Page 5 of 21

J.C. Bach and the Exhaustion of Feeling

I was around 16 years old at the time of my humanities moment. I had been playing the viola for 7 years. As usually occurred, I became bored…

A Touch of Green

While doing research in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province in China, I made a visit to a local neighborhood called Dafang Lane. There’s no famous tourist…

A Play and New Perspectives

In the summer of 2018, I took a trip to England where I had the opportunity to truly explore the city of London for the first time. One…

El yawar punchau verdadero: The time I discovered Jose Maria Arguedas

I hadn’t noticed until now how little I remember about the time I first read Yawar Fiesta. I know I had already received my bachelor’s degree and was…

Artificial Intelligence Technology in Hispanic Digital Literature

It was an exciting discovery when I read Condiciones Extremas by Juan B. Gutiérrez. Beyond the outstanding quality of the content, this digital novel also impressed me with…

The Unexpected Grief of Breath of the Wild

Video games are kind of known for having pretty bland or shallow main characters. From the perspective of the video game developer it makes sense: you want to…

“Il faut le savoir:” Reflecting on France’s Holocaust History and Memory

“Nothing distinguished the gas chamber from an ordinary blockhouse,” writes Jean Cayrol in the screenplay for Alain Resnais’ iconic filmic meditation on the Shoah, Night and Fog (1956)….

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…

The Day the Star-Spangled Banner Played at Buckingham Palace

On September 13, 2001, the royal orchestra played the American national anthem during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. This was two days after the terrorist…

Photographing Rome

When I was 5 years old, my family and I gathered around the Christmas tree bright and early on Christmas morning. I was more than excited when I…

The Spirit of Community

A few years ago I was riding in the car with my mom. She was listing to a book called The Day The World Came To Town. It’s…

Warmth of a Blanket

From the moment I was born I was wrapped in the warmth of a blanket. The doctors and nurses took me, wrapped me up and placed me on…

A Love That Follows You

One of my earliest childhood memories is of a sweet voice reading sweet words to me from a simple children’s book. The voice belonged to my grandmother and…

To See Myself

My humanities moment is a novel that changed my life and informed my path as an educator and researcher. But before I expound upon it, I need to…

To the Daughters of My Country: Humanitarian Connection across Time and Borders

In 1922, Julia Dimashqiya, founder and editor of the Beirut-based women’s magazine “The New Woman” (“Al- Mar’a Al-Jadida”), inaugurated her first issue by dedicating it to “the daughters…

Beowulf Brought Me to Medieval Studies

Looking back, I can pinpoint many moments that poignantly mark my path toward medieval studies, but reading Beowulf was the moment that rendered all the moments before it…

Humanities, My Life-Long Companion

After spending some time searching for my very own, singular, life-altering “humanities moment” that set me on my chosen path, I came to the conclusion that no such…

Bedtime Stories

My humanities moment is actually a series of memories related to reading children’s books. The memory of numerous bedtime stories, library visits, and experiences of making my own…

The “Infinitely Human”: Life Writings, Locks of Hair and Lived History

Like fellow humanists, I struggled to pick a single moment to describe and share with you. However, while delving into my corpus (life writings – mostly diaries, autobiographies…

Not the Gay Swan Lake

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake is a masterpiece that changed the way I view classical ballet as a queer person. Bourne’s reimagining of the classic story, Swan Lake, replaces…