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"Preserving Tradition and Embracing Change",,"This was my fourth trip to Georgia since 2016 and each trip I have noticed a slow-and-steady increase in the amount of ""western"" influence in the city. From one year to the next, hotels- huge skyscrapers in a city of modestly tall buildings- are being built with seemingly no regard for the traditional architecture of the ancient city. To me (and truthfully, many of my Georgian friends share similar sentiments), these buildings are massive eyesores that break-up a beautiful, low cityscape that is not only the view from the balcony of the house in which we stay, but also seen from all over the city. This has an impact on me because I contextualize the city's expansion and economic growth within the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago. Since the collapse, this small but vivacious country has seen civil war, invasions and annexations from foreign adversaries, and a multitude of diplomatic relationships developed with countries both previously in and out of the Soviet bloc. The context and the subsequent developments have ushered in a new era in Georgia- one where there are no foreign powers at the helm of their government. One in which Georgia is in control of their own future for the first time in a long time.
As you travel in the city and beyond, you can see a host of influences from the Soviet era and of western countries. However, what remains clear is a strong Georgian tradition. You can travel in Tbilisi or even venture out into more rural villages and find feasts, toasts, celebrations, similar driving patterns, urban planning, architectural influences and more. All of this is to say that the architecture of their capital is one example of the tension between preserving tradition in Georgia and in welcoming innovation and change into the fold. You see it in other ways, too: social developments, cultural developments, and even the fact that the Georgian alphabet, spoken and written language is almost completely isolated to this small country of about 3.5 million people, with most people speaking at least one other language, sometimes even two or three. I feel as though I am witnessing a critical point in the development of the modern state of Georgia.
This beautiful country has welcomed me several times in the past five years with warm hospitality, friendship, delicious food, unique and incomparable experiences, all within a changing physical and cultural landscape. I have learned an immense amount about different subcultures of Georgians, what the people as a collective share and cherish, and how they've fought for their independence as a nation and a people. Their traditions are cherished, yet they are turning a new page and ushering themselves into a more modern era. I look forward to seeing the continued preservation of the traditions while also seeing the innovations they welcome.",,"Architecture in Tbilisi, Georgia",,"Summer 2021","Maggie, 29, High School Social Studies teacher ",,,,,,preserving-tradition-embracing-change,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Professional Development through FCPS in Virginia, USA","Architecture,History,Tbilisi, Georgia",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/529/tbilisi-3410419_640.jpg,Text,Educators,1,0
"Finding Shelter in the Past",,"I discovered Petra late in life, and yet, my initial impression of it holds a perennial place in my memory. Growing up I was always fascinated by the civilizations of the past. This fascination eventually turned into my career of choice as a literary scholar of the Middle Ages. As such, I was always interested in ancient manuscripts, artifacts, history, and architecture. In fact, visiting medieval castles and other sites when I travel has become a tradition I keep close to my heart.
As I move through these spaces I can imagine the different functions that the structure served, and I can picture events that transpired or could have possibly transpired within them. I have the knowledge to make these kinds of educated guesses. But when I discovered Petra, I was awe-struck in a distinctive manner.
I should mention, however, that my appreciation of Petra has only been mediated through photographs and other images. I have never visited the site myself. And yet, even in photographs, my reaction to this marvel of previous civilizations is nothing short of sublime. And my reaction is not from a technical point of view, since I am a terrible photographer and would not be able to assess an image's artistic value or the artist's skill (as I always say, I was born to be in front of the camera, not behind it).
Returning to Petra, however, I must say that modern-day Jordan is not a place I was familiar with (and I still have much to learn about this place and its rich history). But it was ironically my lack of familiarity with the place that sent me into my curious journey. As this person was sharing with me images of this structure carved into the rocks, my mind went in a million directions, trying to piece together the when, why, how, and for what queries concerning this ancient marvel. I have done my homework since then, and do know more about the site, but my honest awe at the site has stuck with me through the often disenchanting journey of learning about something.
