.

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Opportunity: Fulbright Scholar in Residence Program for AY26-27 (Deadline: 6/2/25)

Looking to globalize your campus?

The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (S-I-R) Program is accepting applications for U.S. institutions to host an international scholar for a semester or the full 2026-27 academic year.  S-I-Rs provide students—some of whom may not be able to go abroad—exposure to international perspectives and experiences that expand their global awareness. S-I-Rs share their expertise in classrooms, campus events, and with local community groups.

Fulbright provides J-visa sponsorship, travel, and living stipends.  S-I-Rs can provide support for the following internationalization efforts:

  • Teaching
  • Curriculum development
  • Developing exchange partnerships
  • Community engagement

 

Sign up to attend a live webinar to learn more about the program. All webinars will occur at 2:00pm Eastern Time.

For more information, email SIR@iie.org.

Apply at https://apply.iie.org/sirhost.  The application will close on June 2, 2025, at 5:00 pm EST.

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Opportunity: CAORC Overseas Faculty Development Seminars (Deadline: 12/2/24)

The CAORC Overseas Faculty Development Seminars are fully funded, short-term programs designed for faculty and administrators at U.S. community colleges and minority-serving institutions. The objective of these seminars is to provide participants with international experience to help them develop and enhance curricula at their home institutions. The award covers round-trip travel, accommodations, meals, and site visits. The Summer 2025 series features seminars presented by Overseas Research Centers in Indonesia, Mexico, and Mongolia. The deadline for applications is December 2, 2024.

Learn more and apply now at caorc.org.
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NHA Webinar: Attracting Students to the Liberal Arts Through Integrative Curricula

We are pleased to announce a webinar launching our newest report, entitled Attracting Students to the Liberal Arts Through Integrative Curricula, on October 24th. The report includes 12 in-depth case studies and 20 brief profiles. The highlighted initiatives integrate the humanities, social sciences, and/or natural sciences with applied approaches and pre-professional training, helping to demonstrate the value of a broad-based education to skeptical students. The report was researched and produced thanks to a generous grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.

The webinar will take place from 2–3 pm ET. We will offer broad takeaways from this national study and hear from project leaders representing three of the featured initiatives.

Panelists include:

  • Miriam Horne, Professor and Assistant Dean for Adjunct Support in the Core Division, Champlain College
  • Tracy Leavelle, Director, Kingfisher Institute for the Liberal Arts and Professions, Creighton University
  • Gayle Rogers, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English and Department Chair, University of Pittsburgh

The panel will be moderated by Scott Muir, NHA’s director of undergraduate initiatives.

Learn more about the webinar and register here.

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ACLS Fellowship & Research Opportunity for CC Humanities Faculty

American Council of Learned Societies Launches Fellowship Opportunity and Research Initiative for Community College Faculty in the Humanities 

Pilot Initiative Will Support Virtual, Hybrid, and In-Person Residencies at Humanities Research Centers for Community College Faculty in 2025  
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce a fellowship opportunity designed to advance the research of community college faculty in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. The pilot initiative, which is made possible by the support of the Mellon Foundation, will also explore the diverse contributions of the community college sector to humanistic scholarship.

The ACLS Community College Faculty Research Fellowships offer scholars in the humanities and interpretive social sciences who teach at two-year degree-granting institutions the opportunity to pursue their research in virtual, hybrid, or on-site residencies at select humanities research centers. In 2025, ACLS will offer up to 13 awards for community college faculty to take up two- to three-month fellowships at one of three participating organizations:

“Community college faculty are pursuing exciting, innovative research in the humanities, and the academy has much to gain from their perspectives as scholars and teachers deeply engaged with their local communities,” said John Paul Christy, Senior Director of US Programs at ACLS. “ACLS is grateful to our partners at the American Antiquarian Association, the Folger, and the Newberry for their partnership in this initiative, and for their commitment to enhancing access to the networks and resources their centers offer for community college faculty across the country.”

Based on feedback from faculty in the community college sector, the awards are designed to be flexible and allow fellows to design a residency that works best for them, from fully on-site to fully remote. The awards offer $3,500 per month in support, plus an additional $1,500 per month to defray costs associated with travel and accommodation at their selected research center.

In addition to offering direct support for research, the program will bring fellows and other scholars together with funders and the leadership of research centers and scholarly associations to advise on the development of more inclusive infrastructure for scholars in teaching-intensive faculty roles.

