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Eyes on the Mockingbird

I grew up in a very small town in rural Wisconsin. When I looked at my classmates it was like looking in a mirror. Because of that, I…

Well-Behaved Women

My moment focuses on the fact that African American women have been using their words as Political Resistance. The humanities contributed to this moment, because my ancestors and…

Getting Carried Away by a Book

When I was young, maybe around 13 years old, I read a fantasy novel by Raymond Feist called Magician. I enjoyed reading since I was young, but I…

Baseball, Jackie Robinson, and Racial Identity Formation

As I grew up in rural South Carolina in the 1980s, baseball was my favorite hobby and pastime. For most of my 7 year Dixie league/recreational league baseball…

Wabi-Sabi: The Perfectly Imperfect

As part of my undergraduate degree in Asian studies, I took a class on Haiku, a traditional form of Japanese poetry. At the time, I knew nothing about…

My Front Porch Looking In

I was around seven years old. My dad and I were in the car when the song came on. “My Front Porch Looking In” by the band Lonestar…

A House

Every single year, from first grade all the way up to senior year, we heard about one man: Ruben Darío. Growing up in Nicaragua, where this internationally renowned…

Such a Short Time to Stay Here

I am not a churchgoer or a believer, and thus, I have always been left with questions about the deeper meaning of life that could not be easily…

It’s the Little Things

There is a distinct moment I remember from my high school days that, while seemingly insignificant, is the reason I have always valued the humanities and humanities courses…

Seeing Fellini’s “Amarcord” Was the Greatest Cultural Moment of My Life

In this video, author Roddy Doyle describes the experience of seeing Fellini’s Amarcord for the first time as a boy in Dublin. Growing up in Ireland, at that…

Bringing What I Love into A New Field

Taking an art class, I incorporated my love for the sport I do into my work. This is a white charcoal on black paper of my friends and…

Story-Making and the Fault Lines of American Capitalism

Several weeks ago I had occasion to watch the new documentary, Betting on Zero. This fascinating film presents several interlinked stories, all related to the founding and growth…

The Jungle: Personalizing the Historical Struggle of Workers

An early encounter with muckraking American novelist Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed Kristen Shedd to issues surrounding human rights and animal rights in the early 20th century. For…

History, (Re)imagined

Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism compelled Alexander Knirim, then a young historian, to re-think the role of imagination in history. Knirim…

Literature and Its Worlds of Possibility

In middle school, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird inspired Emily Coccia to imagine the possibilities of the law to bring communities closer to justice. In college, it…

The Transformative Power of Dialogue

Growing up in a very small town that once had the most churches per capita in the country, Catherine Newell was around many people who were believers. Moving…

Solving the “Very Complicated Puzzle” of How Humanity Lives

As a 21-year-old senior in college, Nancy Hirschmann encountered—and was forever changed by—German philosopher Hegel’s notoriously difficult passages in The Phenomenology of Spirit. Suddenly, she “broke through the…

Haute Couture: Fashion Fair and the Empowerment of the Black Community

I recall flipping through Ebony magazine as a child in the 80s and often seeing pictures of Fashion Fair models. It didn’t dawn on me then how the…

Response to a Response

I was in my English class and we were talking about humanities moments for extra credit. We talked about a woman who disagreed with the “mimetic” effect and…

How to Get U.S. Citizenship and the American Dream

When I was 8 years old, I found hidden in a drawer a little, brown book. It was a well-worn copy of, “How to Get U.S. Citizenship,” which…