As I imagine the people that called this place home back in the day, as I think of the ambition that led an artist to imagine this place, what this rock cliff could be, as I imagine people burrowed in, living inside of the rock, I can only be amazed at what humans can achieve.
",,"Photographs of Petra",,"Fall 2019","Jonathan Correa, 31, Ph.D. Candidate",,,,,,finding-shelter-petra,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"I am participating in the NHC's GSSR program this Summer.","Ancient History,Archaeological Sites,Architecture,Architecture Appreciation,Jordan,Petra",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/487/Filippo_Cesarini_Petra.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0
"The Fish on Marchmont Street",,"I live and teach in Madison, Wisconsin, but I usually spend my spring break on a research trip in London, England. On a cold and drizzly day in March 2019, I was walking down Marchmont Street through London's Bloomsbury neighborhood on my way to the British Library. My head was down and I was busy thinking about the documents I would request at the archives, when I noticed what looked like a metal fish embedded in the sidewalk. As I kept walking, I noticed other oversized articles cemented into the walkway: a split coin, what looked like a compass, a winged heart connected to a pineapple, a diamond-shaped plaque with the initials M.S. In one case, a heart was inscribed with ""Meriah Dechesne, Born August 8th 1759.""
Soon, I came across a sign that explained these objects. These were enlarged replicas of historical tokens that mothers, usually young and poor, left when they abandoned their babies at the Foundling Hospital. The hospital took in babies given up between 1741 and 1954. Today, the Foundling Museum sits on the site, around the corner from the stretch of sidewalk where I noticed these tokens. The mothers were supposed to leave a small physical object with their babies to help them re-unite later, if possible. It was a kind of identification system or secret password. Only the mother and the Foundling Hospital would know that she had left her baby with a metal fish, for instance. As it turned out, reunifications were rare.
On my way to one of the world's most famous collections of paper documents, I was shown another kind of artifact from the past. These metal tokens were mementos of heart-break and loss, of lives spent apart because of poverty and social stigma, and of stories and people that were probably absent from the written records housed three blocks away. The metal fish and its companions were a quiet and understated form of memorial. They were flat, trodden upon by thousands of people every day, plain, and potentially unexplained for most pedestrians. But they created one of the most moving monuments I have ever seen. Because of them, I think about two centuries of desperate mothers and abandoned babies whenever I walk down Marchmont Street.
",,,,2019,"Mitra Sharafi, 47, legal historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison",,,,,,fish-on-marchmont-street,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"I am a NHC fellow in AY 2020-21.","Architecture,Archives,Historical Markers,Historical Memory,London, United Kingdom,Memorials,Museums",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/8/432/Fish_on_Marchmont_St_[photo_by_MS].jpg,Text,"National Humanities Center Fellows",1,0
"Analytic and Creative Thinking: A Conversation",,"Analytic and Creative Thinking:
Conventional descriptions of the way teachers and students learn about Science and the Humanities are under-girded by the assumption that these disciplines are cognitively exclusive. That is, what is taught by scientists falls under the vocabulary of the analytic and that what instructors of Humanities do is congruent/appropos with creative thinking. Closer analysis reveals, however, that both camps share more than they realize, and that a not-so-evident part of what it means to think like a scientist requires forms of creative thinking in the same way that analytic thinking is part of the project of thinking like an artist. A good example of this is what architects do. Inventive architects, like Buckminster Fuller, required themselves to think about the aesthetic value of a structure (e.g. a geodesic dome), as well as its alignment with geometric forms. It is for this reason that teachers should allow themselves to think in a interdisciplinary way. When students see that their imaginations are part of what it means to think like a scientist, they can also understand the precision is part of what artists do too.