ACLS is now accepting applications for the ACLS Community College Research Fellowships, with all proposals due by December 4, 2024, 9:00 PM EST. Applicants are invited to consult the ACLS program page for more information and to sign up for an informational webinar, which will be recorded, and for office hours sessions where they can receive answers to their questions from ACLS program staff.

This fellowship opportunity and learning project is part of the ACLS Community College Humanities Initiative, a suite of research, funding, and convening activities designed to advance the humanities in the community college sector.

Learn More About Application and Eligibility Requirements
Formed a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 81 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS expands the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting our commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship. In all aspects of our work, ACLS is committed to principles and practices in support of racial and social justice.

The Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Mellon believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom to be found there. Through its grants, Mellon seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. The Foundation makes grants in four core program areas: Arts and Culture; Higher Learning; Humanities in Place; and Public Knowledge.

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The Great Questions Foundation Faculty Fellowship Program

Application Deadline: October 15th, 2024

Community college faculty members are invited to assemble a team at their institution and apply to collaborate in this national project to expand discussion-based liberal education opportunities for community college students. Join your colleagues in this movement to make general education liberal education at community colleges.

Funded by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, The Great Questions Faculty Fellowship program will place 20 community college faculty members who teach general education courses in a two-year faculty leadership incubator, positioning them at the creative center of discussion-based and student-centered pedagogy in the liberal arts. Fellows will work to redesign a frequently taught course to center the discussion-based study of transformative works and ideas while exploring and practicing discussion-based pedagogies, and active, collaborative, and reflective assignment design with faculty leaders. Each Fellow will develop their capacity as institutional leaders and will organize at least one humanities-centered event at their institution with TGQF’s support. Additionally, Fellows will have the opportunity to apply for grants from TGQF of $5,000 – $40,000 to support the further development of humanistic inquiry in the liberal arts at their institutions.

Along with regular online workshops, engaging with invited community college faculty leaders in liberal education work, Fellows will convene in two in-person meetings during their fellowship tenure, one held in Austin, Texas, and another at a Fellow’s home institution, to-be-determined. All travel costs for these meetings, including hotel, flights, and group meals will be covered by TGQF.Each fellow will receive a $5,000 stipend for their full participation in the fellowship program.

Prospective Fellows who teach in the humanities and humanistic social sciences at community colleges are encouraged to apply as campus teams of 3-4 faculty. The application deadline is October 15th, 2024.

Find out more and apply here: https://www.tgqf.org/fellowship/. If you have any questions about this opportunity, please let me know. I’d be grateful if you would please share this opportunity widely within your networks of community college faculty colleagues.

Thanks!

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Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr.

Executive Director

The Great Questions Foundation (501c3)

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CCHA 2024 Knoxville, TN: A Message from the Executive Director Rusnak

A word about Tennessee from CCHA Executive Director Andrew Rusnak:

A very small minority of humanities faculty has recently expressed some concern about holding National CCHA Conferences in cities and states that they perceive to have, let’s just say, political track records not very conducive to the sensibilities we advocate as humanities professors. The selection process for CCHA national conferences is somewhat arbitrary and relies heavily on those who graciously step-up, volunteer their campuses, their very limited time and energy, and their fellow colleagues to navigate the infinite logistics that go into planning a national event where Murphy’s law always seems to dominate. For this we should be very grateful. Last year we were in Austin, and this year we are in Knoxville. I can’t tell you how gracious, knowledgeable, and understanding the community college humanities administrators and professors who teach there are. I certainly learned a great deal working closely with them, and I hope we established long-term friendships. These fellow faculty colleagues and champions of the humanities live and work in cities and states that promote culture and policies that may or may not jive with the thinking of many of the rest of us. But there is no way, in my mind, they should be in any way punished for that, and we should not turn our backs on them. Anyone who does I would submit, does not understand the full depth of “humanities thinking.” We should in fact, pull over and see if they are ok, we should be eager to understand their challenges and strategies. We should celebrate alongside them the creative and analytical approaches they take to hold onto academic freedom in what may be a challenging environment, to develop curriculum that they determine is critical, and the inordinate amount of energy they spend nurturing their students to appreciate the power that comes from knowing history, being politically informed and aware, and being able to think and write well. This profession, our profession, is highly contingent on being creative and exchanging ideas with each other. It cannot survive if we are not “a part of the main,” for “No [humanities prof] is an island.”

