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The HRC in the News

VCU and VCU Health adopt land acknowledgment recognizing their presence on Native American homelands

The institutions commit to cultivating meaningful relationships with Virginia’s 11 recognized tribes and highlighting their history and contributions.

On Native Ground

Conference seeks solutions to improve care for Black birthing people

VCU’s annual History and Health Symposium highlights ways to reduce and address health inequities facing pregnant people and Black families.

Oct 2 Health Symposium

Keynote speaker cites the timely need for what the humanities teach us – and how they can guide us

Kicking off Humanities Week at VCU, Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, connects those lessons to science, technology, education and society.

Paula Krebs speaking in the Cabell Library Lecture Hall

The VCU Humanities Research Center to mark 10th anniversary with weeklong program in September

In realms such as health, the environment and memory studies, VCU’s universitywide hub has launched multiple labs for interdisciplinary research.

Celebrating 10 Years of Humanities Innovation

National Endowment for the Humanities awards two grants to VCU projects

One will establish a health humanities minor, while the other supports a professor’s book project on visual images of African Americans in leisure contexts from slavery through the Jim Crow era.

A crowd of students walk past a sign that reads VCU in large 3D letters

VCU students, faculty document oral history of the East Marshall Street Well Project

The Health Humanities Lab, a research lab at VCU’s Humanities Research Center, is conducting the project in collaboration with the Family Representative Council.

Ana Edwards and Joe Jones sitting together in podcast studio

First public event from VCU’s Memory Studies Lab features prominent history scholar Edward Ayers

The April 2 symposium highlights the wide-ranging aspects and ramifications of how we interpret the past.

Memory Symposium

Cristina Stanciu, director of VCU’s Humanities Research Center, elected to advisory board of global consortium

She will provide intellectual leadership and nurture collaboration tied to prominent issues of public concern.

Cristina Stanciu

CHCI announces new Advisory Board members for 2024

The CHCI Nominations Committee welcomes five new board members to CHCI: Bianet Castellanos, Wendy Chun, Cajetan Iheka, Patricia Parker, and Cristina Stanciu.

Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes

‘Racism is destructive to Black bodies’: Lecturer discusses medical inequality

Dr. Anna LaQuawn Hinton presented “Breathing Life into Black Wombs: Ableism, Misogynoir, and the Reproductive Injustice within the Medical Industrial Complex,” a lecture discussing racism and medical inequality, on Feb. 8 at the VCU Humanities Research Center. Photo by Rani Sisavath.

Anna Hinton lecturing at VCU

Much Ado About Nothing? Local Immigration Policy, and the MS-13 ‘Threat’ Lecture Recap

An “imagined connection between immigration and crime” runs the media, says Paarlberg. The point of his null results paper: to not find a relationship.

Gang graffiti in San Miguel El Salvador

An Interview with Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart is a second-year PhD student in VCU's  Media, Art, and Text (MATX) program, and recently started teaching a course on menswear.

Kristen Stewart

Bringing to light health disparities in the community and on campus, VCU hosts second History and Health Symposium

Professionals from diverse health disciplines explore the historical underpinnings of current health disparities.

Jason Glenn presenting at the 2023 History and Health Symposium

Black Feminism, Performance and Power: An Interview with Hope Ward

Hope Ward, third year PhD student in the MATX program, defines herself as “an artist emphasizing the synonymic role of Black feminism and universal humanity."

Hope Ward

Loose Parts connects art and play to the serious work of child development

Building on an overseas tradition, a VCUarts and humanities team is creating engaging local play spaces where children won’t hear the common refrains “Don’t touch” or “Get down.”

The Loose Parts project participants transform a portion of Reedy Creek in Forest Hill Park into a temporary adventure playground

What the life and death of a whale can tell us about our ties to the natural world

In keynote address of Research Weeks at VCU, environmental historian Bathsheba Demuth explores how ethics, species and history continue to intersect and challenge us.

Bathsheba Demuth speaking at VCU

Experts discuss barriers preventing patients from participating in clinical trials

Health equity panel discussion recommends researchers and doctors address long standing historical wrongs when talking to patients about joining clinical trials.

Illustration of a researcher looking at a virus through a microscope

Class of 2023: Emma Geisler finds her footing with an interdisciplinary approach and a new interest in research

Geisler, an interdisciplinary studies major, hopes to continue to study public health with a focus on immigration after graduation.

Emma Geisler

Detroit community garden founder kicks off lecture series honoring VCU grad who fought for food security

Keynote speaker Malik Yakini helped start the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which operates a 7-acre community garden in Detroit.

Malik Yakini speaking at the ICA

Transdisciplinary Environmental Research Incubator funds four new research collaborations

“The incubator will soon become a model for future research collaborations across the university,” said Cristina Stanciu, Ph.D., director of the Humanities Research Center.

Person tending to plant

Pocahontas Reframed 2022 recap

The annual Native American film festival featured more than 20 films, musical performances, readings and more.