",,"My interest in the relationship between the Sciences and the Humanities",,"Science Seminar Presentation at my College","John Cleary 60 Associate Professor of Philosophy",,,,,,analytic-creative-thinking,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,E-mail,"Architecture,Creativity,Interdisciplinarity,Science & the Humanities,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/404/Geodesic_dome_HM.jpg,Text,,1,0
"A Mountain of Faith",,"It was the middle of nowhere—nothing but sand, the occasional old car or rusted out piece of machinery, a strange lake known as the Salton Sea, and in the distance a rising mound of color that glimmered in the desert sun. In 2010, with encouragement from my religion professor, my mother and I quite literally drove across the country, roughly 2600 miles to Salvation Mountain, a mound of colorful paint that displayed biblical and religious messages. Bible verses accompanied images of bluebirds, flowers and waterfalls, all molded out of a mixture of clay and straw. This visit proved well worth the journey as it helped me to jump into ethnographic fieldwork while also allowing me to experience my first prominent ‘humanities moment.’
Rising 50 feet high and spanning 150 feet wide, the Dr. Seuss-like whimsical creation was made entirely by hand and proved to be as unique as its creator, Leonard Knight, an elderly man who dedicated his life to building this mountain in an effort to proclaim God’s love. Leonard was as kind hearted and gentle spirited as I had imagined. He lived at the mountain staying primarily in an old shaded hammock. A couple people who would check on Leonard over the years explained that he spent his days scavenging the dump for old building materials that he could use to add to his mountain. Along the way, he would often pick up something to eat. Salvaging car doors, windows, ladders, and buckets, Leonard incorporated anything he could find into his masterpiece. Over time, he built it up—adding new sections like a makeshift trophy room that contained local plaques he received or the ‘yellow brick road’ that consisted of a painted yellow stairway to the top.
Showing us around, Leonard emphasized the reason for building the mountain: he wanted to tell the whole world that God is Love. He explained, “people got too complicated with love. Just keep it simple.” While his mountain displayed bible verses like the Lord’s Prayer and proclamations like “Jesus loves you,” perhaps above all Salvation Mountain acted as a direct representation of one man’s personal faith and larger understanding of the world around him. The mountain embodied a lived religion that ventured beyond static scriptures into the dry heat and sun-worn desert landscape of California.
As an undergraduate, I understood religion within a sociological lens. It could help organize groups, driving and inspiring a range of outlooks and perspectives. But it was also magical, evoking a sense of wonder and awe. Like other humanities, religion helps us to explore and think critically about the human experience while deeply tugging at our emotions. Talking with Leonard a man who lived off the grid in a hammock in the desert, he whole-heartedly believed in the power of love and set out to embody such a love through the best way he could: a large colorful mountain. Of the handful of visitors I met that day, Leonard was the only person who had any strong ties to religion. Though his proclamation seemed apart from the views of those who stumbled upon the creation and an anomaly in a seemingly ‘middle of nowhere’ location, Salvation Mountain reveals the rich life and prevalence of religious thought that exists in marginalized places.
While faith is normally looked at in the grandeur of cathedrals, churches, mosques, and temples, or even the beauty and solace of redwood forests, canyon lands, and ocean horizons, Salvation Mountain’s appearance on the margins of town and society show that even in the most unlikely of places, religion can drive conversation, thought, and action. It reveals the complexity and power that religion can have, even when its just one person calling out in the desolate desert.
",,,,2010,"Victoria Machado, 30, PhD Candidate in Religion & Nature / Writing Instructor at the University of Florida ",,,,,,mountain-of-faith,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"National Humanities Center Summer 2020 Graduate Student Residency ","Architecture,Art,Bible,Cultural Awareness,Faith,Religion,Religious Studies,Sociology",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/17/402/intro.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2020",1,0
"Giving Value and Thought to the Imaginary",,,,"Roxaboxen, a book by Alice McLerran",,"During the 2019 NHC GSSR. ","Katelyn Campbell, 24, PhD Student in American Studies at UNC Chapel Hill",,,,,,value-thought-imaginary,,,,,,"My name is Katelyn Campbell, and I'm a PhD student in American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And for my humanities moment, I wanted to start by framing my work. So I study intentional communities, most specifically these very specific radical feminist communities in the 1970s called Womyn's Lands.