The process of gathering to proclaim what we do, to exchange ideas, to develop strategies or just talk shop, promotes the spirit of ethical integrity, no matter where it takes place. Professors who work in states with politics you may not agree with want the same for their students that you want, to be champions of professional, social, and civil success. If you think you are going to punish someone or something by boycotting CCHA’s venue, or any society’s or association’s conference, because it’s in a state with a current politically challenging environment, think of the hotel and restaurant workers, the Uber drivers, the shop owners, the young entrepreneur who is trying to start a bicycle or kayak city tour business, or a food truck that sells Mexican, Asian, African, or Middle Eastern food, or an art gallery that celebrates local artists, a coop, or bookshop, or whatever, all of which exists in Knoxville … think of all those who are trying to scratch out an income and create a productive and safe space, a culturally diverse and vibrant space, in which to live and work. It’s no different in your own hometown. We humanities faculty should be champions, champions of tolerance and understanding, we should speak up and push back on what we believe is wrong, but let’s be sure our focus is sharp and that we are not overlooking those who may be on the frontlines of advocating for a better world just because we want to make some noise. Not all of us are in a position to be able to choose where we live.

Come meet the faculty of Pellissippi State Community College, come meet the city of Knoxville. Let’s exchange ideas. We are centrally located in the heart of the city this year so you will have pedestrian access to just about any restaurant, pub, museum, bar, music etc … you want. Pull over. It’s time to learn about each other.

Information on the 2024 National Conference, including registration, can be found at this link.

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MLA Prof. Dev. Series: Humanities Leadership for Community College Faculty

Humanities Leadership for Community College Faculty

A Professional Development Series Offered in Collaboration by MLA and CCHA

If you are an aspiring leader in the humanities at a community college—a department chair, assistant dean, or engaged faculty member—this professional development opportunity is for you!

The humanities play a critical role in the mission of two-year institutions. This virtual workshop series offered jointly by the Modern Language Association and the Community College Humanities Association will provide current and aspiring community college leaders with the tools to argue for the centrality of the humanities to that mission, advocate for the humanities on their campuses and in their communities, and design strategies in the areas most relevant to community college faculty members and students.

Humanities Leadership for Community College Faculty affords an opportunity to grow your network and to earn a leadership credential through our partnership with Credly. Seats are limited, so register soon! Special rates are offered to members of both MLA and CCHA.

Find out more information about this opportunity HERE.

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Doppelgängers & Ghosts: Spiritualism and Spirit Photography

 

You can view the recording from this event here.

Please join us on Thursday, August 8th, at 7:00 PM EST for the speaker event: Doppelgängers & Ghosts: Spiritualism and Spirit Photography. Please also see the linked flyer below for more information.

Photography was invented and popularized during a period of enormous upheaval in political, social, technological and spiritual life- much like today. Also like today, the desire to give meaning to these enormous changes can find an outlet in new quasi-religious modes of understanding that may not stand up well to the icy blade of reason. The desires of a mass of less-than-ideally-informed believers to uncover “the real truth” can make them vulnerable to grift, hucksterism, and hoaxes.

This virtual lecture examines the rise of Spiritualism as a religious force in the 19th century, in response to the perceived failure of rationalism to account for the nebulous woo-woo of life. Photography was soon put to service to “prove” the legitimacy of Spiritualist beliefs. The tension between reality and “what’s really going on” has not abated since.

Speaker Bio:

Scott Hilton is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer at the University of Arlington, Texas in photography. He teaches Introduction to Photography, Dark Room, Staged Environments, History of Photography, Alternative Processes, and Studio Photography. He is also the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Society of Photographic Education. He received his BA in Art at the University of California, Reno and his MFA in Art at California State University, Fullerton.

Event Flyer: CCHA Doppelgangers and Ghosts Flyer

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CCHA 2024 National Conference: Friday, 10/4, Plenary Panel Announced

CCHA is pleased to announce the speakers for our Friday plenary session. The panel will be comprised of Amy Ferrer, Executive Director of the American Philosophical Association (APA); James Grossman, Executive Director of the American Historical Association (AHA); and Paula Krebs, Executive Director of the Modern Language Association (MLA). See below for more info on our esteemed panel participants. More information, including the bios for our panelists, is available at the link here. While you’re there, be sure to check out the many attractions within walking distance from the conference hotel, which can also be found here. We look forward to seeing you in Knoxville in October!

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