Featured Exhibit

Civil Disobedience: Martin Luther King’s Influences and Legacy

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, we’ve gathered Humanities Moments that touch on the civil rights leader’s intellectual heritage and legacy. Some focus on thinkers such as Henry David Thoreau, whose works on civil disobedience would influence the young doctoral student. Others trouble the black-and-white narratives about Mahatma Gandhi, another philosopher who touched King’s life, problematizing the straightforward or sanitized stories about the Indian leader’s ideas about race. For instance, what do we make of the presence of...

About Humanities Moments

The humanities are everywhere — so deeply woven into our daily lives that we often miss them. Sometimes, though, the humanities can surprise you. A book you can’t put down. A photograph that haunts you. A song you can’t get out of your head. And from that moment on, you find yourself changed. The Humanities Moments Project was created to collect personal stories about encounters with the humanities. The stories on this site are presented as submitted, capturing the experiences of those who've shared them in their own words — reflecting their individual views, interpretations, and conclusions. Together, they highlight the diverse and powerful ways the humanities are able to teach, inspire, and enrich our lives.

The humanities are everywhere. But they are so interwoven into our daily lives that we often miss them. Sometimes, though, they surprise you. A book you can’t put down. A photograph that haunts you. A song you can’t get out of your head. The Humanities Moments Project was created to collect stories about how the humanities touch us, inspire us, and enrich our lives.

Read More About the Project