And my reason for studying those really stems back to a book that I read when I was a little kid. And that book is Roxaboxen. I first started reading Roxaboxen when I was about four years old. The book is about a group of kids in the Depression era who find a bunch of boxes, sticks, and rocks in the desert and use it to create their own imaginary town. And this town has all kinds of rules and processes for dealing with conflict.
And as a little kid I had a really active imagination, so I took Roxaboxen really seriously. My cousins and I, which where I grew up in West Virginia, we tended to have more of a kinship system than a nuclear family. My cousins and I imagined our own Roxaboxen, which we built from our own sticks, boxes and rocks and we played pretend at this game for three years. And sort of over the last couple months, it's become really important to me to reflect on my time in Roxaboxen because in my view, that space was the first place I was ever in where power seemed fluid and where we had the space to imagine and create different worlds based on sort of what our fantasy would look like.
And this is particularly prescient for me after spending a month in the archives because when I was up in the archives at Smith College doing research for dissertation project, I stumbled across a bunch of drawings from a workshop led by the feminist architect Phyllis Birkby and a random flat file folder that I sort of wasn't expecting to be full of these documents. But inside of the box there were all of these fantasy drawings that women who had participated in Birkby's workshop, women in the built environment had drawn. And these drawings depict exactly sort of what the name would suggest. What these women's ideals worlds would look like.
And for me, I am sitting in the archive looking at these, reading Phyllis Birkby taking taking these seriously as works of feminist architecture rather than just simple fantasies or doodles to be tossed away. I remembered my experience in Roxaboxen and the value that that had for me in terms of figuring out what type of world that I wanted to create. And even though Roxaboxen doesn't really exist anymore, nor do the imaginaries that my cousins and I came up with, I think each of us would say that we've been changed by them.
And I've selected this as my humanities moment because I think what I loved about working in the humanities and particularly in American Studies is it's a space where we're allowed and encouraged to take our imagination and in the archive ephemera seriously as different ways of knowing and understanding the world. As a sex educator and certainly as a scholar, one of the questions that I'm always asking is, what would it mean to create a world that's free from coercion and violence? And I recognize that our physical circumstances might prevent us from immediately doing that. But I think that space of the imaginary is a place where we can start to play out some of these ideas for what this world might look like. And perhaps realize that that world isn't that far away. So thank you, that's my humanities moment.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"the 2019 GSSR","Architecture,Archives,Birkby, Phyllis,Books & Reading,Chapel Hill, North Carolina,Feminism,Intentional Communities,McLerran, Alice,Roxaboxen,Smith College,Womyn's Lands",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/15/310/Birkby_with_camera.jpg,Sound,"Graduate Student Summer Residents 2019",1,0
"The Liberation of Our Past",,"The Barbados Museum and Historical Society is located in a former military prison. Its original purpose of control through force and containment is clear and obvious when I entered the present-day museum. Cannons flank the entrance, a symbol of calculated and brutal violence. The façade is imposing, an intimidating tall arch way designed not to invite but to deter entrance. However, today it is a place of education, a site of liberation for the thousands of stories of people and events in the island’s past. That past for Barbados is incredibly complex. Built on coldly calculated and horrific brutality of agricultural production and subsequent cultural diffusion, the island today grapples with economic, political, and social successes, challenges, and the myriad of geographic factors that influence their narrative to the present day.
Education is critical to Barbadians history and culture. Education was restricted from enslaved Africans, planters viewing an education as catalyst for rebellion. Upon becoming a sovereign nation, Barbados made a social and political commitment to education. Across the island, the pride and commitment to education is obvious. It is the theme that many social-historians touch on as a key marker for its rise in development relative to other island countries that make up the Caribbean. Barbadian planters feared the liberating force of education, Barbadians themselves intertwined economic and political independence with education, and today, many Barbadians put high value on education’s ability to promote the freedom of job opportunity and prosperity on or outside of the island.
