Begin Here – Community College Humanities Association

Doppelgängers & Ghosts: Spiritualism and Spirit Photography

Please join us on Thursday, August 8th, at 7:00 PM EST for the speaker event: Doppelgängers & Ghosts: Spiritualism and Spirit Photography. Please register for this event here. 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.

REGISTER HERE

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

Image of George Washington and other colonialists

Support the Humanities: Become a CCHA Humanities Liaison Officer

CALL FOR CCHA CAMPUS HUMANITIES LIAISON OFFICERS

The Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) has developed a humanities liaison program aimed at strengthening the humanities and humanities faculty at the nation’s community colleges. Please consider becoming the CCHA Humanities Liaison Officer at your college. Your involvement in this role would be immensely valuable to the humanities faculty and the humanities program at your college, as well as to CCHA and the humanities generally. You would also receive several benefits.

Duties and Requirements of Being a CCHA Humanities Liaison Officer

First, as a spokesperson for CCHA, you are required to be a current individual member – $40 per year for a full-time employee/$15 per year for a part-time employee – which is a pretty good deal. Second, your primary duty will involve being a liaison between CCHA and your campus. Periodically you will receive correspondence from CCHA about opportunities for personal and professional growth in the humanities and you will forward this information to all your humanities faculty and administrators, along with a personal note from you. Third, it is highly recommended that you attend theHumanities Liaison Officer Workshop that takes place at the annual CCHA fall conferences. Lastly, but crucial for promoting CCHA and the humanities, you are asked to offer some kind of spring event at your college. This can be a very informal affair over coffee, or more, whatever fits best with your college. The goal is to inform your humanities faculty and administrators about the opportunities for humanists offered through CCHA (perhaps take them to the CCHA home page or to the blog), and to encourage faculty to become individual members.

Benefits of Being a CCHA Humanities Liaison Officer

As the Humanities Liaison Officer for your college you receive a twenty percent reduction in registration fees for all CCHA conferences. And through the CCHA liaison communication system you and your humanities colleagues will be among the first to be informed of available grants and other opportunities for humanists, including early notification of CCHA-sponsored summer workshops and NEH(National Endowment for the Humanities)-funded summer institutes. You are invited to attend the Past and Present Officers and Liaison Officers Breakfast Meetings occurring at all CCHA conferences, which allows you to interact with other past and present leaders in CCHA. And lastly, having all the Liaison Officers attend the Humanities Liaison Officer Workshop at the annual conferences will allow a sharing of ideas and strategies aimed at promoting the humanities, humanities faculty and administrators, and CCHA.

How to Become the CCHA Humanities Liaison Officer at Your College

The Community College Humanities Association is the only national organization whose sole purpose is to strengthen the humanities and humanities faculty in the nation’s community colleges. Your efforts as the Humanities Liaison Officer for your college can help further this goal, both locally and nationally.

For further information, or to find out whether your college has a CCHA Humanities Liaison Officer contact the National Humanities Liaison Officer Program Coordinator Jeff Clausen by email at jclausen@greenriver.edu.

If your college does not currently have a CCHA Humanities Liaison Officer, click on the following form for Download: CCHA Humanities Liaison Officer Appointment Form

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Update & Opportunity to Blog with CCHA!

Fellow friends of CCHA and supporters of the humanities,

I am writing to you to inform you about some updates in addition to offering you an opportunity that will be mutually beneficial! For starters, we now have a fully functional LinkedIn page, Facebook page, Twitter account, and a blog. Please see the links to these below and note that we would love you to “like us” and “follow us” if you are willing and able to do so.

Continue reading Update & Opportunity to Blog with CCHA! →