Pocahontas Reframed film festival poster at the VMFA

Conference celebrates Black and Indigenous sound in the early Atlantic world

The event was capped off by a performance from "Mexilachian" band Lua Project.

The folk band Lua plays at the Intersections Symposium at VCU

Pamunkey artist Ethan Brown brings his work, process and expertise to VCU

Brown is serving as the inaugural Karenne Wood Native Artist/Writer in Residence at the Humanities Research Center.

Ethan Brown

VCU event to delve into the roots of Black and Indigenous music and sound in the early Atlantic world

“Intersections: Black and Indigenous Sound in the Early Atlantic World,” an in-person and virtual event taking place on Oct. 15, is free and open to the public.

Illustration: Black king, under the usual parasol, participates in the solemnity of his coronation. Note the musical instruments: some of European origin, such as the viola, and others of African origin, such as the atabaque and the marimba.

Humanities Research Center co-leads Indigenous media symposium

The center’s director co-organized the event, an opportunity for Indigenous scholars to discuss news and publications in Native American nations.

Cristina Stanciu and Oliver Scheiding at symposium in Germany

Humanities Research Center co-leads international symposium on Indigenous media and literature

The center’s director co-organized the event, an opportunity for scholars to discuss Indigenous publications and print culture as part of the center’s ongoing initiative, “On Native Ground.”

Mishuana Goeman, Ph.D. leads a keynote lecture at the Indigenous Print Culture, Media, and Literatures symposium in Germany

Two Focused Inquiry Faculty Help Lead Research Group That Examines Memory, Historical Narratives

“I hope that the work we’re doing in memory studies and the work that the HRC is doing–as a whole–will be seen as continuing to make VCU a home for really rich humanities work even as it is trying to invest in the sciences in meaningful ways, too.”

Hilary Levinson, Ph.D. and Katie Logan, Ph.D.

Meet the 5 interdisciplinary scholars who will be residential fellows this year at VCU’s Humanities Research Center

The VCU Humanities Research Center fellowship program has broadened its reach with its spring cohort of fellows.

Jonathan Molina-Garcia, Michael Dickinson, Kevin Clay, Michael Hall and Indira Sultanić

Humanities Research Center supports Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival and launches Karenne Wood writer/artist residency

With a rich menu of more than 20 films, The Pocahontas Film Festival showcased the work of nationally-acclaimed Indigenous filmmakers from the United States and Canada, as well work by emerging local artists.

a group of indigenous women performing a ritual dance

Humanities Research Center launches Native writer/artist residency program

The program honors the legacy of Karenne Wood, a member of the Monacan Indian tribe and a poet, activist, tribal historian and educator who lectured at VCU on many occasions.

karenne wood

Supporting humanities research and collaboration among scholars

VCU’s Humanities Research Center brings together faculty and graduate students with common research interests.

robert e. lee statue painted with protest graffiti

Event Videos

Kyle Mays, Ph.D.

Jason Callahan, Benjamin Campbell, Sheryl Garland, Meera Pahuja and Melanie Rouse

Fundamentals of Race and Racism

A panel discussion moderated by Jason Callahan, MDiv, MS, BCC

Heather Lennon and Joshua Hahn

Ryan Smith

Meet VCU Authors: Ryan Smith, Ph.D

"Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond's Historic Cemeteries"

aspen brinton

Meet VCU's Authors: Aspen Brinton, Ph.D.

"Confronting Totalitarian Minds: Jan Potočka on Politics and Dissidence"

kathleen graber

catherine cahill

Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement

Catherine Cahill, Ph.D.
VCU central authentication required

carl suddler

Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York

Carl Suddler, Ph.D., and Michael Dickinson, Ph.D.

carolyn eastman

Meet VCU's Authors: Carolyn Eastman, Ph.D.

"The Strange Genius of Mr. O"

Elizabeth Pryor

Philip Francis

When Art Disrupts Religion

Philip Francis, Ph.D.

Rebecca Goetz

Michael Guasco

Aren Aizura

Fariba Enteshari

Clare Sears

Bob Woodward

Suad Abdul Khabeer

Frankenstein

Frankenstein Dissected

Susan Lederer, Ph.D., Ed Finn, Ph.D., and Catherine Ingrassia, Ph.D.

Podcasts

Myrl Beam

Myrl Beam, Ph.D.

A discussion of his new book "Gay Inc.: The Nonprofitization of Queer Politics"

David Coogan

David Coogan, Ph.D.

A discussion of his book "Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail"

madison moore

madison moore, Ph.D.

A discussion of his book "Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric"

Matteo Pangallo

Matteo Pangallo, Ph.D.

A discussion of his book "Playwriting Playgoers in Shakespeare’s Theater"

Vivian Dzokoto

Vivian Dzokoto, Ph.D.

A discussion of her research in rural Ghana during the summer of 2017, interviewing traditional priests at the shrines of African deities about their roles as diviners, problem-solvers and health care providers in their local communities