This literal former prison’s repurposing into a historic museum was itself a catalyst to understanding Barbados, but also the challenge of the humanities as people grapple with their own past, present, and the connections between them. As people, we look to past individuals and stories and attempt to reutilize or repurpose them to educate, improve, or respond to contemporary and future challenges. This museum, and its reutilization of the prison as a place of confinement to that of freedom is symbolic of that process. Barbados’ past is brutal and complex and, rather than imprisoning that narrative, we must learn and use those real and human truths to promote a better future.
",,,,"June 2018 ","John Skelton, 30, Teacher, Virginia",,,,,,the-liberation-of-our-past,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Andy Mink","Architecture,Barbados,Education,Geography,History,Museums,Prisons,Teachers & Teaching,Violence",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/12/192/Barbados_Museum.jpg,Text,"Virginia Geographic Alliance West Indies Teacher Institute",1,0
"The Virginia State Capitol: Past and Present","An architectural design conveys the meaning or purpose of a building. The designer want us to experience something when we see, enter, or tour a building. But it strikes me that the architecture itself can have many meanings and that historical events and people who live and work in buildings can transform their original intent. The humanities should teach us to appreciate architecture and understand the meaning of public buildings, but they also give us the tools to see beyond the edifice, the structure, the artistic beauty. When we look beyond the purpose of the building to the people inside, we are likely to find a new and different meaning and purpose.","I had been to the Virginia State Capitol many times since I moved to Richmond in 1989. I’ve viewed proceedings in the House and Senate chambers, held meetings for students, given several lectures in the meeting rooms, and toured the building with family, friends, and students. Yet, until I took part in the Humanities in Class project with the National Humanities Center, I had not thought carefully about why the building was so important, both to me and to the people of Virginia. Just recently I visited the Capitol with a group of students and as I looked up at huge white columns and wandered through the building, I began to think more deeply about the transformative nature of this place. I looked past the architecture, the museum pieces and the contemporary issues debated in the General Assembly to the problem of race in the history of Virginia. I also began to think of its ability to transform the lives of my students.
An architectural design conveys the meaning or purpose of a building. The designer want us to experience something when we see, enter, or tour a building. But it strikes me that the architecture itself can have many meanings and that historical events and people who live and work in buildings can transform their original intent. The humanities should teach us to appreciate architecture and understand the meaning of public buildings, but they also give us the tools to see beyond the edifice, the structure, the artistic beauty. When we look beyond the purpose of the building to the people inside, we are likely to find a new and different meaning and purpose.","Thomas Jefferson with Charles-Louis Clerriseau","The Virginia State Capitol",,"July 2017","Daniel J. Palazzolo, 56, professor of political science at the University of Richmond",,,,,,virginia-state-capitol-past-present,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Architecture,Capitols,Clérisseau, Charles-Louis,History,Jefferson, Thomas,Presidents of the United States,Professors,Public Buildings,Racism,Richmond, Virginia,Teachers & Teaching,University of Richmond,Virginia State Capitol",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/7/105/7358972234_b6c87cd027_b.jpg,"Moving Image",#Humanitiesinclass,1,0
"The Streets of New York Are Like a Library",,"In this video submission, artist Carter Thompson discusses how a recent exhibit on the Harlem Renaissance revealed some of the fascinating history of the century-old building in which he lives and helped him feel a connection across the decades with those who lived in the neighborhood before him.
Thompson describes how his sensibilities as an artist are informed by the stories of those who have walked the same streets, or seen the angle of the light in much the same way. He also notes how the humanities help us to bridge differences wrought by time and vastly different life experiences, and to find the common threads of our shared humanity.",,"An art exhibition on the Harlem Renaissance",,,"Carter Thompson, artist and designer",,,,,,new-york-is-like-a-library,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Architecture,Art Exhibitions,Artists,Harlem Renaissance,History,New York, New York,Photography,Storytelling",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/36/NY_architecture.jpg,"Moving Image",,1,0